Rising 1,100 feet above street level, Edge boasts a height 50 feet taller than the Empire State Building’s observation deck. Unlike most sky decks that rest on building setbacks, Edge is a massive triangular platform that cantilevers 80 feet from the 100th floor of the tower, providing an outdoor viewing area of 7,500 square feet with unobstructed views of the city skyline and Hudson Yards below.
Edge / 30 Hudson Yards
Edge, the highest outdoor observation deck in the Western Hemisphere, offers visitors 360-degree views from the KPF-designed 30 Hudson Yards office tower.
Clad in triangular stainless steel panels, the underside of the observation deck creates a vibrant and dynamically reflective focal point, identifiable on the skyline and from street level.
L: The glass floor and overall triangular pattern add to the geometric motif of the building. R: 30 Hudson Yards (center left) is complemented by 10 Hudson Yards (center right) with the two towers tilting in opposite directions. Images courtesy of Connie Zhou.
The team selected a bright annealed stainless steel from Finland with an embossed “linen” finish for its reflective qualities. Even the slightest deviations in the highly reflective material surface can be obvious, so each panel was carefully reviewed for flatness and consistency.
The annealed, stainless steel plates sourced from Finland were sent to Italy for review and preassembly. After alignment checks, the sections were shipped to New York. Final image courtesy of Timothy Schenck.
Edge’s platform is made up of 15 sections, which individually range in weight between 35,000 and 100,000 pounds. Each section was pre-assembled at the factory in Italy to ensure proper alignment and fit. Once uniformity was certain for the platform as a whole, the 15 sections were taken apart and shipped to site.
In the animation to the right, courtesy of Related-Oxford, each section is depicted in a different color to help visualize the layout and construction plan of the observation deck.
The sections arriving in New York, with Manhattan on the horizon. Image courtesy of Timothy Schenck.
Once at Hudson Yards, the sections were carefully lifted and bolted precisely into place, sometimes requiring two cranes to lift them simultaneously. By pre-assembling the sections off-site originally, construction on the observation deck was able to proceed extremely quickly.
Left image courtesy of Joe Woolhead. Right image courtesy of Related-Oxford.
The major pieces were completely assembled in less than four months.
The beginning of assembling the observation desk compared to the completed Edge.
A 9-foot-tall, angled, mullion-free glass wall encloses the deck, allowing visitors to be surrounded by only glass, air and sky as they lean out into the skyline, while the triangular glass floor gives a one-of-a-kind perspective on the neighborhood below. The impressive panoramic views provide prime vantage points over Manhattan with the Hudson and East River on either side.
To visit Edge and experience these views for yourself, click here.
The deck offers 7,500-sq-ft of outdoor area, providing an unmatched view of the area. Left image courtesy of Connie Zhou. Right Image courtesy of Related-Oxford.
