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Hudson Yards to get ‘edgy’ with high-flying viewing deck

BY LINCOLN ANDERSON | edge will be in Hudson Yards early next year.

No, not U2 guitarist The Edge! edge, as in New York City’s highest outdoor observation deck.

On Fri., March 8, Hudson Yards officially announced the name for the cutting…umm…edge perch.

Then again, U2 does have a rocking song called “Elevation,” also the name of the band’s 2001 world tour. And at a height of 1,100 feet and extending out 65 feet from 100th floor of 30 Hudson Yards, edge will definitely boast some serious elevation — it will, in fact, be the highest observation deck in the Western Hemisphere, and the fifth highest in the entire world.

If edge visitors are lucky, they might enjoy a view like this one, featuring a “romantic sunset sky with beautiful fiery cumulus clouds before twilight,” per a Hudson Yards press release. (Courtesy Hudson Yards)

Visitors will take a 60-second elevator ride to edge’s 7,500-square-foot outdoor viewing area. The viewing area will sport a unique glass floor, and be ringed by a glass wall — 9 feet high and 2½ inches thick — angling outward at about 7 degrees.

Altogether, edge will offer a birds-eye view of the neighborhood and city below, plus views of the New York City skyline, Hudson River and beyond for up to 80 miles.

The deck, weighing 765,000 pounds, or 383 tons, will be anchored to the south and east sides of the building.

Edge is expected to open in early 2020, and will begin accepting group bookings for events happening in the first quarter of 2020.

There will also be an adjoining 10,000-square-foot restaurant, bar and event space run by the hospitality group rhubarb.

The viewing platform will be open from 8 a.m. to midnight.

“Edge invites visitors to walk out into the sky and embrace unobstructed, panoramic views of New York City like never before,” said Jason Horkin, executive director of Hudson Yards Experiences. “The name reflects both the unique structural design, which pierces the sky when observed from below, and the exhilarating feeling of being on the brink of something exceptional — exactly where you are on edge.”

Hudson Yards — the largest private real estate development in U.S. history — is being built by Related Companies and Oxford Properties Group. It’s a virtual new neighborhood on Manhattan’s West Side. Hudson Yards will include more than 18 million square feet of mixed-use development and more than 100 shops and restaurants; roughly 4,000 residential apartments; 14 acres of public open space; a cultural space called The Shed; a 750-seat public school and the first-ever Equinox Hotel, sporting 212 rooms. A spinoff of Equinox gyms, the hotel will cater to the “high-performance traveler.”

For more information on Hudson Yards, see www.HudsonYardsNewYork.com.