new york skyscraper with viewing platform and glass panels

The whole thing is due to open sometime in 2020, but get a peek at the experience below. There are other parts of Edge- a 10,000-square-foot event space with a restaurant and bar-but the views are truly the selling point. It’s an adventure unlike any other in the world and an achievement that you will remember for the rest of your life. Climbers scale the outside of a skyscraper more than 1,200 feet above the ground, then lean out and look down from the highest outdoor platform in New York City. (If you have vertigo, this may not be the place for you.) City Climb is the highest open-air building ascent in the world. And angled panes at the front of the deck allow people to lean out ever so slightly over Manhattan. There’s a glass triangle at the center that lets you look down onto the city below. There are distinct sections to the deck: A set of bleachers takes visitors a little higher than the rest of the balcony (translation: even wilder views). The platform itself is made from 15 different pieces of steel and glass, which were assembled, puzzle-like, at the building’s apex. It’s unlike anything that exists in the city right now. The Empire State Building is essentially at eye level. Thanks to its perch at the western edge of Manhattan, much of the city is visible-as far as Queens and Brooklyn to the east, and New Jersey to the west. Much has been said about the observation deck’s superlatives-it’s “highest outdoor observation deck in the Western Hemisphere, and the fifth highest in the world,” according to a press release-but seeing the view from up there puts that in perspective. But Curbed photographer Max Touhey got to visit the sky-high platform, and capture the views, which are perhaps best described as endless. The viewing platform, which hangs 65 feet off the edge of a supertall skyscraper (hence the attraction’s name, Edge), is under construction along with the rest of the KPF-designed tower, and is expected to open in 2020. When Hudson Yards opens to the public tomorrow, one of its most highly anticipated elements-the observation deck at 30 Hudson Yards-will still be under wraps.

New york skyscraper with viewing platform and glass panels