It’s not the cheapest time in times of coronavirus – New York state has just declared a state of emergency. Nevertheless, the plans for “the Edge” are not expected to change at the moment. The Edge?
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So far “The Edge” could only be admired from below. The tapered, glass platform rises like a beak from the 100th floor of the “30 Hudson Yards” skyscraper in New York. From this Wednesday (March 11), however, visitors will be able to access the highest publicly accessible outdoor viewing terrace in the western world – according to the client. The terrace with a transparent glass floor “hangs in the air, so to speak, which gives you the feeling of floating in the sky, with a 360-degree view that you cannot have anywhere else”, the operators advertise. “You have never seen New York like this before.”
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The curiosity about the spectacular new viewing platform at 335 meters is huge, even in New York, which is spoiled for views. The tickets cost around 36 dollars (about 32 euros), the tickets for March 11th are already sold out. At the same time, the new terrace heats up the competition for viewing platforms in the metropolis of New York, which almost every visitor with a head for heights would like to look down on.
It’s been five years since a new observation deck opened in Manhattan: “One World Observatory” on the One World Trade Center, built where the attacks of September 11, 2001 caused the twin towers of the old World Trade Center to collapse. The other two competitors in the competition for panorama visitors are long-established: “Top of the Rock”, the up to 260 meter high terraces on the Rockefeller Center, opened in 2005, and the viewing platforms of the Empire State Building.
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New York fans can argue for hours about which terrace is the best. The fact is: The platforms of the One World Trade Center and the Empire State Building are the highest at around 380 meters, the Rockefeller Center has a huge outdoor area. The entrance fees are similar – and ultimately the view too.
Because that is the case, the operators of the attractions have to come up with more and more ideas in the competition for ticket sales. Gastronomy and souvenir shops alone are no longer enough. The “One World Observatory” was the first to turn the visit into a multimedia experience – for example with a video show in the lifts. The almost 90-year-old Empire State Building recently followed suit with a complete renovation.
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The famous building in the middle of Manhattan has so far been ahead of the competition: around four million people come to the viewing platforms of the Empire State Building every year, around half of whom marvel at the Rockefeller Center or the One World Trade Center.
Now “The Edge” in the new Hudson Yards district in west Manhattan also wants to get involved in this market. Around 60 million New York visitors a year are enough potential customers for a fourth viewing platform, the operators hope. In addition, the new terrace is very different from the others. “That probably sounds trite, but it’s a fresh look,” says John Kelly of the Related Companies design and construction company that designed and built the neighborhood. “It’s a 700 square meter outdoor space. You don’t walk around within the structure of a building where everything is restricted. It’s like a large open-air space.”
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