Toured Related Companies’ Hudson Yards Experience Center last week with Sherry Tobak, Sr. VP at Related Companies. EXCEPTIONAL! Thank you, Anne Young, for setting up.

Hudson Yards is the largest private real estate development in the country’s history. The first building to open is 10 Hudson Yards, home to major companies like L’Oreal, VaynerMedia and Boston Consulting Group. Sales are currently underway for 15 Hudson Yards, the 88 story condo tower which will be ready in 2018.

But what particularly impressed me was the technology and creativity on display in the 18,000 square foot interactive sales gallery. I am always on the hunt for innovative, next-level UX – be it in retail, hospitality, museums or galleries. The Hudson Yards Experience Center is five-star.

It was created by the LAB at Rockwell Group and includes multimedia components, digital innovations, and an interactive 360-degree panorama with renderings of Hudson Yards’ public spaces.

Read more below on Hudson Yards and the details of the Experience Center (and make sure you watch the video!).

Besides condos and office space, Hudson Yards includes:

• The Shed, a new center for the arts designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro in collaboration with Rockwell Group
• The Vessel by Heatherwick Studio
• 14 acres of public open space and gardens that meld with The High Line. Much of it will be designed by Thomas Woltz of Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects
• Over 100 stores (1MM sq ft of retail) with NYC’s first Neiman & Marcus
• Restaurants by Thomas Keller and other top chefs
• An Equinox-branded luxury hotel. [Having ridden Citibike to the meeting, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Related Companies not only owns the bike share company but also Equinox and Soulcycle.]

EXPERIENCE CENTER:

As you can see in the video above, the sales floor is at 10 Hudson Yards, on the 24^th floor. As you enter the main sales area – you are struck by the most stunning views of downtown including the World Trade Center, the Statue of Liberty and the High Line. This large horizontal window has a handcrafted cast resin frame by Alex Turco (see below).

From this main lobby, you enter the Experience Center reception through custom black walnut wood and glass doors by John Houshmand.

The Experience Center is laid out as a series of galleries that use technology to give buyers a sense of what Hudson Yards will be like once construction is completed in 2019.

The panoramic triptych of three LCD screens displays a dramatic time-lapse of sweeping views.

Model rooms feature wrap-around digital screens that display custom time-lapses and CGI animated views of the sweeping coastline and plaza, day or night

Kitchen, bathroom, and living rooms are on display.

Partners/ Collaborators:

• A collaboration between the LAB at Rockwell Group and Rockwell’s architecture and interior design practice
• Diller Scofidio + Renfro in collaboration with Rockwell Group for 15 Hudson Yards
• SOM (Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP) for 35 Hudson Yards, one of the largest and most influential architecture, interior design, engineering, and urban planning firms in the world.
• Thomas Woltz of Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects, developing a five-acre landscape.
• Thomas Heatherwick, designed a $150 million Vessel as a centerpiece
• Focus Lighting provides the architectural lighting that seamlessly integrates with the Experience Center’s various technological displays, using warm layers of light to evoke the sense of luxury and comfort that is central to the Hudson Yards lifestyle.

And here’s the listing for the entire team as of now. Link here.