In 2005, NYC rezoned the west side of Manhattan to accommodate a city the size of Downtown Boston. Now planned as the first post-digital community in the nation, Hudson Yards is harnessing the power of data in order to create a community embedded within the creative economy that is so central to today’s American cities. Today, with over 6 million square feet currently under construction, Related Companies is building on the far-reaching vision of the city over a decade ago, creating an entire neighborhood from scratch.

In spite of their popularity, planning successful new large-scale mixed-use centers poses significant challenges for both public planners and private developers. Using the Hudson Yards project as a case study, Michael Samuelian, Vice President of Design & Construction at Related Hudson Yards, will focus his presentation on the public and private sector’s response to these challenges. This will include an emphasis on the research-intensive approach to defining primary neighborhood attributes essential to the changing demographics in New York City – specifically, the growing presence of influential tech-savvy millennials.

Central to the development of this new neighborhood is the requirement that over 50% of the site be dedicated to public open space. Reflecting a growing trend, the landscape design of the project creates a singular common ground that unifies the site and the mixture of architectural styles deployed in the development. The infrastructure supporting the open space will be an engineering marvel, implementing advanced technologies. This process will ensure a sustainable contemporary design establishing a green corridor, stitching together the adjacent High Line and Hudson Park and Boulevard while creating an iconic and forward-looking landscape for Hudson Yards.

After over a decade in the making, this project is now under construction and slated to open its first building in the spring of 2016 with the entire first phase to open in the fall of 2018. Not since Rockefeller Center, has a project been planned and developed with the scale and ambition of Hudson Yards.