Midtown Neighbors Had Warned Hudson Yards Of Suicides At Vessel

MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — Community leaders are renewing calls to step up suicide-prevention measures at the Hudson Yards Vessel after a third person leapt to their death from the climbable structure.

The Vessel has closed indefinitely as Related Companies, the developer of Hudson Yards, tries to figure out how to prevent more deaths, a person familiar with the process told Patch on Tuesday.

The death of a 21-year-old man on Monday came 10 months after Community Board 4 sent a letter to the Related Companies, the developers of Hudson Yards, requesting that the company raise the height of the Vessel's railings.

"Because the Vessel’s chest-high barrier is all that separates the platform from the edge, the likelihood of a similar, terribly sad loss of life cannot be ignored," board chair Lowell Kern and member Jean Daniel Noland wrote last March, in the wake of the Vessel's first suicide several weeks earlier.

In response, Related declined to alter the height of the railings, Kern said. Months later, in December, a 24-year-old Brooklyn woman leapt to her death from the Vessel, followed by the third death this week.

Training called insufficient

Related did step up its security presence on the 150-foot-tall Vessel after the first suicide by adding new guards who are "highly trained in identifying and engaging potentially high-risk individuals," according to the source. Every guard at the Vessel has suicide-prevention training.

To Kern and the board, that training has evidently not been enough to prevent tragedies.

"Community Board 4’s position has been, since the first tragedy last year, that the barricades on the vessel simply are not high enough," Kern said Tuesday. "They should come up [to] the full height."

Some suicides are known to stem from impulsive decisions, Kern and Noland wrote last year, noting "evidence that barriers on high structures such as bridges can significantly reduce these sudden inclinations."

Even before the honeycomb-like Vessel opened in 2019, concerns were raised about safety risks. In 2016, Audrey Wachs wrote in the Architect's Newspaper that "when you build high, folks will jump," suggesting that the Vessel's designers "seem not to have learned" from suicides at other iconic buildings.

After the December death, CB4 and Related picked up discussions about safety improvements at the Vessel, Kern said, adding that the board is "hopeful they will agree" that higher railings are needed.

A Hudson Yards spokesperson said in a statement: "Vessel is currently closed to visitors."

If you or someone you know is considering suicide, there are resources to help. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is available 24 hours a day at 1-800-273-8255. Its website offers services including a live chat.