Hudson Yards Wants You To Rename Its Shawarma-Shaped Sculpture

NEW YORK — It's been compared to a shawarma, a wastebasket, a beehive and a "stairway to nowhere" — and it needs a new name. Hudson Yards is asking the public what it should call the polarizing interactive sculpture now known as "The Vessel."

The 150-foot-tall maze of copper-clad staircases and platforms opened to the public earlier this month as the centerpiece of Hudson Yards, the huge $25 billion mixed-use development on Manhattan's west side.

The Vessel was not supposed to be a permanent name for the Thomas Heatherwick-designed sculpture, which has already proven a popular tourist attraction. Hudson Yards's website even calls it "Vessel (TKA)," an apparent acronym for "temporarily known as."

But now the development wants visitors to "make your mark on Hudson Yards" and "tell us your best idea about what to name this unique neighborhood centerpiece" through its online form.

The call for suggestions could backfire, just like when an online poll demanded that Britain's Natural Environment Research Council name a new research ship "Boaty McBoatface." (The agency went with a different name, though a submarine on the ship was reportedly dubbed RRS Boaty McBoatface.)

A spokeswoman for Related Companies, one of the developers behind Hudson Yards, did not respond to Patch's request for comment about how or by when a new name will be selected. But New Yorkers already have plenty of ideas.

The real estate website Curbed says its readers have suggested the monikers "Stairy McStairface," "The Hive" and "King Kong's Jungle Gym." A Twitter poll by the writer Will Jennings generated the name "Ableism: The Building." (The sculpture has a single elevator.) Other tweets suggested "The Shawarma" and "Acorn."

Thousands of Instagram photos have shown off the Vessel's eye-catching array of stairs and shiny exterior. But the piece also drawn criticism — The New York Times architecture critic Michael Kimmelman called it "StairMaster-like" and said he "hesitate(d) to call this a sculpture."

Kate Wagner, the creator of the architecture blog McMansion Hell, argued that "The Vessel" is actually a "perfect" name for the towering thing "not least because it implies a certain emptiness."

"It is a Vessel for the depths of architectural cynicism, of form without ideology and without substance," Wagner wrote in her takedown of the sculpture.

Patch wants to know: What name would you give "The Vessel"? Tell us in the comments, or email your suggestion to patchnyc@patch.com. You can also submit ideas to Hudson Yards at this link.