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Movable arts space The Shed opens in New York’s Hudson Yards

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The Shed will create an adaptable and expandable cultural venue for New York

The Shed has opened in new Manhattan neighbourhood Hudson Yards. The moveable arts space brings together work across performing and visual arts.

The new $475m building will feature work from artists in fields ranging from hip hop to classical music, painting to digital media, theatre to literature, and sculpture to dance.

Its unprecedented shapeshifting structure adapts to support all kinds of work under one roof.

“It’s part museum, part performing arts centre, part pop-up venue – providing parity across all art forms, for all audiences,” artistic director and chief executive, Alex Poots, told The Art Newspaper.

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Designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro with the Rockwell Group, the eight-level building has a movable outer, which means it can roll on wheels into The Shed’s outdoor plaza, providing another space for performances and exhibitions.

It was adapted from the shipyard technology of gantry cranes as a nod to the site’s industrial past, and moves along rails onto an adjoining plaza to double the building’s footprint.

The McCourt, which will be used for large-scale performances, installations, and events, can seat 1,250 people and stand over 2,000.

“It moves quite majestically, like a ship through the sea,” Poots added.

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The Shed’s base building also has two large gallery spaces, a versatile theatre and rehearsal space, an artists’ lab, and a skylit event space.

The Shed is located where the High Line meets Hudson Yards, adjacent to 15 Hudson Yards and bordering the Public Square and Gardens.

The Hudson Yards complex, which cost $28 billion, will include more than 100 shops and restaurants, and a public square and gardens.

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Edge, the highest outdoor observation deck in the Western Hemisphere, is opening in New York in 2020. It stands at more than 1,100 feet and has a glass floor and bird’s-eye views of the city.

The upcoming 30 Hudson Yards observation deck is the highest public balcony in New York, and the fifth highest in the world.

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Bea Mitchell

Bea is a journalist specialising in entertainment, attractions and tech with 10 years' experience. She has written and edited for publications including CNET, BuzzFeed, Digital Spy, Evening Standard and BBC. Bea graduated from King's College London and has an MA in journalism.

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