When visiting New York City as a tourist – or as a local – you’ve already go your hands more than full. The city is so big and there’s so much to see and do that it can even get a bit overwhelming every now and then. Where do you start? What do you go see first? Which restaurant or food truck to try? Chances are you’ll get a bit of FOMO and that’s totally normal. Yet be aware, we’re about to give you one more option to choose from. It’s up to you to decide whether or not you want to hear it.
One of the things we like to do first when visiting a new city is visiting a lookout point. Whether it’s on top of a hill or on the very last story of a skyscraper, it’s always nice to get a look at the city as a whole. It makes it easier to get around afterward and let’s be honest, it’s just very beautiful – most of the time. Even though New York City already had got quite a few observation decks, there’s another one that just opened, completing the list and located on top of Grand Central.
Playing with perspective
It’s actually from inside that terminal that you’ll get to Summit One Vanderbilt, where the viewing deck is located. The whole experience was named ‘Air’ and is a multisensory experience created by Kenzo Digital. “One of the things that makes ‘Air’ so novel and compelling is that we use space in a totally different way”, the artist told Travel + Leisure. “We use space as a real storytelling canvas. Every time you turn a corner, the story continually evolves… It’s a fully transformative experience meant to be very primal and reconnect to your sensorial world.”
After a 42-second ride in a spectacular elevator up 1.000 feet to the 91st floor of One Vanderbilt, you’ll get to Transcendence 1. The room plays with light and reflections through a mix of mirrors, windows and – of course – the more than the awesome view. With every step you take as a visitor, you’ll see things from a different perspective.
“I think of it very much as a Central Park in the sky. It’s our way of giving back to the city. It’s a very primal, sensorial nature experience that could only happen in New York, and more specifically, from this vantage, at this elevation”, Kenzo told Travel + Leisure. And as if all of that weren’t enough, there’s also a Transcendence 2, overlooking Transcendence one.
