Client
Hudson Yards Experiences
Tao Hospitality Group
Location
New York City, US
Collaborators
Not specified in source.
Sector
Attractions & Theme Parks
Hospitality & Guest Experience
Services Provided:
Strategy
Audience & Market Insights
Competitor Landscape
Vision, Positioning & Value Proposition
Experience Masterplanning & Placemaking
Business Case & Technical Feasibility
Story
Creative Concepting & Experience Mapping
Narrative Development
Design
Experience Design
Interior Design
Delivery
Program & Project Management
Vendor Procurement & Oversight
Marketing Content
Challenge
Perched 1,131 feet above Manhattan, Edge at Hudson Yards is the highest sky deck in the Western Hemisphere. Since opening in 2020, Edge has quickly become one of New York’s most visited attractions, celebrated for its dramatic triangular architecture and breathtaking 360-degree skyline views across the city.
As the destination grew in popularity, the team behind Edge recognized an opportunity. Could the experience evolve beyond a spectacular viewpoint and become something more immersive, more layered, and more resilient regardless of weather or season?
Solution
Collaborating with Hudson Yards Experiences and Tao Hospitality Group, Journey helped shape a new vision for Edge. One that transforms the attraction from a single moment at the top of a tower into a fully realized entertainment experience from ascent to exit, with elevated hospitality areas on offer too. The result is the largest evolution of Edge since its opening, repositioning the destination as one of New York City’s premier indoor and outdoor experiential attractions.
“A design that is both timeless and of the moment, seamlessly adapting to any time of day or occasion.”
– Susan Nugraha, SVP of Design and Development, Tao Group Hospitality
- The Guardian
Prismatic experience design
Journey first began collaborating with Edge following early discussions about how the indoor areas of the attraction could better support and enhance the outdoor sky deck experience. While the views themselves were unparalleled, the spaces leading up to them had the potential to offer far more.
The ambition was to create feats of physical design and engineering that could work in harmony with light, sound, reflection, movement and architecture, and not simply to add digital moments.
Our work began with experience strategy. Through a series of workshops and exploratory sessions with the client team, we examined what made Edge NYC distinctive: its angular architecture, its use of glass and light, and its commanding perspective over the city.
From this analysis we developed a new experiential framework for the destination. The strategy centered around a visual language inspired by prisms and triangles, reflecting the geometry of the building itself while offering a metaphorical lens through which to rediscover New York.
The concept imagined visitors moving through a series of environments that refract and reinterpret the city before revealing it in its full panoramic form. A kaleidoscopic journey into the New York skyline. This became a framework for a layered, multisensory experience inspired by the lights, sounds and energy of New York City.
“The overhaul comes via a collaboration between experiential design firm Journey, multimedia studio Moment Factory and NYC-based design outfit SOFTlab, which were each tasked with turning the ascent into something cinematic. And they’ve delivered with a series of installations that feel equal parts museum, nightclub and dream sequence.”
– Time Out New York
Journey’s strategic direction formed the basis for a new suite of immersive experiences introducing seven interactive environments and a sequence of hero moments that blend sound, light and architecture to create sensory encounters that evolve throughout the day and across seasons, delivered by partners Moment Factory and SOFTlab.
Spanning multiple levels of the experience, from the Level 4 entry to the Level 100 sky deck, the installations were designed to build anticipation, encourage discovery and create moments of photography and social sharing. Each environment responds to movement, shifts with the time of day and evolves across seasons, ensuring no two visits feel exactly the same.
The new experiences include Prism, Pulse, Skyrise, Reflections, Kaleidoscope, Crystal Cave and Infinite City. Together, they create a journey of color, reflection, motion and original music, from an ever evolving prism of New York imagery to responsive mirrored panels, interactive light installations and NYC’s largest kaleidoscope.
Guardians of the vision
As the project progressed, Journey’s role expanded into design guardianship across the wider experience. Acting as an independent creative advisor, we worked with Hudson Yards Experiences to review proposals from partners, provide design feedback and ensure the original narrative remained coherent as the project developed.
This role helped ensure the experience remained anchored in Edge’s core identity: a place defined by height, perspective, geometry and the extraordinary sensation of seeing New York from above.
“The new Edge is driven by immersive design, emotional storytelling, and our desire to create experiences that people want to share and return to again and again.”
– Andrew Lustgarten, Executive Chairman of Hudson Yards Experiences
Jewel box hospitality experiences
Alongside this strategic and advisory oversight, and design guardianship, our team also designed the interiors for the Tao Hospitality Group operated hospitality spaces, including a reimagined Peak with Priceless restaurant and the brand new Avenue Sky Lounge on Level 101, as well as the concession bars located across the sky deck.
These environments required a different interpretation of the Edge brand. Rather than simply echoing the sleek architectural aesthetic of the observation deck, the hospitality spaces needed to create a warmer and more luxurious atmosphere suited to dining, cocktails and nightlife.
Our approach was to reinterpret Edge’s angular design language with a more refined material palette and dynamic lighting, creating spaces that feel like jewel boxes suspended above the city. At the same time, the design needed to balance the expectations of multiple stakeholders. Tao Hospitality Group brought its own distinctive brand identity and operational requirements.
Journey worked closely with Tao Hospitality Group to align our design visions, ensuring the final environments reflected their premium hospitality standards while remaining anchored in the broader Edge NYC experience.
Together with the outdoor sky deck, elevated dining, cocktails and nightlife, these spaces help transform Edge into a complete day to night destination. Visitors can now experience immersive environments, iconic skyline views and premium hospitality within one connected journey.
A kaleidoscopic view of NYC
The result is a series of spaces that extend the Edge NYC brand into new dimensions of experience. From immersive installations and sensory environments to elevated dining and nightlife, the destination now offers a complete multidimensional experience that unfolds from arrival through to the final breathtaking view.
The transformation of Edge NYC demonstrates how strategic experience design can redefine the role of a landmark destination.
By extending the narrative beyond the observation deck itself, the project introduces new layers of engagement that encourage longer dwell times, repeat visits and greater year round resilience regardless of weather conditions.
Through a combination of experience strategy, design guardianship and hospitality design, Journey helped shape a new chapter for one of New York’s most iconic attractions, transforming a spectacular viewpoint into an immersive journey through the energy, architecture and imagination of the city.
Book tickets to Edge here.
Impact
2M+
Annual visitors
1,131 feet
The highest outdoor sky deck in the Western Hemisphere
NYC’s largest kaleidoscope
Press
“A series of installations that feel equal parts museum, nightclub and dream sequence.”
“The interiors of Peak by Priceless have been redesigned so every seat has an uninterrupted skyline view.”
– Dezeen
“Exceptional hospitality, food and beverage offerings, and experience make every visit feel like a once-in-a-lifetime New York City moment.”
“Journey, through experience strategy, design guardianship, and hospitality design, helped to shape a New York icon’s viewpoint into an immersive experience showcasing the city’s energy, architecture, and imagination.”
– Blooloop