July 19, 2019
A Mixed-Use Metropolis: Connecting Hudson Yards
In 2018, the New York City population surged to 1.6 million strong, with 65.2 million tourists visiting the Big Apple each year. Visitors and permanent residents in New York City pose a challenge to the housing and hospitality markets as consumers look for newer accommodations to meet technology preferences.
The new Hudson Yards development, the largest private real estate development in the United States, was recently completed to breathe new life into the affluent Chelsea and Hudson Yards neighborhoods of Manhattan. Built over the West Side Yard, a storage yard for Long Island railroad trains, Hudson Yards will include more than 18 million square feet of commercial and residential space, along with more than 100 shops, a collection of restaurants, approximately 4,000 residences, affordable housing, The Shed, 14 acres of public open space, a 750-seat public school, the inaugural Equinox Hotel® with 212 rooms, and a first-of-its-kind microgrid and co-gen plant. Hudson Yards is planned as the first LEED platinum neighborhood and has already achieved WiredScore certification. Due to the permanent residents and visitors, the development needs to offer seamless cellular coverage, both commercial and public safety bands, that can penetrate LEED-certified building materials.
As real estate developers continue to meet consumer’s desires for an interconnected world, wireless infrastructure becomes as necessary as physical infrastructure. Even the railyard development has many technologically advanced components that require cellular connectivity. Sensors and other data-collecting instruments will be used within the Yard’s many buildings, with innovations including heat mapping to track crowd-size and energy usage, opt-in mobile apps to collect data on users’ activities and health, and air quality monitoring.
ADRF’s ADXV distributed antenna system (DAS) was able to support the commercial needs of the development, as well as meet the ARCS system requirements to support public safety bands and all carrier networks. To meet the capacity specifications of the development, ADRF worked with key system integrators to deploy ADXV DAS to provide connectivity to multiple structures within the development, including three separate mixed use towers as well as the ten story, 1.2 million square foot Retail Podium.
Despite the special challenges associated with developing and deploying RF design, antennas, cable and equipment to penetrate LEED-certified building materials, the Hudson Yards deployment successfully supports 3G, 4G, and future upgrades to 5G, as well as public safety bands to keep visitors safe and connected while exploring New York’s newest destination.
Once fully completed, the Hudson Yards development is expected to annually contribute $19 billion, or 2.5% of New York City’s GDP. We are certain that Hudson Yards will remain a prominent destination for both locals and tourists, and a strong contributor to the New York economy.