The 150-foot tall climbable sculpture first opened in March 2019 and quickly became a favorite New York tourist attraction. But since then, the Vessel has been closed off and empty since the boy became the fourth person to jump off the sculpture and take his own life on July 29.

“It’s tragic,” said Miranda Sapoznik, a Manhattan resident who visited the Vessel last month. “It’s like seeing a memorial on the side of a road, and knowing someone lost their lives in that very spot. It obviously made me very sad.”

The day that Sapoznik visited the Vessel, it was closed off to the public and no one was able to climb it. It was only a few weeks after the last suicide. Now, the chances of the Vessel ever being able to have visitors scale its steps again seems unlikely, with no reopening date announced  from the Vessel, Hudson Yards or its development companies.

Its architects and stakeholders are at a standstill on how to make the sculpture a safe tourist attraction without taking away from the integrity of the original purpose of the public art piece which was so “people can enjoy new perspectives of the city and one another from different heights, angles and vantage points.”

Many have called for the developer Related Companies to redesign the Vessel in order to make it safer for the public. The primary idea is to raise the glass banisters, which are currently waist-high on an adult, to over eye level.

“The only thing that’s going to work is raising the height of the barriers,” Lowell Kern, the chair of Community Board 4, which represents residents of the area, said to AP. “At this point after four deaths, artistic vision doesn’t matter any more.”

The “artistic vision” Kern mentions is the main reason why Related Companies has not decided to move forward with the redesign and reopening of the Vessel yet. The higher banisters would distort and obstruct the view, which is the main selling point. But, Sapoznik said this simply is not enough to justify not modifying the sculpture.

“Four suicides in just over two years is a lot,” she said. “The Vessel serves no purpose besides looking pretty and giving visitors a nice view from the top. I think many would agree when weighing the pros with the cons, the benefits of reopening when weighed against the cost of another human life lost, do not prevail.”

Although the Vessel tried to reopen after the third suicide with new measures in place — such as implementing a buddy system, placing mental health signs and resources around the sculpture and adding a $10 admission fee — a fourth suicide still happened, making the need for greater protections far more apparent.

“I knew one of the people that jumped off the Vessel,” Mara Chiriac, a Manhattan resident, said. “He was another student, just like me. We all found out through an email from the school and I know myself and many others were devastated when we found out, because none of us had ever really dealt with anything like that and it was someone we all knew.” 

To many people like Chiriac, the Vessel represents the loss of their loved ones. It serves as an ugly reminder of the realities of suicide and the struggle many go through alone. 

“All I can think about is how he got on a train to New York City, and the time and effort it must have taken, and he had time to change his mind,” Chiriac said. “But he didn’t change his mind, he did it.”

While Heatherwick Studios, the architectural designers behind the Vessel, find a way to make the sculpture more structurally secure and safe for future visitors, many other architects have also discussed whether the Vessel should ever be reopened, or even left up as a monument and instead be destroyed. Architectural Record’s editor-in-chief Cathleen McGuigan wrote in an op-ed released shortly after the last tragedy of the Vessel calling for its demolition.

“Not only does the tragedy of four suicides mark the Vessel… but the idea that this gargantuan chunk of shiny, copper-colored steel is a sculptural amenity for the citizens of New York is the biggest folly of all,” she wrote.

 Even if the Vessel is able to change large parts of its physical appearance and improve its safety, its tragic past may affect its future and discourage others from visiting or returning.

“It’s definitely not safe, like I wouldn’t bring kids around it or anything like that,” Chiriac said. “I don’t know if the Vessel should reopen… New York has a lot to think about, and a decision needs to be made, but it needs to be made well and thought about.”

September is National Suicide Prevention Month. If you or someone you know needs help, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255, or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741, or visit the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

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Not once did Sacks see her client, the opposition, or the judge during this time.

“I am yet to have a video conference,” Sacks said . “I have only had conferences by call.” 

Since the Southern District of New York closed its courts and jails in late March because of the pandemic, everything has gone remote. The Judiciary Conference of the United States, an administrative body that oversees the federal courts, quickly established guidelines for video and telephone use for everything from court proceedings to attorney-client meetings based on the rules set by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act. But defense attorneys are finding that these guidelines do not adequately protect the rights of their clients.

“In order to have a meeting with a client, you have to proffer a specific reason why you needed them on video,” Sacks explained. “There is no sense of what meets that threshold.” 

Sacks fears that a lack of defined rules risks the privileged nature of attorney-client communications. Damien Brown, a private attorney with nearly 23 years experience in both state and federal courts, agrees.

“Is it a Sixth Amendment violation? It is.” Brown believes that the coronavirus pandemic has created an unfortunate, but unavoidable dilemma for the courts.  “This is all new and crazy. Our clients are suffering.”

Brown has also been unable to see his clients in federal jails, while those in state are more reachable. “In the state court we’ve at least had video conferences with our clients, and that’s a lot better than just speaking to them on the phone.”

Attorneys and clients build their relationships through face to face meetings. It is there where they can go over documents, discovery materials, and strategize what direction to take in court. The coronavirus pandemic has put an end to that, with federal courts not having the necessary infrastructure to provide reliable videoconferences for defendants and their attorneys.

 According to Brown, this has severed what many defendants consider a vital component of their service.

“Imagine having to tell your attorney—who you don’t know—something very confidential,”  Brown said.

He experienced this dilemma when a client lied to him over the phone. The defendant felt he could not trust an attorney that he hadn’t met. 

“Later, when we were able to set up a little bit more secure phone call that had nothing to do with court he finally admitted to me,” he said.” It just goes to show: how do you build trust?”

While the lockdown erodes attorney-client relationships, it also is hampering the defense’s ability to keep their clients prepared for trial, Sacks said.

“They’re not allowing the people who are detained to look at their discovery,” she said. Jail libraries are closed, rendering inmates unable to access computers and look at discovery documents that detail information like what evidence there is against them. Coupled with the lack of video conferencing, attorneys have no way to adequately inform their clients. 

“This is a huge right to counsel issue,” she said.

While defense attorneys navigate these obstacles, federal prosecutors received the benefit of cooperation from the Department of Corrections and Federal Bureau of Prisons when arguing against prisoner releases. In the early days of the pandemic, this was a big advantage.

“The courts would accept affidavits or testimony from DOC employees which would state that the inmates are socially distancing, they have protective equipment, they have soap,” Brown said. “I’m hearing from all my inmates, ‘no they didn’t.’ So how do we confront that?” 

Employee accounts were not supplemented by visual evidence either. 

“They are the only ones who have access to really see what’s going on, and it’s not like they are videotaping it and showing the judge,” Brown said. “They are just either providing a statement or a testimony. It’s very unfair.”

Sacks experienced what she believes was a deliberate attempt to obscure the current conditions at the MCC while she argued for her client’s release. The jail provided the opposition medical records that predated her motion concerning the prisoner’s health.

“They never even gave him an opportunity nor did they report that he had asked to see a doctor,” Sacks said. 

She considers it part of a larger effort to suppress the true conditions of the facility.

“There’s been a great big cover up by the BOP, and I think a lot of lawyers in my position would agree.” 

As of today, the jail registered no positive COVID-19 cases among inmates and 12 among corrections officers. Only five inmates have tested positive since the shutdown of federal jails.

“We’re hearing from all our clients—and I’ll tell you most of my clients that are there had symptoms or currently have symptoms of COVID—that the MCC has done absolutely nothing about it,” she said.

Sacks explained that the low contraction numbers are used to argue that it is safer for the prisoners than outside it.  “They claim that they’re screening them, that they’re keeping them locked down, ‘quarantining’ them, but how can you quarantine somebody when it’s an overcrowded jail system?” 

The MCC currently houses 677 inmates. It was designed to hold 449. In the early days of the lockdown, quarantine meant isolation in the jail’s Special Housing Unit, or SHU, typically used for solitary confinement.

“It’s a catch-22. If they push for these tests, they’re fearing being put in the SHU,” Sacks said. “The SHU is reserved for punishment.”

In late April, a contraband video of the jail conditions surfaced. In it, the narrator highlighted the congested and unhygienic living conditions that inmates have to endure. That same day, five inmates at the MCC filed a class action lawsuit against its warden, Marti Licon-Vitale. The suit requests writs for habeas corpus for all inmates that have suffered due to the conditions in the jail. A motion for preliminary injunction relief was submitted this past Tuesday.

“They are lucky they haven’t had many deaths,” Sacks said. “It’s going to explode at some point.”

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“How do you operate a school that’s socially distanced, with masks, without gatherings with the  public transportation system that has a lowered number of students on it. How would you get that plan up and running?” Cuomo said. 

The decision on summer school programming will not be made until the end of May.

“Nobody can predict what the situation is going to be three four weeks from now. So we’re trying to stage decisions, add intervals that give us the information but also enough time for people to make the preparations they need to make,” Cuomo said.  

No decision has not been made for the fall, but the state will be approving plans to reopen schools that include safety measures for students and staff.

“They should start preparing their plans now, because this is going to be a real exercise,” Cuomo said. 

Cuomo told reporters that schools should begin to think on how socially distancing can take place in classrooms, buses, cafeterias and dorm rooms.

“We want schools to start now developing a plan to reopen,” he said. “The plan has to have protocols in place that incorporate everything we are now doing in society and everything that we’ve learned.” 

The state closed all K-12 schools on March 18th. Colleges and universities  also moved to social distancing learning. Campuses closed on May 19th except for students who were dependent on student housing.

The New York school system is large.

According to Cuomo there are 4.2 million K- 12 school  students in New York. In addition there are 89 state and  city college and university campuses with 700,000 students. And over 100 private colleges with 500,000 students. 

The schools by definition have higher density and have transportation issues, Cuomo said. 

“The decisions on the education system are obviously critically important,” he said. “We must protect our children, every parent, every citizen feels that, we must protect our students, we must protect our educators.”

New Jersey has not made a decision on the reopening of schools. The decision will most likely be shared next week, said Governor Phil Murphy.

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