New York has endeavored for more than two decades to reimagine Midtown West from an underutilized industrial area into a neighborhood that boosts the city’s vitality, and The Architect’s Newspaper reported on the latest vision for its future.

The Western Rail Yards—the neighborhood’s last remaining site, flanked by a remarkable collection of green spaces and expo venues—yield exceptional promise. SOM, working with The Related Companies, Wynn Resorts, and Sasaki and Hollander Design as landscape architects, is envisioning a 7-million-square-foot, mixed-use development that will transform Manhattan’s western green spaces into an interconnected necklace of parks and public amenities. Long occupied by train tracks and a parking lot, Hudson Yards West will activate this urban void, create new pedestrian streets, support the Javits Center with a landmark hotel, and reposition the long-vacant 11th Avenue into a citywide destination.