The project, a $20 billion, 28-acre commercial and residential area on Manhattan’s west side, is touted as being the largest development in the city since the Rockefeller center. Hudson Yards will digitally track environmental and lifestyle factors—like traffic, energy consumption, and air quality—and will include a trash-disposal system to remove waste via underground pneumatic tubes. It is being designed specifically to bring in millennials, and to provide the highest quality of life for those living, working, and visiting the area. The development will be technologically advanced, in that all sorts of data will be collected within the buildings using sensors and other data-collecting instruments. Among the innovations will be: Air quality monitoring, Heat mapping to track crowd size and energy usage, Opt-in mobile apps to help collect data about users' health and activities, Pedestrian and vehicular traffic monitoring, Sensors collecting data about noise levels and energy and water usage, Energy savings using a microgrid, Organic and solid waste collection and recycling using 45 miles per hour (72 km/h) pneumatic tubes installed by Envac; garbage trucks will not be used., New York City University's Center for Urban Science and Progress is designing the infrastructure, with the developers of Hudson Yards. Fiber loops connected to satellite dishes on rooftops, to transponders, and to two-way radios will create a network covering the 14 acres (6 ha) of open space as well as 17,000,000 square feet (1,600,000 m2) of commercial space., The technology is designed to be adaptable — updates to infrastructure will be performed as new technological advances are made.
