Accessibility at SUMMIT

Immediately following ticket purchases, guests move through a touch-free security check via our Evolv machines or security wands. Guests walking through the scanners do not have to take off coats, bags, or jewelry.

After exiting the security check, guests enter a theater to the left, housed behind a closed door. This dark, convex, curved miniature theater can hold 30 people at a time, and has a bright, 180-degree video screen and corresponding, immersive audio.

The Memory Wall is an optional stop to take a group photo to commemorate the visit. If guests choose to take a photo at the Memory Wall, they are lined up at one of three stations.

Across from the Memory Wall, guests will go through ticket scan turnstiles. These turnstiles are activated through a mobile or physical ticket scan and are wheelchair accessible.

Guests have the option to have their faces scanned, rendered into a cloud-like image that is attached to their wristband, and displayed upon wristband scan in the Air: Unity exhibit on the 92nd floor. Directions for the scan are given on the display screens attached to each of the 10 scanners.

Entrance to the elevator bank is located in a dark tunnel via a small, dimly lit oval-shaped room with a central column. The walls, ceiling, and column are all covered in mirrors. The mirrors reflect themselves and everyone within the space.

With ambient wind sounds playing throughout, the tunnel is a dimly lit passageway to line up for the elevators. This hallway resembles a launchpad.

There are three, bright, fully mirrored elevators that carry guests to the upper floors of SUMMIT One Vanderbilt. These elevators include immersive flashing lights and additional whooshing audio.

The elevator opens into a hallway filled with bright lighting that changes colors throughout the day and serves as a passageway to the upcoming full-mirrored experience. Please note that from this point on, SUMMIT is a one-way experience and once a guest leaves a floor, they are unable to revisit the previous one.

AIR: Transcendence is a large, 2-story room covered with mirrors. The walls, floor, ceiling, and pillars infinitely reflect one another and everyone within the space.

The Reflect space houses guest-artist Yayoi Kusama’s exhibit, entitled “Clouds.” Silver, metallic, reflective pieces resembling “clouds” rest on the floor in two arrangements in the middle of the room.

This bright room contains floor-to-ceiling windows, infinity mirrors, an ambient soundscape, and silver mylar balloons that reflect all movement in the space. A current of air runs throughout the room, keeping the floating balloons moving inside the space.

Guests can access a family bathroom with a child-sized diaper changing table on this floor in addition to separate restrooms for men and women, before they take the escalator to the next floor. The men’s and women’s bathrooms each have multiple stalls.

Aside from the three elevators used to travel between the ground floor and the observation deck floors, a fourth elevator runs between the upper floors (OB1-OB3). This elevator does not include the immersive experience.

This space is the second floor of the earlier AIR: Transcendence room. A wraparound mezzanine balcony looks over the first floor, offering guests a different view and perspective.

This space has white walls, a long white bench, and floor-to-ceiling windows that overlook the city skyline. Two of these windows include all-glass step-out ledges. Guests stepping out on these glass-floored ledges can look 1,070 feet below to Madison Avenue.

This is another fully-mirrored room with floor-to-ceiling windows along one wall with a bright, floor-to-ceiling LED screen on the opposite wall. The screen displays a moving cloudscape, and guests are not permitted to touch this screen.

To reach the next floor, guests may take the escalator or service elevator. Across from the escalator, guests can also access separate bathrooms for men and women, where there are multiple stalls as well as a child-sized diaper changing station.

Food and drinks may be purchased at Après by queuing up for service. Several small tables with chairs are arranged beside the cafe for guests to eat, drink, and rest.

The outdoor terrace features multiple planters filled with seasonal alpine flowers and plants. Glass walls allow guests unobstructed views of the city skyline.

Ascent is an optional, add-on experience. Guests can take this exterior glass elevator up the side of the One Vanderbilt building an additional 120 feet for a breathtaking view of New York City.

Housed just beyond the terrace exit is a 3D photo-capture opportunity where cameras take a full body scan of participants and superimpose their portraits onto an image of the AIR: Transcendence space. As the photos are taken, the cameras light up and can emit a high-pitched sound as the photo are taken.

Several shelves line the OB3 floor hallways, full of merchandise to commemorate guests’ SUMMIT experience. Guests may select items and go to the single register located in the middle of the boutique to make their purchase.

Guests may also access the bathroom on this floor. The bathrooms have multiple stalls, as well as child-sized diaper changing stations.

Several touchscreen kiosks stand parallel to the exit escalator. Guests may scan their photo wristband to select and purchase any photos taken of them throughout their experience.

To descend to the exit elevator of SUMMIT, guests take the escalator down to OB2 and then take the AIR: Rise elevators back down to the first floor of SUMMIT. Like the earlier elevator experience, this elevator is mirrored, and lights and sound accompany the experience unless guests ask that they be turned off.

This hallway serves as a space for guests to line up (starting on the left side of the corridor, next to the farther elevator) to take the final exit elevator.

The exit is located in this publicly-accessible gift shop. This boutique is square-shaped; there are no windows in this well-lit room.