[Read more about the Shed’s development.]

For the Shed’s first weekend, he had commissioned “Soundtrack for America,” as well as the interdisciplinary “Reich Richter Pärt,” new work by the artist Trisha Donnelly and the play “Norma Jeane Baker of Troy,” starring Ben Whishaw and Renée Fleming.

On Wednesday evening, the Shed had opened its doors to mostly donors and industry insiders for a preview party. Mr. Poots and Elizabeth Diller — the architect whose firm, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, designed the building in collaboration with the Rockwell Group — were tapped on the shoulders by a near-constant stream of luminaries offering congratulations. It was a long day for Ms. Diller, who arrived at the building around 8 a.m. and stayed at the party until 10:30 p.m. (To unwind, she said, she and her husband, Ricardo Scofidio, went out for ramen. She was back at her office by 9 a.m.)

There was a preview of “Reich Richter Pärt”; afterward, Steve Reich said in an interview that he was happy to finally hear his score with a large crowd, and not in the acoustics of an empty room. He was there again for the piece’s first public performances on Saturday.

[Our guide to navigating the Shed and Hudson Yards.]

By the weekend, the building was operational, though not fully finished. One crucial escalator wasn’t completely installed; another was in and out of service. A bartender for Cedric’s, the Shed’s not-yet-open restaurant by Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group, apologetically handed out free bottles of water and said that it would probably be up and running by late April.