It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christo

Looking southeast from 110th and Lenox.

By Lasker Rink.

On the south side of Harlem Meer.

Steel footing.

Delivery truck at 102nd and 5th Ave park entrance.

For sixteen days starting February 12th, "The Gates" an environmental art installation by Christo will be on display in Central Park.  Planned since 1979 the Gates consists of 7500 gates placed at 12 foot intervals through many of the footpaths in the park.  Steel footings on either side of a footpath will hold up vinyl poles that have saffron-colored fabric panels suspended over the path.

Placement of the steel footings began last week so I took a look yesterday.  The orange plasting things look like they are being used to place the footings and are not part of the artwork.  Still, I liked the effect.  The footings are being used to minimize the environmental impact on the park (no holes will be make to support the poles).  They all looked the same to me but were labeled differently (A, B, C or D). 

I first heard about this project years and years ago.  At the time I thought it was a pretty silly idea.  Of course, I didn't know much about Christo or Central Park back then.  After seeing the initial stages of the project yesterday I think this is going to be wonderful.  As I was taking photographs a guy came up to me and mentioned that he was recently in Berlin and that the people he met there were really interested in the project, more so than anyone he had met in New York.

NYC.gov on The Gates, Central Park, New York City, 1979-2005

Update:  More recent photos here.

Finally, and only slightly related, as I was walking out of the park a Parks employee in a golf cart stopped to ask if I was the owner of the shopping cart just outside the park.  The shopping cart was filled with a collection of cans, bottles and other urban detritus.  Hmmm, I'm not known for being stylish but I didn't think I'd pass for a homeless person.

Comments

[mandy]

I came across your site quite randomly and I want to let you know that it's quite intriguing. I really dig the bicycle series.

[yp]

Joe, nice shots of the action! Do you know which direction they will be expanding the gates fro here on out? Is it going to be from the top down...did you see people working on the installation in other parts of the park?

[joe]

Someone at work said they saw the supports on the west side of the park too (I've only walked through the northeast corner). The vertical and horizontal poles are scheduled to be installed on Feb 7th. The fabric drape will be wrapped around the horizontal pole and will be unfurled on the morning of the 12th. Check out Christo's site for more info.

[Sean]

Thank you for this peak at the preparations. I'm looking forward to seeing The Gates aflutter!

Big thumbs up from Basel, Switzerland!