Eliasson's NYC Waterfalls officially on through Oct. 13
For 110 days, artist Olafur Eliasson’s New York City Waterfalls will pump 35,000 gallons of water per minute up and over four man-made towers – including one taller than the Statue of Liberty – inviting the public to the waterfront to not only explore the installation, but to have a good think.
“I don’t want the quantifiable elements of this project to be out in front of the unquantifiable,” Eliasson said Thursday during the Circle Line Downtown’s inaugural waterfalls cruise. While water can evoke dreams, it also has a very tangible side: “You get wet if you get into it,” he said.
And while you can’t swim under Eliasson’s waterfalls, you can approach them by boat, bike, on foot, or ponder them from the bridges or new bars and cafes set up just for the waterfalls. Two-years in the making, the Public Art Fund raised $13.5 million from private donors plus $2 million from the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, acquired more than 20 permits and arranged for 270 tons of scaffolding (which was erected by the same guys who normally erect scaffolding around new York City buildings.) Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the city’s Economic Development Corp. estimates the tourism boost will contribute $55 million to the city’s economy. (And yes, the international media were going bonkers at Thursday’s launch events.)
The exhibition consists of four waterfalls:
Under the Brooklyn Bridge at the Brooklyn-side anchorage (80 feet wide, 90 feet high)
Piers 4 and 5 in below the Brooklyn Heights Promenade (30 feet wide, 120 feet high)
(For reference, if they were buildings, they’d be nine to 12 stories each. The Statue of Liberty is 111 feet tall from her heel to her top.)
The waterfalls, here through October 13, will be turned on daily at 7 a.m. (but not until 9 a.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays) and remain on until 10 p.m. nightly. They’ll be lit up after sunset. However, they may have to be turned off during extreme winds, storms or a heat wave.
Eliasson, a Danish-Icelandic artist, has been coming to New York since the 1980s. He’s well known for his large scale, often environmental works. He’s written an artist statement for NYC Waterfalls; two excerpts:
“When water flows down the East River, we tend to see it as a simple surface, framed by a neutral urban waterfront. By elevating it into waterfalls, I wish to amplify its physical and tangible presence while exposing the dynamics of natural forces such as gravity, wind, and daylight. My idea is to encourage people to identify more with the waterfront of New York City; this is a call for the revitalization of areas that until recently have been under-utilized as creative and recreational spaces because people have focused primarily on the interior grid of the City. There is a huge unrealized potential waiting to be explored and this is located right at our feet.”
“The Waterfalls appear in the midst of the dense social, environmental, and political tissue that makes up the heart of the City. They will give people the opportunity to reconsider their relationships to the spectacular surroundings. I hope to evoke experiences that are both individual and enhance a sense of collectivity: the Waterfalls will invite people to explore them on their own, but due to their size and locations, they will also generate expectations, opinions, and actions that can be shared. This relationship between individual experiences and the social contest is crucial for me. I believe that by seeing a work of art – a waterfall for instance – we become co-producers of the work and its social context. Taking part in this type of collaboration requires that we take responsibility within the city that we live.”
Eliasson’s waterfalls philosophy echoes some things he said in April at the Museum of Modern Art at the opening of his “Take Your Time” exhibition (which closes June 30.) His press conference there was held in a room dominated by an electrical fan on a rope arcing erratically around the room. He wondered aloud what affected the direction of the fan’s swings – does the temperature, the number of people in the room and their body heat, possibly change the artwork? “Maybe that turbulence constitutes the space,” he said. “It’s a dialogue between you and the space.”
At MoMA, the title of the exhibition itself asks the viewers to slow down, take your time, and think about your surroundings. “If you step out of commoditized time, you step into yourself.”
Likewise at the waterfalls on Thursday, Eliasson said “this is not about consuming a space. It’s about using a space. To evaluate your relationship to it.”
And like the swinging fan, the waterfalls change – with the wind, the tide, the clouds, the sun and moon, the temperature and even the passing boats. “This is something you want to see several times,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Thursday. “It’s going to expand minds and give us a lot to think about.”
In this video clip, Eliasson explains how the waterfalls work and riffs on their sustainable aspects:
Yes, everyone's drowning in NYC Waterfalls coverage today, so here are some quick bits you may not already know. ...
The waterside decks of the South Street Seaport afford views of all four waterfalls.
But if you want to eat and drink while contemplating their meaning, head to the Seaport's new outdoor Waterfall Cafe that boasts views of all four falls. An offshoot of nearby Sequoia, they open at noon daily, seven days a week. Closing time depends on the weather and business -- sometimes 10:30 p.m., or earlier. Burgers, ($10,) salads, ($7 to $18,) mussels, ($9,) desserts ($6.50,) beer ($6 or $7,) wine ($8 by the glass/$26 by the bottle,) and margaritas ($9) are all on offer.
Bike and Roll will be offering a twice-daily bicycle tour of the waterfalls. They depart from the South Street Seaport at 3 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. for a two and a half hour ride that goes over the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges, making eight to 10 stops. Normally $40, those tours are free this Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Call (212) 260-0400 to reserve a spot.
Starting Friday, you can call the city's 311 information line and listen to artist Olafur Eliasson talk about his waterfalls, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said during this morning's news conference.
The waterfalls will be turned on daily from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. except Tuesdays and Thursdays when they will run from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Alexander Hamilton's house moved to St. Nicholas Park
The Hamilton Grange finally made its move Saturday, all 298-tons of the historic house.
The national monument was the home of Alexander Hamilton from 1802 - 1804 and the new location is within part of his original property line.
In May at its old home on Convent Avenue, the house was slowly lifted nearly 40 feet in the air on a jenga-like system of steel rails and wooden towers called cribbing. It was moved out into the middle of the street and this past Saturday, rolled around the corner and down the hill where it was slipped into Saint Nicholas Park among tall shade trees, grass and rocky outcroppings.
The next step is to slide the house over onto its new foundation and complete interior and exterior repairs.It will reopen to the public in 2009. (However, the The Friends of Hamilton Grange have filed suit in hopes of forcing the National Park Service to turn the house in another direction.)
NewYorkology toured the site in May with Stephen Spaulding, the chief of NPS’ northeast architectural preservation division.
For the second time today, a protestor has climbed up the outside of the new New York Times building, according to the footage on NY1.
The slats on the outside of the Renzo Piano-designed building apparently make an easy ladder to the top.
The New York Times website has video from the first climb earlier today by "French skyscraper climber Alain Robert." He unfurled a banner stating ''Global warming kills more people than a 9/11 every week.''
The second climber identified himself as Ray Clark, 32, an information technology worker and “urban climber� from Brooklyn, according to the updates on the NY Times City Room blog. Leaving the bbuilding with police, he wore a shirt that stated “Malaria No More,� the Times reported.
Picture credits: File pictures of the New York Times building. Amy Langfield/NewYorkology.
Neil deGrasse Tyson's office at the American Museum of Natural History has sent over the dates for Manhattanhenge 2008, when the sun sets in alignment with Manhattan's street grid.
From the e-mail:
For Manhattan, a place where evening matters more than morning, that special day comes on Thursday, May 29h this year, one of only two occasions when the Sun sets in exact alignment with the Manhattan grid, fully illuminating every single cross-street for the last fifteen minutes of daylight. The other day is Saturday, July 12th. These two days give you a photogenic view with half the Sun above and half the Sun below the horizon -- on the grid. The day after May 29th (Friday, May 30th), and the day before July 12 (Friday, July 11) will also give you Manhattanhenge moments, but instead you will see the entire ball of the Sun on the horizon -- on the grid. My personal preference is the half-Sun.
As you may know, had Manhattan's grid been perfectly aligned with the geographic
north-south line, then the days of Manhattanhenge would be the spring and autumn
equinoxes, the only two days on the calendar when the Sun rises due-east and sets
due-west. But Manhattan's street grid is rotated 30 degrees east from geographic north, shifting the days of alignment elsewhere into the calendar.
... IMPORTANT: For best effect, position yourself as far east in Manhattan as possible.
But ensure that when you look west across the avenues you can still see New Jersey.
Clear cross streets include 14th, 23rd, 34th. 42nd, 57th, and several streets adjacent to
them. The Empire State building and the Chrysler building render 34th street and 42nd streets especially striking vistas.
Arrive a half-hour earlier than the times given below.
MAY
Half Sun on grid: Thursday, May 29 -- 8:17 p.m. EDT
Full Sun on grid: Friday, May 30 -- 8:16 p.m. EDT
JULY
Half Sun on grid: Saturday, July 12 -- 8:25 p.m. EDT
Full Sun on grid: Friday, July 11 -- 8:24 p.m. EDT
Hamilton Grange literally up in the air for June 7 move
Hamilton Grange is on the move -- and that's no easy task for a 298-ton, 206-year old house wedged between a Romanesque church and a 1911 apartment building.
The house -- Alexander Hamilton's house to be precise -- is currently jacked up three stories in the air on thick wood beams in such a way that "it looks like they're playing Jenga," as one amused gawker pronounced into his cell phone while watching the work Friday afternoon.
The gawkers are indeed welcome on Convent Avenue, map, as the crews slide the planks in and jack up the house, slide the planks in, and jack up the house, leading up to the point this afternoon where they will slide the house out into the street. The next step is a delicate move around the corner at 141st, down a short block and then a right turn into St. Nicholas Park, map. That move, around the corner and down the hill, is set for June 7, from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m.
This past Friday, NewYorkology was lucky enough to take part in a tour of the exterior of the site with Stephen Spaulding, the chief of the architectural preservation division of the National Park Service's northeast region.
Here's a video clip of Spaulding explaining part of the Jenga-like process:
The Federal-style house was designed by City Hall-architect John McComb Jr. though it's clear that Hamilton himself had a hand in the process Spaulding said, as there is evidence of changes made during construction. "The house really reflects Hamilton," Spaulding said.
Hamilton, a Founding Father, first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and co-author of The Federalist Papers also founded the Bank of New York and the New York Post.
The Grange, named for Hamilton's grandfather's estate in Scotland, was the only house Hamilton ever owned, and unfortunately he only lived there two years as his plans were interrupted by that infamous 1804 duel with Aaron Burr across the Hudson in Weehawken.
The current move, which will keep the Grange on Hamilton's original property, aims to return it to a setting that replicates the original, which had front and back porches surrounded by greenery. The house - which was originally located on West 143rd Street (about a block and a half away from its current site,) was first moved in 1889 to save it from demolition. Eleven years after that first move, there was already public pressure to move it back. "It's almost a traditional use of the Grange to try to move it," Spaulding joked to his tour group, which was thick with experts in Manhattan history and architecture, including Manhattan borough historian Michael Miscione who assembled the group.
The original location afforded Hamilton views of the Hudson and Harlem Rivers, and was situated on the main road linking Albany to New York City. By carriage, it would have taken Hamilton abut an hour and half to reach Manhattan, Spaulding said. (The new location offers no river views, but you can see the cranes constructing the new Yankee Stadium.)
The Brooklyn Bridge was packed over the weekend as thousands gathered to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the opening of the span between Brooklyn and Manhattan. Check out this clip of a band playing Saturday afternoon on the Brooklyn-side arch.
Free drinks as Canadians open Rock Center roof garden
Well hello, this is a travel website about New York, so why should there be an item here plugging the Canadian Tourism Commission? Simply put, the Canucks were smart enough to choose a magnificent venue rarely open to the public: the Rockefeller Center roof garden atop the British Empire Building.
The event -- scheduled for tonight and Thursday from 6 to 9 p.m. -- is open to the public and completely free, including hors d'oeuvres (including some foie gras and lobster at last night's media preview,) and whatever you want from the full bar.
You'll get eye-level with the spires of Saint Patrick's Cathedral, you can gaze across at the old Scribner's sign and other private roof gardens and look down on Fifth Avenue and the weird contraption currently covering part of Rockefeller Center's main plaza. Oh, and you can learn all about Canadian tourism, too.
The location is the seventh floor of the 620 5th Avenue building, but enter on 50th Street.
A long weekend of events will kick off Thursday, May 22 with a free Brooklyn Philharmonic concert, fireworks show, and the debut of new festive lights for the bridge, which will get turned on every evening from 9 p.m. until 11 p.m. through Memorial Day.
Brooklyn Bridge anniversary events:
Thursday, May 22
The Brooklyn Philharmonic and special guests play a free concert at the Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park --followed by a Grucci Fireworks show. Enter from Main Street (map,) as early as 6 p.m.; the show starts at 7:45 p.m.
Friday, May 23
The free outdoor Brooklyn Bridge Film Series begins for the season with Disney's "Enchanted" and two historic shorts: "Panorama from the Tower of the Brooklyn Bridge" (1903) and "Manhatta" (1921). Music from 6 p.m. and the films start at 8:30 p.m. at the Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park.
The The American Society of Civil Engineers and the Roebling Chapter of the Society for Industrial Archeology will also offer free guided tours of the bridge from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. starting under the bridge's iconic arches.
Saturday, May 24
Free screening of Ken Burns' 1981 documentary "Brooklyn Bridge" at BAM. Film begins at 4:30 p.m., tickets handed out starting at 1:30 p.m. at 30 Lafayette Avenue, Brooklyn.
Frank Sinatra in 1947's "It Happened in Brooklyn" screens at the free outdoor Brooklyn Bridge Film Series, preceded by the same historic short films as the night before. Music from 6 p.m. films at 8:30 p.m. at Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park.
Governors Island to open early for OHNY tour night
Governors Island will open for the season on May 31, but if you prefer VIP to free, sign up for the May 20 tour offered as a fund-raiser for Open House New York.
The Tuesday evening tour -- from 5:15 to 7 p.m. -- comes with impressive tour guides: Governors Island Preservation & Education Corporation's president Leslie Koch and vice president for planning, design and preservation Betty Chen, plus members of the architecture and landscape team creating the designs to turn the former military base partly into a park.
