East River Roundabout
by Stephen Russell Shilling
Title
East River Roundabout
Artist
Stephen Russell Shilling
Medium
Photograph - Archival Inkjet Print
Description
This 80-foot long aluminum helix is by artist Alice Aycock (b.1946). Dedicated on November 6, 1995, the sculpture is attached to the skeletal steel roof supports of a former waterfront garbage transfer station.
Aycock was selected to create this sculpture as part of a project to transform a defunct sanitation facility into a public plaza. The resulting piece, its shape reminiscent of a roller coaster, is her response to the clamorous visual environment of the Queensborough Bridge, F.D.R. Drive, heliport, and commercial river activity which envelop the plaza. A consortium of organizations helped to plan and finance the project, including New York Hospital, the Hospital for Special Surgery, Rockefeller University, the East River Waterfront Conservancy, the Parks Council and the Municipal Art Society. Quennell Rothschild Associates, a landscape architecture firm, and Hellmuth Obata & Kassabaum P.C. Architects created a waterside viewing pavilion and passive recreational space, by adapting portions of the existing structure.
Aycock�s spiral sculptural conception, with its undulating fan-like canopy attachment, was also inspired by the weightlessness of Fred Astaire�s dancing. Her bold design was engineered by Thorton-Tomasetti Engineers and fabricated by Dover Tank & Plate Company. A sculpture maintenance endowment is managed by the Municipal Art Society�s Adopt-A-Monument Program.
Aycock�s design for East River Roundabout is intended to stand out in a highly competitive visual environment, and engage motorists and pedestrians alike. When the sculpture was installed, Aycock described the project as an �opportunity to galvanize this extremely dynamic situation, calling attention in a dramatic way to the visual forms of movement inherent in this very active place. The Roundabout is a theater around which New York City enacts itself. And the viewer becomes a spectator in the play of the city as well as an actor in the spectacle.
Source:
http://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/andrew-haswell-green-park/highlights/12174
Uploaded
September 18th, 2015
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