Architect and artist Karen Bausman presented the arts and institutions committee of Community Board 2 Monday night with her plan to put 24 three-foot-high walls topped with turf in a 50-by-50-foot space in the cobblestone-covered intersection of Gansevoort and Greenwich Streets in the Meatpacking District, according to an article Wednesday by Andrea Swalec at DNAinfo.com.
The installation, which will be called "The Wall Project," will be installed in the plaza from April 2 - April 30, 2012, according to Ms. Bausman.
"'It challenges our notion of how we interact with the city,' Bausman, who wore a 10-gallon hat to the meeting," according to the article. The Wall Project is "an homage to the Indian footpaths and village lanes from which the city's modern grid emerged," Bausman's website on the project explains.
The article said that Bausman created the project after analyzing records from Manhattan's 1811 Planning Commission, which established the grid pattern of many streets.
In response to a community board member's question about whether the installation would harm the plaza's cobblestone, Bausman said the grass-covered structures will be attached to the ground with water-filled trays, the article added.
The project is supported in part by the Department of Transportation's Urban Art program, its manager, Emily Colasacco, said Monday. The Urban Art program provides artists up to $5,000 to create temporary art installations "to foster more vibrant and attractive streets and offer the public new ways to experience New York City's streetscapes," the program's website says.
The program was created by DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, Colasacco said.
"The Wall Project is a large-scale public installation comprised of a series of hip-height, earthen walls made of layers of sod that invite pedestrians to experience walking navigation as an organic, creative process. Once inside The Wall Project's footprint, viewers will have numerous options for moving from one point to another, meeting within boundaries, meandering, calculating the most direct route or even scaling the walls," according to Ms. Bausman's website.
"The Wall Project is a meditation on what it might have been to move within a web of pathways defined by human concerns and worn by local custom, rather than a lattice of conduits dictated by economic forecast and official decree. The Wall Project evokes pedestrian navigation within the more organic system of a bygone time, and thus challenges us to re-experience how our city circulates today and the notion of what it is to occupy a space," the website continued.
The installation, which will be called "The Wall Project," will be installed in the plaza from April 2 - April 30, 2012, according to Ms. Bausman.
"'It challenges our notion of how we interact with the city,' Bausman, who wore a 10-gallon hat to the meeting," according to the article. The Wall Project is "an homage to the Indian footpaths and village lanes from which the city's modern grid emerged," Bausman's website on the project explains.
The article said that Bausman created the project after analyzing records from Manhattan's 1811 Planning Commission, which established the grid pattern of many streets.
In response to a community board member's question about whether the installation would harm the plaza's cobblestone, Bausman said the grass-covered structures will be attached to the ground with water-filled trays, the article added.
The project is supported in part by the Department of Transportation's Urban Art program, its manager, Emily Colasacco, said Monday. The Urban Art program provides artists up to $5,000 to create temporary art installations "to foster more vibrant and attractive streets and offer the public new ways to experience New York City's streetscapes," the program's website says.
The program was created by DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, Colasacco said.
"The Wall Project is a large-scale public installation comprised of a series of hip-height, earthen walls made of layers of sod that invite pedestrians to experience walking navigation as an organic, creative process. Once inside The Wall Project's footprint, viewers will have numerous options for moving from one point to another, meeting within boundaries, meandering, calculating the most direct route or even scaling the walls," according to Ms. Bausman's website.
"The Wall Project is a meditation on what it might have been to move within a web of pathways defined by human concerns and worn by local custom, rather than a lattice of conduits dictated by economic forecast and official decree. The Wall Project evokes pedestrian navigation within the more organic system of a bygone time, and thus challenges us to re-experience how our city circulates today and the notion of what it is to occupy a space," the website continued.
Architecture Critic
Carter Horsley
Since 1997, Carter B. Horsley has been the editorial director of CityRealty. He began his journalistic career at The New York Times in 1961 where he spent 26 years as a reporter specializing in real estate & architectural news. In 1987, he became the architecture critic and real estate editor of The New York Post.
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