Love is everywhere!!!
This week a beating red heart stands 10 feet tall over Times Square, carefully nestled inside midtown’s own throbbing center of activity. This new edition to the bustling strip of theaters, restaurants and street performers is a sculpture called “BIG♥NYC.” At first glance, it might look unusual. But that may very well be because it is unusual.
Square has been the host of an annual heart sculpture to commemorate Valentine’s Day. The Times Square Alliance selects an architect to design a “romantic public art installation.” This year the sculpture was created by the Danish architecture firm the Bjarke Ingels Group and cost $15,000, paid for by donations and grants. The sculpture will be up from February 6th to February 29th.
Love is everywhere!!!
This week a beating red heart stands 10 feet tall over Times Square, carefully nestled inside midtown’s own throbbing center of activity. This new edition to the bustling strip of theaters, restaurants and street performers is a sculpture called “BIG♥NYC.” At first glance, it might look unusual. But that may very well be because it is unusual.
Square has been the host of an annual heart sculpture to commemorate Valentine’s Day. The Times Square Alliance selects an architect to design a “romantic public art installation.” This year the sculpture was created by the Danish architecture firm the Bjarke Ingels Group and cost $15,000, paid for by donations and grants. The sculpture will be up from February 6th to February 29th.
This is BIG’s first project in New York. “We like to use emerging architects and new and innovative technology,” Tim Tompkins, the president of the Times Square Alliance, told The Observer. The structure is made up of 400 transparent, LED-lit, acrylic tubes that form a cube around a suspended red heart. The clear tubes reflect the perpetually-flashing signs in Times Square for what comes across as a symbiotic relationship between art and environment.
The non-profit Alliance placed the sculpture inside Times Square to attract the attention of the lovers of NYC as a part of the month long promotion “Free Love in Times Square.” The campaign includes “steamy offers and romantic deals” for the couples of NYC and the chance to have a vow renewal upon the iconic red steps on Valentine’s Day, which viewers without a Valentine can watch online from the obscure comfort of their own home. Also, if people take their photo in front of the sculpture and then post it to Think Energy’s Facebook page during February, Think Energy will donate $1 to the Hope & Heroes Children’s Cancer Fund.
Happy Valentine’s day to everyone!!!