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Beauty for those bustling by: Downtown construction sites turn into 'art'
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Why gawk at a construction site when you can admire it instead?
With the Financial District growing and changing to accomodate an influx of residents, the Downtown Alliance, a neighborhood improvement organization, has been turning construction-site eyesores into eye-catching works of art.
Called Re:Construction, the initiative hires local artists to transform construction fences into canvasses through a $1.5 million grant from the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation.
The effort began with a pilot program in 2007. Within a couple of years, the Downtown Alliance expects to have placed installations at 80 sites.
Among the current works are "Botanizing on the Asphalt" with artist Nina Bovasso's signature flowers and colorful imagery, along the West Side Highway at Hudson River Park and "Flying Animals" at Washington and Rector streets, in which Caitlin Hurd points out the contrast between hectic city life and the peace that comes with living on a dreamlike farm. Ellen Berkenblit's "Poster Project" features graceful brush strokes that depict whimsical prints of cats and people at Trinity and Rector streets. And in "Rainbow Conversation," Rachel Hayes sews strips of colorful, sheer fabrics together to cover the fences of the Louise Nevelson Plaza project at Maiden Lane and William Street.
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