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How hot does titanium get? And is it too hot for children to scamper on? Is corrugated cardboard sturdy enough after many rains? These are the questions that came to mind when we heard that Frank Gehry will design a playground for the Battery.
At the Battery Conservancy's gala last night, Mayor Bloomberg and Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe announced that Gehry would design his first playground in Manhattan. Benepe said, "It is fitting that the Battery, the birthplace of New York, will be home to another firstFrank Gehry’s newest creation will be a truly innovative play experience for New Yorkers and visitors alike, for the young and the young-at-heart.” And from the press release:
An original Gehry design will complement the uniqueness of the Battery, where land and sea, history and modernity combine in a refuge for pleasure, relaxation, learning and play for people of all ages. The architect’s work – internationally acclaimed for its daring exploration of form, singular combination of urbanity and whimsy, and sensitivity to culture in our built environment – lends itself to this project: an original environment for children to explore and have fun. The one-acre playground will also feature a “green” comfort station with a green roof and vegetal walls.This means that downtown is the place for playgrounds, since David Rockwell is working on a playground for the South Street Seaport. The construction for the Gehry playground will receive $4 million and the Battery Conservancy will raise the rest of the money.
And the playground will be part of a "larger renaissance of the Battery," which includes the Battery Bosque Gardens, two new "green" and organic food kiosks, a Battery Bikeway, a new Town Green, renovations to Peter Minuet Plaza, and the restoration and expansion of Castle Clinton.
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And Frank Ghery can't even design playgrounds well.
i am always dumbfounded that this guy keeps getting projects... it's a real shame for our city.
Does anyone know the cross-streets of the playground-to-be?
Hideously ugly. And I'm a fan of modern design!
robin.g
When will people learn to differentiate between "good" modern architecture, and the stuff that's absolute garbage?
Personally, I'm a big fan of the Hearst building, and generally anything that looks clean and new (but not sterile, like Gehry seems to prefer)
I must have missed the memo. It's hip to hate Kerouac and Gehry now?
robin.g, I'm pretty sure that picture is a Gothamist photoshop job of a Ghery building with a slide. There are no pictures of the playground as far as I can tell.
The people who really hate Gehry are losers with inferiority complexes bigger then his buildings.
I meant Gehry in general.
And how in the hell can it be hip or unhip to love or hate an architect? Jeez people, you're manufacturing things to bitch about now.
robin.g
if you look on the master plan for rebuilding The Battery, the playground is on the far right edge of the park, along State St, the one that runs between Bway and the SI Ferry.
http://thebattery.org/rebuilding/masterplanmap.html
interesting that $4mm fell in Gehry's lap for building this while the Rockwell playground is left raising all $2mm privately.
greg from daddytypes
I get totally missed at the external laptop battery definition at http://www.sales-battery.com/External_laptop_battery.html