The Lighter Side of an Endless Construction Mess: Public Art!

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Yesterday we received an email with the above picture, shot at the intersection of Broadway and John Street in the FiDi, and an accompanying request to figure out just what the heck that crazy wood thing is. We were perplexed. Luckly, David Dunlap fills in the blanks in the Times today. Because the Financial District will be a construction pit for the next decade or twelve, the Alliance for Downtown New York and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council will dress up construction site blights, a project cutely titled Re:Construction. Above is the start of GRO Architects' new-look sidewalk scaffolding, an angled plywood installation named "Best Pedestrian Route." This is what it will look like in the end. Interesting? Yes. Obstructive? Maybe. There's also zebra-striped traffic barriers and tartan-patterned security netting. Also, construction noise will be filtered through large machines that make drilling sound like Beethoven's 5th, and workers' cat-calls sound like delicate whispers from a long-lost love.
· Dressing Up Those Bleak Downtown Construction Sites [NYT]

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