A huge shiny and reflective ‘bean’ sculpture, a small version of Chicago’s popular Cloud Gate, has been unveiled in New York after being commissioned for a prominent corner in Lower Manhattan back in 2008. Created by British-Indian sculptor Anish Kapoor, it shares several formal features with the artist’s iconic Chicago sculpture which was created in 2006. The yet-to-be-titled work is placed at the corner of Church and Leonard Streets in Tribeca.
According to The Art Newspaper, it is 19ft tall at its highest point and is estimated to have cost between $8m and $10m to create. While its Chicago counterpart occupies a prominent public plaza in Millennium Park, the New York sculpture is wedged beneath the canopy of 56 Leonard, which is a luxury condominium building also known as the ‘Jenga Tower’. The tower was designed by Swiss architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron for the real estate development firm Alexico Group, which has also commissioned Kapoor’s creation. Reportedly, the artist himself bought a four-bedroom apartment in this tower for $13.5 million in 2016.
The construction of this bean structure was marked by several delays. While it was first slowed down following the financial crisis of 2008 and 2009 and later by Covid-19, its technical complexity also posed a challenge. “As a result, it sat partially finished for years, surrounded by scaffolding and with large sections of its shimmering shell missing, earning it the nickname ‘half bean’,” the report added.
A message from the fabricator, Performance Structures, to the developer, Alexico Group, was published by the Tribeca Citizen in 2018. It highlighted the complexity of this project and how it differed from Cloud Gate.
“In order to make the Leonard Street sculpture installation more expeditious, and to save costs, it was decided to build the precision components such that they could be tightly fit together, with the seams thereby becoming nearly invisible hairline cracks,” the message read. “Another significant difference between the Leonard Street sculpture and ‘Cloud Gate’ is the suspension system.”
It added, “Instead of a single large support frame, each slice has its individual support frame. The support frames for the bottom slices are each bolted to the plaza, and the slices themselves are suspended by means of cables. When completed, the entire sculpture will be suspended with a system of cables and spring members so that it will be able to move slightly with changes of temperature and wind and snow loads.”
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