Canstruction Exhibit at Brookfield Place

The 21st annual Canstruction returned to New York last month. The exhibit, which was on display from October 31st to November 13, was held  in the Winter Garden and lobby of Brookfield Place (formerly known as World Financial Center), located at Battery Park City.

Canstruction® is a unique charity which hosts competitions, exhibitions and events showcasing colossal structures made entirely out of full cans of food. After the structures are built, the creations go on display to the public as a giant art exhibition. At the end of the event, all food is donated to local hunger relief organizations.

Recognized for our commitment to innovation, hunger relief  and collaboration, our work has helped raise over 21 million pounds of food since 1992.  Canstruction events are held annually in over 150 cities around the world including North America, Australia, South America, Europe and Asia.

This was the Jurors’ Favorite: Pour Your Heart Out by Leslie E. Robertson Associates. It consisted of 3,555 cans of a combination of sardines, nectar juice and iced tea, and can feed 765 people.

On my way to the exhibit, I dropped by Teardrop Park. I remember seeing the icewall the first time on a walk here last winter which I wrote about in a previous blog.

From there I walked along the Battery Park City esplanade and saw the tallest building in the western hemisphere, One World Trade Center, peeking out from all the buildings around it.

I also passed by the Irish Hunger Memorial, which was built to raise public awareness of the events that led to the Great Irish Hunger and Migration of 1845-1852. I wrote a little bit about it in another previous blog, it's a slice of Ireland in Manhattan!

The memorial is near Brookfield Place where the Canstruction exhibit was held. The exhibit was split, some were displayed at the Winter Garden atrium and the rest along the lobby of the building at Vesey Street and West Street. I started viewing the exhibit from the atrium.

Each exhibit came with a description board which contained the title of the exhibit, the team behind and its mission statement, as well as the number of cans and the specific canned item/ingredients used.

This was the first exhibit I was looking at, called Polarized Against Hunger by GACE Consulting Engineers. It consisted of 3,003 cans of beans, corn, mixed vegetables, beef broth, chicken broth, tomato sauce, pears and pumpkin, and can feed 2,474 people. There was also a cute penguin at the other side of the igloo.

Another winner of this year's exhibit was We CAN Kill Hunger by STUDIOS Architecture. It won for Structural Ingenuity, just looking at it makes you wonder how were they able to arrange the 9,300 cans of Brunswick Sardines to create this piece.

One of my favorites, Cloudy with a Chance of Tuna by Gilsanz Murray Steficek LLP won Best Use of Labels. A raincloud and rain made of 2,456 cans of tuna, tomato sauce and pasta, how cool is that?

Another exhibit displayed at the atrium took Honorable Mention, Once Upon a Can by Thornton Tomasetti. It's a castle perched on top of an open book and was made up of 3,870 cans of tomato sauce, cranberry sauce, tuna, anchovies, sardines and beans, and can feed 2,251 people.

In between moving around to view the exhibit, I looked up to see One World Trade Center from the atrium's clear roof.

There were twelve entries displayed at the Winter Garden atrium. The remaining fourteen entries were at the lobby of the Vesey Street entrance. On my way there, I looked back and snapped a picture of the entries at the atrium.

One of the entries displayed at the Brookfield Place lobby was called Send It, Like It, Post It, Blog It, Tweet It - Spread the Word to End Hunger. Hah, that was a mouthful! It was a four-sided structure made of 3,744 cans. I couldn't see the side facing the wall and couldn't get around it as the area was cordoned off but the three sides showed the icons for Yahoo!, Pinterest and Facebook.

I also like Riding Out Hunger, 1,054 cans of tuna, anchovies, beef broth and chicken broth arranged to form a race car track. It looked like a canned version of a toy playset, so cool!

Then there was Heroes Fighting Hunger, 3,528 cans of black beans, pinto beans and golden hominy turned into logos of our caped heroes. Superman was on one side while the other side showed Batman's logo.

The other Honorable Mention went to Despicable Hunger: Minions CanRise! by Perkins Eastman/Harlem RBI. The adorable minions were made from 5,254 cans of Bumblebee tuna, Chicken of the Sea tuna and Cento tuna and can feed 1,642 people.

My favorite canstruction of all was awarded the Best Meal. Hunger Never Sleeps by Eleanor Roosevelt High School consisted of 4,260 cans of beans, chicken broth, chicken noodle soup, coconut milk, corn, peas, peaches, pumpkin, tomato and tuna, and can feed 4,124 people. The structure showed the New York City skyline in daytime and the other side showed the skyline at night. I bet you could guess what building is that on the left side.

After viewing all the entries, I went out of the lobby. Brookfield Place is right across the world trade center site and One World Trade Center, tall and shimmering in the afternoon light, was right in front of me.

Last October, the Port Authority opened to the public the new pedestrian pathway linking Brookfield Place and the World Trade Center Path. The overhead bridge that originally connected the two was destroyed during the attacks on 9/11. I proceeded to the Brookfield Place Pavilion to check it out. It is supported by two massive steel towers with a lattice design and several escalators led to the underground corridor. The passageway will eventually lead to the rest of the WTC transportation hub and the Fulton Transit Center.

From the bottom of the escalators, I quickly snapped a pic looking up from where I came from.

Then it's a walk through the doors, leading to the WTC West Concourse and on to the WTC Transportation hub.

The new pedestrian corridor traversing the World Trade Center site opened on October 23rd. The West Concourse, part of the sprawling 800,000-square-foot WTC Transportation Hub complex, marks a major milestone in the WTC redevelopment -- it is the first underground component of the site to allow public access. The 600-foot long marble-clad corridor, designed by Santiago Calatrava and built by the Port Authority, now provides a permanent, car-free link for tens of thousands of daily commuters and visitors in Lower Manhattan.

Two weeks after the walkway opened, I can still smell the newness of the corridor as I was walking along. On one side are posters of New Yorkers relating their experiences living in the city.

I came out at street level at Greenwich Street, and walked south to Battery Park where i as I was hoping to catch the sunset. Along the way I passed by Four World Trade Center and saw One World Trade Center and One Liberty Plaza reflected on its sides.

Most of Battery Park was fenced off due to the ongoing construction work and I was able to catch the sunset only from outside the fence wrapped around the park.

I eventually found the entrance, which was near the US Customs House and I was able to catch from inside the park a glimpse of the tail end of the setting sun.

I love the sunset and twilight views from Battery Park, they are the best!

This was where my walk took me that day. I got off at the Chambers Street station and walked west to Teardrop Park. Then I walked along the esplanade until I reached the Irish Hunger Memorial. From the memorial, I entered Brookfield Place at the Winter Garden atrium and walked towards the lobby at Vesey Street to see the other Canstruction entries. Then I took the WTC pedestrian pathway and went back to street level at Greenwich Street. From there I walked south toward Battery Park to catch the day's sunset.

This link has a list of the winning entries for the 2013 Canstruction.

The rest of my Canstruction photos are in my Flickr album Canstruction 2013

In another Flickr album are the World Trade Center/Brookfield Place photos and I have a separate album for One World Trade Center photos.

A Walk in Battery Park City

Last Saturday I was planning to walk from Battery Park City (BPC) up to the Brooklyn Bridge but ended up walking along BPC only. I only intended to drop by Central Park in the morning and take a few pics but the views there were so captivating so I stayed a little bit longer and it was already nearly noon by the time I reached the BPC area.

From wiki ..

Battery Park City is a 92-acre  planned community at the southwestern tip of Lower Manhattan. The land upon which it stands was created by land reclamation on the Hudson River using over 3 million cubic yards of soil and rock excavated during the construction of the World Trade Center, the New York City Water Tunnel, and certain other construction projects, as well as from sand dredged from New York Harbor off Staten Island. It is named for adjacent Battery Park.

This is the BPC Esplanade, it has great views of the Hudson River, New Jersey and Lady Liberty.

I took the 2 train and got off at Chambers Station, and from there walked westward to BPC and got a great view of One World Trade Center, now the tallest building in Manhattan.

I wanted to visit first the Nelson A. Rockefeller Park which is the northmost park in the area. On the way there, I passed Teardrop Park. It's my first time in this park and it was a pleasant surprise to stumble on the icewall.  The park was in the middle of several buildings and looks like a kind of secret garden waiting to be discovered. 

Designed by innovative landscape architect Michael Van Valkenberg, two-acre Teardrop Park brings a little of the dramatic Hudson River Valley to Battery Park City. Located between Warren and Murray Streets, River Terrace and North End Avenue, Teardrop features a magnificent "Ice Wall," artwork by Ann Hamilton and Michael Mercil, a children's slide, sand boxes, water play, a reading area with rock seats, places to "rock hop," naturalistic plantings, and much, much more for park lovers to discover.

From Teardrop Park I proceeded to the Nelson A. Rockefeller Park at the north end of BPC. The park contains most of BPC's wide lawns, as well as a large playground, plantings and gardens, several public art pieces, and a sheltered pavilion. What I love about this park is the many sculptures by Tom Otterness called The Real World.

The Real World consists of an elaborate fountain decorated with pennies of all sizes. Rolling out of the fountain is an exploded penny that Otterness’s classic figurines are trying to roll away. Throughout the rest of the park pudgy little figures are seen climbing all over tables and chessboards as well as comically hanging off lampposts.

A short walk from The Real World is the Irish Hunger Memorial. It's a uniquely landscaped plot, which utilizes stones, soil, and native vegetation brought in from the western coast of Ireland, and contains stones from all of the different counties of Ireland. The memorial also incorporates an authentic rebuilt Irish cottage of the 19th century.

Dedicated on July 16, 2002, the Irish Hunger Memorial (which takes its name from the Irish term for the famine of 1845-52, "An Gorta Mor," The Great Hunger) stands on a half-acre site at the corner of Vesey Street and North End Avenue in Battery Park City, between the Embassy Suites Hotel and the Hudson River.

In March, 2000, the Authority commissioned the design of "a contemplative space, devoted to raising public awareness of the events that led to the Great Irish Hunger and Migration of 1845-1852." The Memorial was intended to serve also as a catalyst for addressing current issues of world hunger.

The above pic is the facade of the memorial, and if you'll just pass by, you'll never know that inside is a slice of Ireland.

The Irish Hunger Memorial also has great views of One World Trade Center.

Walking further along the esplanade I finally reached the World Financial Center area.

The World Financial Center is comprised of four glass and granite towers, which surround and define a 3.5-acre public plaza at the water's edge. A landmark in open space design, the World Financial Plaza is the first waterfront plaza built on the Hudson River. The 10-story high, glass-enclosed Winter Garden, contains shops, restaurants, and seating areas, and opens directly onto the World Financial Center Plaza surrounding the North Cove Harbor.

The Winter Garden Atrium is a 10-story glass-vaulted pavilion originally constructed in 1988, and substantially rebuilt in 2002. The rear of the building opens onto the World Financial Center Plaza and the North Cove Yacht Harbor on the Hudson River. The Atrium was originally connected to the World Trade Center via a pedestrian bridge that spanned the West Side Highway. It was severely damaged in the September 11, 2001 attacks as almost all the glass panes were blown out by the dust clouds. The pedestrian bridge was destroyed in the same attacks and was replaced by windows facing the former site of the World Trade Center.

When I was there, the windows facing the World Trade Center site were blocked, I guess due to the ongoing renovation, but the Washington robusta palm trees were a welcome sight, especially on a cold winter day. At the time of my visit, there was an exhibit of George Steinmetz's Desert Air, featuring various scenes of the different deserts around the world.

Looking up at the Atrium glass ceiling, you can see the top part of One World Trade Center.

Outside at the World Financial Center Plaza, I came upon this public art by Amy Kao titled Field Guide to a Metropolis.

Near the World Financial Center is the New York Police Memorial.

The wall along the edge of the memorial holds the names of the officers and dates on which they were killed. The small fountain resides outside of the formal memorial represented the rookie's first day. The water flows down the flume past the granite wall, representing death, and then falls into the open pool. The remaining area around the pool is referred to as the "Sacred Precinct" where contemplation is encouraged.

At the time of my visit, the water was turned off for the season but you can look for the names on the memorial wall and pay respects to those who lost their lives in the line of duty.

I then went to Kowsky Plaza as I wanted to see the single panel of Berlin Wall on display there but the area was cordoned off for repairs so I kept on walking along the esplanade. The esplanade also gives you a great view of New Jersey across the Hudson River.

At the end of the esplanade is South Cove Park. As I was walking and looking at the blue lamps, this seagull was staring right at me.

South Cove is a place based artwork, the piece incorporates natural materials, plantings, constructed elements, and the water and sky themselves to create a beautiful and very moving environment.

The building you see at the end is the Museum of Jewish Heritage.

The 30,000-square-foot Museum of Jewish Heritage is located on the waterfront, it has a six-sided shape and tiered roof symbolic of the six points of the Star of David and the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust. The Museum goes beyond recounting the horrors of the Holocaust; Its mission is to educate people of all ages and backgrounds about the broad tapestry of Jewish life over the past century - before, during, and after the Holocaust.

The path curved at this point and led me to the Robert F. Wagner, Jr. Park, the southernmost park in BPC.

Robert F. Wagner, Jr. Park is located in the southernmost tip of Battery Park City. A wonderful mix of open lawns and intensively planted gardens, threaded through with paths and walkways, Wagner Park is a place to explore. The Park Pavilions contain a restaurant, and its public roof deck affords breathtaking views of the Statue of Liberty and New York Harbor.

This is Lady Liberty seen from the public roof deck of the park.

There is also a skating rink and the park has great views of Pier A, which is already part of Battery Park.

 One of the artworks in the Park is Ape & Cat (at the Dance) by Jim Dine.

Although they do not have human features, Jim Dine's Ape & Cat (at the Dance) exude the sort of civility and tenderness to which many urbanites aspire. Made of cast bronze, the figures are at once amusing, allegorical, and abashedly romantic.

At my perch above the public deck at the Robert F. Wagner, Jr. Park, I can see the colorful buildings of BPC and One World Trade Center.

Another artwork is seen when you exit the park. Titled Resonating Bodies, it consists of a pair of bronze sculptures resembling giant musical instruments.

I wanted to continue my walk to Battery Park but I had a previous commitment so I left BPC, Battery Park up to Brooklyn Bridge can wait for another walk.

At the start of my blog I mentioned about dropping by Central Park and staying longer than I intended because of the view. Would you have stayed longer, too?

But then if you know all the things BPC has to offer, you'll really find time to visit and walk around the area. Maybe in the summer when there are lots of free shows and concerts, I'll visit once again. 

Click on the links for more pics on my Flickr albums ..

Battery Park City - Battery Park City

Central Park pics this month - Central Park, March 2013

The Real World - The Real World by Tom Otterness 

Irish Hunger Memorial - Irish Hunger Memorial