GUESTBOOK

Brooklyn Bridge Waterfall   Click for Larger   ©Mark D Phillips

The Waterfalls flow
Mayor Bloomberg's newest art project

UPDATE:
TAP TIGHTENED ON 'WATERFALLS'
By MARCIE YOUNG, Post Wire Services Posted: 4:35 am August 31, 2008

City officials will slash in half the hours that the "Waterfalls" exhibits operate tomorrow, in a bid to keep them from killing trees along the Brooklyn waterfront.

As The Post first reported Aug. 5, the continuous salty mist drifting from the man-made cascades of the "The New York City Waterfalls" is causing foliage on the Brooklyn Promenade to brown and wilt.

To stop this, the hours will be cut down to less than 50 a week starting tomorrow. That's less of a reaction to the defoliation than local residents had asked for - they wanted the city to dismantle the falls after Labor Day. The exhibit, which made its debut in June, is slated to run through Oct. 13. As long as the waterfalls are running, officials said, the trees' leaves and roots will be washed daily.

The new hours of operation will be 12:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays through Sundays, and 5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. Mondays and Wednesdays.
©The NY Post

“The Waterfalls are an unbelievable sight: four cascades ranging in height from 90 to 120 feet rising out of New York Harbor,” said Mayor Michael Bloomberg. “And what a beautiful symbol of the energy and vitality that we are bringing back to our waterfront in all five boroughs. Congratulations to Olafur Eliasson, the Public Art Fund and the many City, State and Federal agencies, and partners who played a role in bringing us to this momentous occasion.”

The exhibition of four man-made waterfalls of monumental scale are on view on the shores of the New York waterfront: one on the Brooklyn anchorage of the Brooklyn Bridge; one on the Brooklyn Piers, between Piers 4 and 5 near the Brooklyn Heights Promenade; one in Lower Manhattan at Pier 35 north of the Manhattan Bridge; and one on the north shore of Governors Island. The Waterfalls, which have been designed to protect water quality and aquatic life, will operate from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily, except Tuesdays and Thursdays, when they will run from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. The Waterfalls will be lit after sunset.

New Yorkers and visitors from around the world can experience the Waterfalls from various vantage points and also by bike or by boat. Circle Line Downtown, the official water tour operator of The New York City Waterfalls, is offering free and specially-priced daily boat tours to view the Waterfalls. A select number of free tickets for this official 30-minute journey is available for tours each day by calling (866) 925-4631.

The always free Governors Island and Staten Island Ferries also provide views of the Waterfalls on Governors Island and at the Brooklyn Piers. The Staten Island Ferry runs daily, and the seven-minute Governor’s Island Ferry is running every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday for the duration of the project.

A temporary park has been specially created on Pier 1, a site of the future Brooklyn Bridge Park, for viewing this project. The Department of Transportation, in collaboration with the Public Art Fund, has created a bike route around the Waterfalls, which is marked by waterfall icons on the streets and existing bike paths. The public can also download podcasts of Eliasson’s comments about the Waterfalls from the official website at www.nycwaterfalls.org, and starting tomorrow can call 311 to hear them (212-NEW-YORK).

The Waterfalls have been designed to be sensitive to the environment and include:
elements that protect fish and aquatic life, energy efficient LED lights, and energy purchased from renewable sources. The Waterfalls will be temporarily turned off in the event of extreme winds or storms, or if there is a power shortage due to hot weather.

About the Artist
Olafur Eliasson was born in Copenhagen in 1967, and grew up in both Iceland and Denmark. He attended the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen and currently divides his time between his family home in Copenhagen and his studio in Berlin.

Visit HAPPENINGS for more South Brooklyn events