People and sculpture coalesce at Socrates Sculpture Park. Some stay longer than others while others feel rooted in the place learning the character and history of the place. Others tread lightly either by choice or because the space demands less of them. People and sculpture are both participants and spectators within this community. This tension between permanence and impermanence lies at the heart of this proposal and the ongoing discussion about the future of the built environment in the city of New York. As old makes way for new how can the city find ways to have the old and new co-exist and reinforce each other’s strengths?

A curious, dis-used concrete foundation anchors the western edge of the park. It is not labeled and so deemed “not art” as visitors pass it by. It is either ignored or perched upon for some sunlight. It bridges the world of art and use, spectator and participant, and is defiantly permanent, immovable, and timeless. Rusted steel barnacles penetrate the form implying previous use(s), hinting at a larger structure, a frame, or a utility no longer necessary to the park space. It is a fossil of a larger built creature that, in contrast to the transience of many of the sculptures, roots the place in the past.

This fossil also feels like the cornerstone used to ornamentally anchor the beginning of a building and as such suggests direction, scale, and weight. The proposal, named “Cornerstone”, focuses our ever-transient attention on this artifact. It is not a nostalgic emphasis, but a suggestion to seek an integration of the immovable, the heavy, and the rarefied into our ambitions of the future – ambitions that are frequently lighter, faster, and immutable.

The proposal uses this concrete “cornerstone “to amplify a new form - the Folly. The new form is the opposite of the cornerstone: delicate, light, malleable, and transient. Its resonance comes from its physical relationship to the cornerstone and ability to magnify the curious attributes of the concrete cornerstone. The top of the original artifact is not level, it is pitched. It sits not parallel or perpendicular to the waters edge, but directed like a divining rod toward the skyline of Manhattan, hidden behind a stand of trees. It also possesses a comfortable sloped back that is pleasing to climb.

The new form is made from common steel welded wire mesh. Used to reinforce sidewalks and pavements, it has a beautiful skeletal quality that will rust with exposure to the elements and connect to the industrial context of the place. To span the distance required to replicate the cornerstone form, the mesh will be bent into chevrons to provide stability and spanning depth. Some may be deeper than others to span, needing only to support itself and its interlocking panels.

At night, the form is illuminated by hundreds of stranded LED bulbs that dematerialize the steel form and create a further ephemeral halo around the immovable cornerstone. In a landscape as dark as Socrates the sculpture will reflect off the water when viewed from the west and draw inquisitive visitors to the corner of a seemingly dis-used industrial area.

Queens, NY

Competition 2015