Central Park to get Christo 'tunnel' after 20-year wait
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Your support makes all the difference.Christo, the Bulgarian-born artist famous for draping landmark buildings in cloth, and his wife, Jeanne-Claude, have been granted permission – after 20 years of requests – to decorate Central Park, New York, with a 23-mile snake of poles and gates draped in saffron cloth.
The installation, which is opposed by environmental groups, will be erected in February 2005 and remain in place for two weeks. Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been an enthusiast of the idea since taking office at the start of last year, reversing the position of several of his predecessors.
Christo, famous for shrouding the Reichstag in Berlin and the Pont Neuf in Paris, first sought approval for the project in 1979. He and his wife have called it The Gates: Central Park, New York, 1979 to 2005.
The sculpture will take the form of 7,500 gates, 16 foot (4.8m) high and from 6 to 18 feet (1.8m-5.5m) wide. They will support an unbroken piece of saffron cloth that will create the impression of a tunnel, without sides, tracing the existing paths in the park.
To satisfy critics, Christo agreed to make the project half as large as intended and the gate poles will no longer require holes in the ground but will sit on weighted bases placed on the paths.
The Sierra Club, an environmental protection group, said it still opposed the project because it threatened to disturb animal life in the park.
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