New York’s long-awaited “bean” sculpture unveiled

Editor’s note: This article was originally posted by The Art Newspaperan editorial partner of CNN Style.

New York (CNN) — A large, curvaceous, reflective sculpture by Anish Kapoor that was commissioned for a prominent street corner in Lower Manhattan in 2008 has finally been completed. The as-yet-untitled work, which shares many characteristics with the British artist’s iconic “Cloud Gate” sculpture in Chicago — known colloquially as the “bean” — now shines brightly on the corner of Church and Leonard streets in Tribeca.

It stands 5.7 meters tall at its highest point and is estimated to have cost between US$8 million and US$10 million to create.

Unlike Chicago’s freestanding sculpture, which occupies a major public square in Millennium Park, Tribeca’s new “bean” appears nestled under the canopy of 56 Leonard, a luxury condominium building better known as the “Jenga Tower” because to its cantilevered volumes that resemble the dangerously wobbly wooden blocks of the game. The tower was designed by renowned Swiss architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron for property development firm Alexico Group, which also commissioned Kapoor’s sculpture.

In 2016, the New York Post reported that Kapoor had purchased a condominium in the building for $13.5 million.

In addition to delays from construction slowdowns following the financial crisis of 2008 and 2009, and later by covid-19, the completion of Kapoor’s Tribeca “bean” was delayed by its technical complexity. As a result, it lay partially finished for years, surrounded by scaffolding and missing large sections of its shiny shell, earning it the nickname “half-bean.”

In a 2018 message to Alexico Group published by Tribeca Citizenthe sculpture’s makers, Performance Structures, described the enormous logistical and technical challenges involved in “Cloud Gate,” and how the Tribeca “bean” differed from that project in both its assembly and installation.

“To make the installation of the Leonard Street sculpture faster and to save cost, it was decided to precision build the components in such a way that they could fit together, with the seams thus becoming nearly invisible cracks,” it read in part. the message.

“Another significant difference between the Leonard Street sculpture and ‘Cloud Gate’ is the suspension system,” the maker’s explanation continued. “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 square, and the slices themselves are suspended by means of cables.”

“When completed, the entire sculpture will be suspended with a system of cables and springs so it can move slightly with changes in temperature and wind and snow loads.”

One unintended benefit of the huge delays for the Tribeca bean is that it has been introduced in the middle of what is now one of the main gallery districts of New York: a selfie-friendly beacon for art lovers who tour the neighborhood.