"Light Hearted"

The winner for this year's Time Square Valentine design competition is "Light Hearted" by Lauren Crahan and John Hartmann, of Brooklyn-based Freecell.

The heart will be in Duffy Square from Feb 10-20 and it depends entirely on volunteers to actually work. The heart is composed of 6 pairs of metal rings held in the air by volunteers and any extra Time Square visitors who want to participate.

Freecell beat out finalists BIG (Bjarke Ingles Group) - City Pulse & Marc Fornes Design - Fluttering Hearts for this year's Time Square Valentine. You can see their entries on the TS Valentine Competition website.

I certainly hope enough people volunteer to keep it in the air the whole time! If you're interested in volunteering, you can sign up on the website - www.lighthearted.us

Follow Up - Sukkah City Union Square

About two months ago I posted about Sukkah City - an international competition to re-imagine the sukkah held in New York City's Union Square. I was excited to see the 15 designs that were chosen from the hundreds of entries and they certainly did not disappoint. While there were some pretty big discrepancies between some of the design proposals and the actual realizations, others were spot-on and all were fascinating to see in 3D form. Of the 15 chosen, 13 actually made it to Union Square for the event to be voted on by the public.

The event was held over two days and I got to attend on a BEAUTIFUL Monday afternoon. Union Square was absolutely PACKED! There were students, tourists, New Yorkers, designers and more all enjoying the sukkahs. The winner after voting was Fractured Bubble, which remained in Union Square for the week.

My personal favorites were Sukkah of Signs by Ron Rael & Virginia San Fratello using signs purchased from homeless people and Gathering by Dale Suttle, So Sugita, and Ginna Nguyen which had beautiful, sweeping lines and excellent craftsmanship.

To see the sukkahs, click on the image for a large view or check them out on my Flickr page.

Sukkah City in Union Square 9/19 & 9/20

Sukkah City: NYC 2010 comes to Union Square this weekend! This international competition drew entries from all over world with 15 winners being selected to be constructed in Union Square. The 15 re-imagined sukkahs will be voted on by New Yorkers and the winner will remain in Union Square for Sukkot festival.

These 15 winners include designs using all sorts of materials, techniques and concepts. One of my favorites is one that is constructed from a single string...that will be very interesting to see in real life and see if it is structurally sound.

These sukkahs will be in Union Square from dawn to dusk Sunday and Monday so make sure you don't miss it. For more info on Sukkah City, check out the website will all the winners and also every competition entry...there are some pretty hysterical ones.