16. Public sculpture on the esplanade
 |
 |
 |
The public sculptures that call Battery Park City home were all commissioned for their particular sites, not afterthoughts bought and inserted after the fact.
At the first entry point into the residential area, you'll see Richard Artshwager's idea of public deck furniture, including two outsize slatted chairs.
At the next entry point, the intersection of the Esplanade and Rector Place is heralded by R.M. Fischer's Rector Gate. The fanciful 50-foot-high gateway could be considered a triumphal arch, 21st century style. Rector Gate, which is lit at night, leads to another of the complex's green spaces, Rector Park.
 |
The next sculpture along the Hudson is hard to miss since it measures 34 by 67 feet. Sculptor Ned Smyth called his neo-Egyptian roofless temple The Upper Room. It contains a long table, twelve stools, an altar-like structure, and a concrete palm tree inset with mosaic tiles. Through The Upper Room is a view of Cass Gilbert's building at 90 West Street with its terra cotta ornamental topping. Just past the Upper Room, between the buildings and trees, is the tip of a green tower in the distance: Cass Gilbert's Woolworth Building, framed by the towers of the World Trade Center. When it was built in 1913, the Woolworth Building was the tallest in the world. When the Trade Center was completed in the 1970s, it was only the second-tallest. In your walk along the Esplanade you've observed that this is where Battery Park Cityites and their fellows play—biking, blading, and speed walking. But, under the shady allée of lindens, they also walk their dogs, stroll, sit, talk, play with their children, and read the day's newspaper. |
Continue to follow the esplanade to the Mercantile Exchange in the World Financial Center, on the far side of the marina next to the water.