The Ice Heart is Finished! February 12, 2010 NEW YORK - 46th St and Broadway Photograph by Björn Wallander       Photograph by Björn Wallander                                                                                    Times Square Alliance Works with Leading Designers to Build a Monumental “Ice Heart” Sculpture in Duffy Square February 2, 2010 NEW YORK – Beginning on the morning of February 11, 2010 February 12, 2010, designers from Moorhead & Moorhead, leading a team of ice sculptors and engineers, will create a 10-foot tall Ice Heart built of masonry-scaled blocks of ice in Duffy Square at 46th Street and Broadway. By day, Ice Heart will provide a kaleidoscopic view of the Crossroads of the World, magnifying and distorting its colors and textures. By night, it will be a glowing beacon to celebrate the Valentine’s Day holiday. Moorhead & Moorhead’s Ice Heart won the invitational competition, juried by representatives from MoMA, The Queens Museum of Art, Performa, and NYC Parks, among others.    “We are thrilled to be continuing the tradition, inaugurated last year, of bringing public art to Times Square during the Valentine’s Day holiday,” said Times Square Alliance President Tim Tompkins.  “This year’s selection, Ice Heart, will become an immediate, albeit transient, landmark for visitors, tourists and New Yorkers alike who can stop by during different times of day to experience this remarkable sculpture.”    “The Ice Heart will constantly change as its crystalline form picks up the lights, colors and chaos of the Times Square – we look forward to the kaleidoscopic effect, and think visitors will enjoy it as well,” commented Granger Moorhead.   Online visitors can watch the sculpture change in Times Square and send their loved ones an electronic Valentine at www.theiceheart.com.  In the fall of 2009, the Times Square Alliance invited four NYC design firms to develop proposals for a Valentine for Times Square.  The architects were asked to envision a celebratory 3-D structure with a strong visual presence during the day, that in the evening would be illuminated.  The work was also encouraged to accommodate public interaction including photography of visitors in front of the sculpture.  The work of Robert Moorhead and Granger Moorhead, two brothers who run a New York-based architecture and industrial design practice, has been widely exhibited and published, both in the United States and abroad. They were included in the Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum’s 2006 National Design Triennial, and named Emerging Voices by the Architectural League of New York in 2008. The sculpture will be constructed by Okamoto Studio, a NYC-based artist collective founded by the father-son team of Takeo and Shintaro Okamoto, which has produced one-of-a-kind sculptures in ice that have been installed in venues from the Rockefeller Center to the runways of Fashion Week at Bryant Park. The structural engineering firm is Robert Silman Associates, which has participated in arts related projects throughout New York City.  The lighting, a key element to bringing the sculpture alive in the evening, is by Tillett Lighting Design Inc., an award-winning firm specializing in the illumination of landscape and public space. The Ice Heart was selected by the Art Review Committee of the Times Square Alliance.  The committee includes Barry Bergdoll, MoMA, Tom Finkelpearl, Queens Museum of Art, RoseLee Goldberg, Performa; Cora Cahan, The New 42nd Street, Marvin Davis, Davis Reality and Jennifer Lantzas, NYC Parks. Visitors to Ice Heart can also take advantage of the neighborhood-wide “Free Love in Times Square” promotion.  The Times Square Alliance has teamed up with local restaurants, hotels, retailers and entertainment attractions to offer tourists and New Yorkers alike special deals around the holiday.  Extending through March 31, the offers allow visitors to take advantage of even more amenities and attractions in the area.    The 2010 Ice Heart by Moorhead and Moorhead is supported by the Rockefeller Foundation, Altman Lighting Inc. and Levest Electric Corp Inc. Scroll down or click here to view the History of the Times Square Valentine. To view more public art projects in Times Square, please visit our main page,  www.timessquarenyc.org/arts.      Winner of Times Square Valentine Announced January 6, 2009 5:00 PM ET Moorhead and Moorhead’s “Ice Heart” won the invitational competition to build a Valentine in Times Square.  Simultaneously architectural and natural, Ice Heart is a ten foot tall heart built of masonry-scaled blocks of ice. Ultimately a celebration of the temporary nature of the Valentine’s installation, it will transform as it begins to melt, eventually disappearing completely. In the fall of 2009, the Times Square Alliance invited four NYC design firm to develop proposals for a Valentine for Times Square.  The architects were to envision of celebratory 3-D structure with a strong visual presence at night and day that must be illuminated.  The work was required to accommodate public interaction including photography of visitors in front of the sculpture.   “The Ice Heart will constantly change as it crystalline form picks up the lights, colors and chaos of the Times Square – we look forward to the kaleidoscopic effect, and think visitors will enjoy it as well,” commented Granger Moorhead.   The work of Robert Moorhead and Granger Moorhead, two brothers, has been widely exhibited and published, both in the US and abroad. They were included in the Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum’s 2006 National Design Triennial, and named Emerging Voices by the Architectural League of New York in 2008. The Ice Heart will be installed in Times Square at 46th and Broadway on the morning on February 11th and be protected from melting until February 14th.  After Valentine’s Day, the sculpture will melt until it disappears.  The Ice Heart was selected by the Art Review Committee of the Times Square Alliance.  The committee includes Barry Bergdoll, MoMA, Tom Finkelpearl, Queens Museum of Art, RoseLee Goldberg, Performa; Cora Cahan, The New 42nd Street, Marvin Davis, Davis Reality and Jennifer Lantzas, NYC Parks. The 2010 Times Square Valentine is supported by the Rockefeller Foundation.   Moorhead & Moorhead Project Name:  Ice Heart Design Firm:  Moorhead & Moorhead Design Team: Granger Moorhead and Robert Moorhead Nat Oppenheimer of Robert Silman Associates, Structural Engineers Linnaea Tillett of Tillett Lighting Design Firm Description: Moorhead & Moorhead is a New York-based architecture and industrial studio which works on projects ranging in scale from furniture to architecture. Location:  New York, NY Web:   www.moorheadandmoorhead.com Project Description Simultaneously architectural and natural, Ice Heart is a proposal for a ten foot tall heart built of masonry-scaled blocks of ice. By day Ice Heart is kaleidoscopic, magnifying and distorting the colors and textures of Times Square. By night it is a softly glowing white lantern, lit from within. Ultimately, Ice Heart is a celebration of the temporary nature of the Valentine installation. Left to run its own course, the heart will slowly transform, as it melts over several weeks, eventually disappearing completely.

Other Submissions

Aranda / Lasch Project Name:  Flowers for Times Square Design Firm:  Aranda / Lasch Design Team: Chris Lasch and Benjamin Aranda Firm Description:  Aranda\Lasch is a New York-based architectural studio dedicated to experimental research and innovative building. Location:  New York, NY Web:    www.arandalasch.com Project Description New York is not known for smelling good. For Valentine’s Day our idea is to create large and fragrant flowers for Times Square. They attract through the power of scent and color. The Times Square Flowers will emit a uniquely designed scent that is about how two come together to form one. Just like love forms a bond between two separate people, the scent will bind two distinct olfactive accords to form a strong single signature. For instance, the softness of musk with the animalic depth of amber, the delicacy of muguet with the earthy texture of vetyver, the coldness of lavender but the warmth of vanilla. Times Square never smelled better. The piece has three distinct components that work in tandem: the aluminum structure, the scent, and lighting: 1) The aluminum structure is made from prefabricated “petals” that join together and sit on a 6” pedestal. The petals are cut from anodized aluminum sheets that fasten together in such a way that they are self-supportive and cheap to produce. The reflective anodized finish of the aluminum will play with the surrounding lights of Times Square during both day and night. 2) The scent will be emitted through dry scent dispensers located at the center of each flower. Aranda\Lasch will collaborate with 12.29, an olfactive design firm that creates custom scents for products, environments and events. The process for selecting the scent will be an inclusive one, where the Times Square Alliance and neighborhood stakeholders will be asked to weigh in on the scent options presented. 3) Programmable LED Rope lighting will be rented from an events lighting company (Everlast Lighting Productions to be confirmed) and placed within the aluminum armature. The lighting will accent the curved, petal-like profiles of the flower.

Situ Studio Project Name:  ValenTimes Design Firm:    Situ Studio Design Team:    Sigfus Breidfjord, Basar Girit, Aleksey Lukyanov, Brad Samuels, Wes Rozen Firm Description:   Employing an interdisciplinary approach to design, Situ Studio operates at the intersection of architecture and a variety of other fields. Location:  Brooklyn, NY Web:     www.situstudio.com Project Description In Times Square on Valentines Day 2010, time collapses into a single infinitesimally small moment. Taking its inspiration from the long and rich history of the photo-booth, ValenTimes is an installation that turns that traditional program inside out, celebrating that single shared moment between two people by making it a public event. The structure is a reflective crystalline jewel lodged in the middle of Father Duffy Square. When approached from the south or viewed from the elevated TKTS seating to the north, it appears as a faceted Valentine's heart. From the east and west the inclined shard appears to rise out of the ground, reflecting the surrounding cavernous urban space. On the north end the structure is sheared away to form a photo booth a space for visitors to pose with their Valentine and have their picture taken by a built-in camera. Couples stand within the cove of faceted surfaces, embraced by the reflections of the delirious activity that defines Times Square -- alone for a moment at the center of the world. The built-in digital camera takes five photographs, one second apart, at intervals of 30 seconds. These photographs are taken around the clock, 7 days a week between February 12th and March 1st. A total of 216,000 photographs will be taken. A wi-fi enabled laptop also housed within the enclosure continuously uploads the photographs to a website where visitors can retrieve their images and view those of others. The simple interface of the website will be structured by a navigable timeline divided into 30-second intervals. Visitors can find their photographs by sliding the time locator to the specific moment that they entered the ValenTimes installation. The content of the website will steadily grow as images populate the timeline, ultimately creating a continuous time-lapse sequence of the 2-week event.

su11 Project Name:   Fuzzy Pulse Design Firm:  su11 architecture+design Design Team:   Ferda Kolatan & Erich Schoenenberger (Partners in charge) with Hart Marlow Firm Description:  su11 is an NYC based architecture and design firm whose work explores novel design expressions, varied performance, and atmospheric effects afforded by the intricate coalescing of new technologies and contemporary culture. Location: New York, NY Web:   www.su11.com Project Description Times Square is a special place. Layered, colorful and vibrant, it serves both as a destination and a passageway, physically as well as in the collective imagination of the world. Everything flows here: People, vehicles, light, sound, images and time. In this dynamic stream, clusters of organization emerge at times circular and stagnant, then rapidly complex and pulsating. While some of these phenomena exist in other places too, Times Square’s character is unique as it draws its energy from heterogeneity and ambiguity. No single thing ever dominates, no finite picture prevails. Instead manifold expressions come into focus at different speeds, clarify momentarily before dissolving again into the larger patterns of flow. Times Square is a beautiful place because it does not only embrace diversity, but personifies it. It celebrates democracy not as a rigid ideology but as the inevitable principle through which different trajectories and ultimately ideas coalesce into a larger whole. It is in this spirit that we propose our project for the Valentine’s Heart (FUZZY PULSE) as an iconic symbol to celebrate love, but also an image to commemorate the moment, fleeting yet profound, a momentary expression of joy in a continuous motion of incremental transformations. FUZZY PULSE affects the audience in three distinct ways: Form, light/color, and interaction. Its surface is made entirely out of transparent acrylic tubes, which are arrayed in a continuously undulating pattern. 1. Form. The heart is a universal sign for love, compassion and desire. It needs no translation or description as it is truly and uniquely an omnipotent symbol that transcends barriers of origin, orientation and language. For this reason we chose to design a shape that is easily recognizable as a heart with an immediate joyful and positive impact on the viewer. While the heart’s surface is continuous two distinct areas emerge with specific formal characteristics. The “Bulging Heart” and the “Squeezing Heart”. In a playful reference to the heart’s contraction, these two moments provide fun photo opportunities for couples. While the concave part provides an intimate, shelter-like frame to snuggle up against, the convex part boasts a more outward personality towards the surroundings. This formal transition reflects at once the private and introverted attributes of love as well as the exuberant and extroverted ones. The “fuzzy” appearance, which is a result of both form and texture of the skin, appeals to our senses as we associate warmth, friendliness, and kindness with it. It also creates a sense of ambiguity, which we like to introduce to the sculpture in order to relate to Times Square’s dynamic of converging and diverging flows. Our sculpture resists to be identified in any static or singular mode. Instead it constantly reconfigures itself based on the movement of the people vis-à-vis its own dynamic surface. 2. Light/Color. The material we chose reflects, transmits and distorts light in many compelling ways. Colorless in itself, external sources are needed to bring it to life. These sources are 1) The people, lights, and colors of the square, which give the heart a pulse, activate and cause it to bloom and 2) A sophisticated LED/lighting system installed inside the heart, which can produce a large number of atmospheric light/color effects. During the day the external reflections are more evident as the sculpture begins to glow towards the evening hours and reaches its full potential at night. Color has been linked to moods and atmospheres but also to temperaments. As love is unique and never just a single emotion, FUZZY PULSE transitions through a series of color mutations, which are all linked to specific feelings related to love and friendship. 3. Interaction. FUZZY PULSE encourages interaction on a number of levels. The build-in lighting system can be programmed randomly but also in response to both sound and motion. While sound detectors would emphasize the element of chance as an integral aspect of love (or the finding of it), motion detectors would stress the individual’s ability to take matters into his/her own hands. At different times of the day/night various lighting scenarios would be activated to prevent the setting in of a routine. In addition the sculpture provides great backdrops for photo-ops. We designed the surface in a way that no symmetry occurs and every angle offers new and exciting possibilities to frame this unique moment in various ways. A website will be provided also, as a lasting and ad-hoc platform to collect, share and celebrate the images taken in front of the sculpture and its surrounding. The platform is designed to offer small seating opportunities for those who will want to spend more time in the vicinity of FUZZY PULSE.

History of the Times Square Valentine Beginning in 2009, the Times Square Public Art Program established the Valentine in Times Square as a new event for New York City.  Gage / Clemenceau Architects created the inaugural event with a pulsing heart made of stainless steel and pink corian.  Autodesk supported the project as Gage/Clemenceau used their software to design complex patterns that were then robot-cut.  Serrano Hotrods, an auto body shop in Queens, fabricated the sculpture.  To view more public art projects in Times Square, please visit our main page,  www.timessquarenyc.org/arts.  February, 2009 Valentine Heart by Gage/Clemenceau February 11 - March 3, 2009 "Valentine To Times Square Hear"t by Gage/Clemenceau The heart-shaped, ten-foot tall sculpture reflected the lights and energy of Times Square on a delicate latticework of stainless steel.  Inside, LED lighting pulses in reds, pinks and purples across robot-carved shelves of horizontal luminescent Corian.™ Gage / Clemenceau Architects created the ten foot tall heart-shaped sculpture, which rests on an 8 x 20 foot base with footlights on each corner.  Visitors stepped onto the miniature stage and posed for a warm, dramatic photograph, surrounded by the colors of Times Square and the glowing curves of the heart sculpture. Mark Gage and Marc Clemenceau Bailly have emerged as significant leaders restoring beauty and pure physical sensation as priority in architecture.    As Gage has written regarding the state of architectural theory and artistic viewership, “The rebirth of the beautiful should come as no surprise.  Intermittently throughout history we are reminded that nothing propagates through culture better than beauty.” The sculpture complemented and sometimes literally merged with the lights and advertising on the surrounding buildings.   At a distance, the heart shape emerged and then dissolved into the lights.  During the day, the silver skin of stainless steel solidified the form with the angle of the sun.   “As our first public art public art project in the new Duffy Square, the pulsing heart kick’s off our journey to establish Times Square as place where ordinary people encounter authentic, innovative urban art in multiple forms and media,” said Times Square Alliance President Tim Tompkins.

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