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Aesthetic Grounds

Public Art, Public Space

NYC Construction Barricades

November 14, 2007 by Glenn Weiss

Thanks to Joey at Curbed, check the info on the construction barrades in Lower Manhattan. Joey photographed one barricade in process and spotted the NYTime story.
The project is documented with complete photographs on how to construct this street elements at reconstructionnyc.org. Re:construction is organized by Alliance for Downtown NY in collaboration with the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.
I am attracted to the project due to its internal contradictions of being both
1. invisible – visible (normal barricade – public art event) and
2. legible symbol – confusing metaphor ( simple safety alert – artistic message)
As result, the orange zebra barricade is most successful.
NYC%20Barrade%20Times.JPG
Zebra concrete barricade by Tattfoo Tan Photo: NY Times.
NYC%20Barrade%20recon.JPG
Striped fences by Carlos J. Gómez de Llarena, Mateo Pintó and Carolina Cisneros
NYC%20Barrade%20GRO.JPG
Design of overhead barricade by Richard Garber and Nicole Robertson of GRO Architects
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On the street construction by GRO. Reported by Joey on Curbed.com
Of course, the construction barricade or safety fence has been the material of other artists. Unfortunately I can not find the images of Lo Tec’s fence in 2001 in Fort Lauderdale. Carolyn Law’s overlapped vinyl chainlink in the early 1980s for an electrical substation fence in Seattle. She continues work in chainlink today.
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Broad Street Station in Seattle by Carolyn Law in early 1980s
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Bridge Fences in Kent, Washington by Carolyn Law in 2006


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Comments

  1. ries says

    November 14, 2007 at 5:32 pm

    The substation fence in Seattle?
    Carolyn Law did a metal treatment to a grill, on the downtown substation near the Seattle Center-
    But as far as I know, she never did a fence at a substation.
    I did, at Creston Nelson, in south Seattle, where I wove plastic strips into the fence to make a several hundred foot long pattern of outlets and plugs- this is sometimes erroneously attributed to Merrilee Tompkins, but I assure you, its all mine.
    Then, there is a small substation/steam plant just below the public market that has a galvanized steel fence around it done by a woman artist from New York whose name I cant remember…
    But I dont think Carolyn ever did one.

Glenn Weiss – Writer, Artist, Consultant

Glenn Weiss is the writer of Aesthetic Grounds. He lives in Delray Beach, Florida, and formerly in Seattle and NYC.

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