For the past two years, the Flatiron/23rd Street Partnership Business Improvement District and Van Alen Institute have commissioned installations for the public plaza near New York City’s Flatiron Building during the winter holiday season. While the 2014 and 2015 pavilions featured mirrored elements designed to reflect the city, this year’s winner of the annual Flatiron Public Plaza Holiday Design Competition takes a more literal approach. Instead of viewing Manhattan second-hand, visitors to “Flatiron Sky-Line,” designed by New York firm LOT, will be able to lounge and take in the view from hammocks strung beneath steel arches embedded with LEDs.
LOT’s proposal was selected through an invited competition that included four other New York firms: Architensions, Büro Koray Duman Architects, Freeland Buck, and Young & Ayata. The jury comprised Nicholas Athanail, a real estate broker at The Corcoran Group and board member of the Flatiron Partnership; Natasha Jen, a partner at Pentagram; Wendy Feuer, the assistant commissioner for Urban Design & Art at the New York City Department of Transportation; Jessica Healy, a Van Alen board member; Michael Szivos, Assoc. AIA, owner of New York City–based studio Softlab; Jennifer Brown, the executive director of the Flatiron Partnership; Aleksey Lukyanov-Cherny, a partner at New York City–based SITU Studio; David van der Leer, the executive director of the Van Alen Institute; and Sherry Dobbin, the director of Times Square Arts.
LOT
“Flatiron Sky-Line” opens on Nov. 21 and runs through Jan. 2, 2017.
