Team PSFK visited the waterfalls by Olafur Eliasson last weekend and they failed to make a splash. For a city full of proud architecture, the make-shift looking waterfalls looked rather amateur - the water flow limp, the structures uninspired. Not quite a spectacle to match The Gates.
We don’t want to put you off - but if you go, maybe go back at night so you can’t see the nuts and bolts.
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I hate to say it but. yes they are a little bit crap.
I walked to work from Forte Green to SoHo and got to see them from the Manhattan Bridge.
First, I saw the nasty scaffold. Surely SoBe LifeWater should cover them in a MASSIVE banner? I kid. I kid.
The waterfall itself looks fine and I do like the concept of making the viewer rethink the river as a flat, 2D surface into a thing of life and force.
I also got a little jolt of surprise when I noticed a second one way off in the distance.
Given the money they cost I’m not sure it was worth it but I’m all for imaginative public works, so they get my thumbs up. OK, 1 thumb up. C for effort.
July 1st, 2008 at 4:13 pm
Crap!
I’m happy someone said it.
July 1st, 2008 at 4:47 pm
Yea, i think we may have beat ya to this one.
http://www.lvhrd.org/2008/06/26/olafur-eliassons-nyc-waterfalls-yawn/
July 1st, 2008 at 8:13 pm
realy nasty
Can’t they build something artistic?
July 1st, 2008 at 9:09 pm
Like the others commenting here, I’m glad I’m not the only one thinking it and glad you guys (and you, too lvhrd) said it too! Yeah, they’re crap. Why didn’t he just do ONE BIG ONE somewhere?
July 2nd, 2008 at 12:49 am
The whole point is that you can see the mechanism producing the water falls. We are in others capable of understanding and conceptualizing complex natural phenomena. For the “real thing” you can visit Niagara Falls or perhaps Disneyland.
July 2nd, 2008 at 1:10 am
I agree that the waterfalls are over-rated. I think people are less inclined to enjoy them because they are non-participatory, unlike the Gates installation. Many New Yorkers, myself included, sometimes disregard that NYC is an island and the waterfalls fail to bring the point home in a way that can’t be ignored or quickly forgotten. I like the public small public works done quietly and without much fanfare by Creative Time. They are inventive, thought-provoking, original, and they don’t cost millions of dollars to produce. Playing the Building wasn’t radically life-changing, but it was participatory. In this age of everyone-must-have-a-unique-and individual-experience, the waterfalls project was too generic and removed to capture millions of hearts.
July 2nd, 2008 at 9:10 am
Just kind of disappointing. I was excited for them and then was just left a little “eh.”
As far as seeing the mechanics, well, whatever.
July 2nd, 2008 at 1:50 pm