Heartwalk Spreads the Love to DUMBO
DUMBO-Based Situ Studio’s Epic Times Square Installation Finds New Home at the Pearl Street Triangle Installation Made from Sandy-Salvaged Planks Brings Cheer to Sandy Impacted Community

courtesy Situ studio

The DUMBO Improvement District and Situ Studio, in partnership with the New York City Department of Transportation (NYCDOT), are proud to announce the installation of Heartwalk, a massive 30-foot art installation made from Sandy-salvaged wood in the Pearl Street Triangle in Brooklyn. Situ Studio, a 20 Jay Street-based design studio, was originally commissioned to create the piece for Times Square, where it greeted thousands of visitors last month. The piece has now been relocated to DUMBO, home to the designers and a community that continues to heal following significant devastation from Superstorm Sandy.

courtesy Situ Studio

Heartwalk will be on view in the Pearl Street Triangle (Water Street at Pearl Street) through April 30, and can be seen from the Manhattan Bridge bicycle lane. Visitors are encouraged to interact with the piece and stand in the center of the heart.

We’re so thrilled to host Heartwalk, as DUMBO continues to get back on it’s feet from Sandy, Heartwalk is a beautiful
reminder of all of the support and love that embodied this community in the aftermath of the storm.
Remarkable public art. Created locally. With a message of post-Sandy hope and healing. I’m calling it a
DUMBO Trifecta!

Alexandria Sica, Executive Director of the DUMBO Improvement District

It's exciting to see Heartwalk set in another dynamic public space and the center of a neighborhood we've proudly called home for the past 10 years. Since Sandy we've closely watched our community rebuild and hope the installation will complement the spirited recovery.

Wes Rozen of Situ Studio

courtesy Situ Studio

Plus, DUMBO is one of New York’s most romantic neighborhoods — lovers from far and wide are expected to seek out Heartwalk this spring. (Couples are encouraged to tweet and instagram pictures using #DUMBOHeartwalk @DUMBOBID.) Heartwalk sits atop a mural created last year by the artist David Ellis entitled "PST".

Like many other waterfront communities, DUMBO was hit hard by the hurricane. More than a dozen businesses and art spaces suffered more than $4million in damages and several families saw their apartments washed out by the surge. In the aftermath of the storm, the DUMBO community came out in droves to help with recovery efforts. Residents and local offices participated in community clean-ups and fundraising efforts spearheaded by the DUMBO Improvement District which raised more than $60,000  or grants to small businesses and art spaces. As a sign of DUMBO’s ongoing recovery – Almondine, a much beloved French bakery that suffered more than $300,000 in damages, became the latest shop to reopen last week.

courtesy Situ Studio

Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz is a big fan of the project, declaring: "Brooklynites have enormous heart, and that was never more true than following Hurricane Sandy, when thousands of our residents came to the aid of fellow Brooklynites and New Yorkers. So DUMBO—and all of Brooklyn—is thrilled to open our hearts to the art installation Heartwalk, crafted from boardwalk wood salvaged from Sandy's aftermath and created by DUMBO's own Situ Studio. Heartwalk may have debuted on a major 'artery' of Times Square, but now 'leaves its heart' right here in DUMBO, where it will be on view at the Pearl Street Triangle.

Kudos to the Times Square Alliance for commissioning Heartwalk and to Situ Studio for creating this dynamic, interactive artwork. And to the Brooklynites who volunteered their time in the Sandy recovery efforts: you are truly the heart and soul of Brooklyn!"

+ About

Heartwalk:
DUMBO-based design firm Situ Studio designed Heartwalk for this year’s Times Square Valentine Heart Design, commissioned by the Times Square Alliance in collaboration with the Design Trust for Public Space. It was unveiled Tuesday, February 12, 2013 and moved from Times Square to DUMBO on March 11, 2013. Situ Studio took inspiration from the collective experience of Hurricane Sandy and the love that binds people together during trying times. Using boardwalk boards salvaged during Sandy's aftermath- from Long Beach, New York; Sea Girt, New Jersey; and Atlantic City, New Jersey—Heartwalk begins as two ribbons of wooden planks that fluidly lift from the ground to form a heart shaped enclosure.

Pearl Street Triangle:
The DUMBO Improvement District Manages the Pearl Street Triangle – one of NYC’s first plaza spaces. The Triangle hosts public art, free WiFi and epic view of the Manhattan Bridge. The surface of the Pearl Street Triangle hosts “PST” a mural by artist David Ellis created in 2012.

NYCDOT Arterventions:
Launched in October 2008, the New York City Department of Transportation's Urban Art Program invigorates the City's streetscapes with engaging temporary art installations. The Program partners with community-based organizations and artists to present murals, sculptures, projections, and performances on plazas, fences, barriers, bridges, and sidewalks for up to 11 months.

Projects are presented within three program tracks: pARTners, Barrier Beautification, and Arterventions. For more information, visit www.nyc.gov/urbanart.

DUMBO Improvement District:
The DUMBO Improvement District is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to enhancing and promoting DUMBO, Brooklyn. The Improvement District showcases DUMBO as a world-class destination, advocating on behalf of DUMBO’s businesses, property owners and residents. The organization provides supplemental sanitation services, marketing, economic development, neighborhood programming and long-term planning. The Dumbo Improvement District manages DUMBO's Business Improvement District (BID) an area bounded roughly by York Street, Bridge Street, Old Fulton Street and the waterfront.

For more information, visit www.dumbo.is.

Special thanks to the Times Square Alliance and Design Trust for Public Space for hosting the initial installation of the project in Times Square. Additional supporters including Two Trees Management who provided space to fabricate Heartwalk, Renfro Design Group for lighting consultation, Electric Lighting Agencies and JPR Lighting Group for the lights, HD|Made for creating a photo-aggregator website, Arup Acoustics for consultation on an interactive sound component and Sawkill Lumber for contributing some of the salvaged boardwalk material.

courtesy Beijing Jikerzhicheng

'Jike Idea' is the first container garage that accomplished by Beijing Jikerzhicheng Product Design Consulting Co., Ltd. This work concept origins from Lvshe's theme activity in 2012, 'dragging the box to travel'. 'Jike Idea' is prepared for this activity. After it is finished, the container carrying designers travelled 6000km from Beijing to Jiuzhaigou. In this trip, 'Jike Idea' acted as a touring car, a state and a movie theater and many other leisure functions. Designers and 'Jike Idea' finished a beautiful dreaming design trip.

courtesy Beijing Jikerzhicheng

Design concept:

No door – how designers deal with environment protection

Jike Idea's nickname is 'no way' and it is transformed from a 20feet used-container. The container without a door broke the definition line between indoor room and outdoor room, the container space can stretch out limitless through seamless connect with the environment. Designers like to solve the problem, and enjoy the process.

courtesy Beijing Jikerzhicheng

The container forms a ventilation system of three dimensional based on several round windows in the four walls and ceiling. In the container, natural light is abundant and you needn't the air conditioner. There is no need to turn on the lights in the daytime and you can see the stars at night.

courtesy Beijing Jikerzhicheng

In addition, after designers remove more than 1/3 walls, the container likes a tea house or pavilion because the ground floor connect with the two deployment platform. In order to solve the waterproof problem, designers used the carbonized wood floor. The leisure room place behind the heat insulation wall to prevent rain and insulate.

And designers used wire rope linking the ceiling and the floor to lead the rain into the interior— a natural water landscape without power in the box. The rain can water the plant, When does not rain, the crystal transparent rain containers can be adjusted any position with you like.

courtesy Beijing Jikerzhicheng

No door – round, rope and color

Round: The circle is the main graphic element in 'Jike Idea'. First of all, people loves the graph round; secondly, the circular object shockproof compression, and can be moved easily (round window, drums, ball lights, etc); thirdly, Circle accord with our "Daydream" theme, "relaxed a little, innocent a little".

Rope: Rope is the main form designers used to solve a variety of small problems in this box. Due to rope's characteristics of flexible, invisible, extended intensity range, it qualified for a variety of tasks (fence, guide rain line, rope lights, curtain rope, fixed network and so on). Besides, it can be hided in a small space.

Color: The external walls of the main color is a beautiful white Sitting on the platform enjoyed film in the wild under the stars is a very rare experience. Interior walls and furniture using the natural color of the stone, ink rock, carbon black color, posing as outdoor, formed a color connection between indoor and outdoor.

+ Project facts

Jike Idea – Container innovative building
Beijing, China

Project area: 15 m2
Design and project management: Beijing Jikerzhicheng Product Design Consulting Co., Ltd.
Web: jike.lvshedesign.com
Design director: Keli Mo
Designers: Yang, Zhang, Feng
Completion time: August 10th, 2012

+ All images courtesy Beijing Jikerzhicheng

courtesy sparch SAKELLARIDOU / PAPANIKOLAOU ARCHITECTS

sparch SAKELLARIDOU / PAPANIKOLAOU ARCHITECTS won the 4th Prize on the Architectural Competition Redesign of the existing cereals’ stock house building facilities (SILO) and its surrounding open space into a Museum for Underwater Antiquities and Regeneration of part of the Piraeus Port Authority (OLP) Coastal Zone – transformation into an open public space for outdoor activities”, in February 2013.

courtesy sparch SAKELLARIDOU / PAPANIKOLAOU ARCHITECTS

The Museum becomes a spatial narrative based on experience; it awakens mind and fantasy, it brings fragments from the depths to the surface and transforms them to knowledge.

courtesy sparch SAKELLARIDOU / PAPANIKOLAOU ARCHITECTS

The concept is a 'continuous flow of diving and emerging', from the level of the sea to its depths and back again to knowledge. A continuous flow of people, via escalators sculpted to the body of the Silo, gives rise to the 'sea level' placed on top. Visitors rise, enjoy the view of the horizon and enter the mysterious world of the Museum in order 'to dive to the sea-depths'. A large internal void, sculpted through vertical concrete-ribs in reference to the Antikythira Mechanism, becomes the heart of the museological narrative. A continuous belt of ramps winds around the internal void, bringing visitors deeper to the 'bottom of the sea'. Natural light enters from above, light, shadows and flows of people wind around the shipping-wrecks.

courtesy sparch SAKELLARIDOU / PAPANIKOLAOU ARCHITECTS

On top of the building, mirrored in a water surface that disolves to the horizon, emerge the winding forms of the cafe and the restaurant.

courtesy sparch SAKELLARIDOU / PAPANIKOLAOU ARCHITECTS

For the Sea Front a new border between the natural and the artificial is created that multiplies the sea-land interface, based on the strong presence of the existing dry-docks and the notion of interpenetration.

+ Project facts

Architectural design:
Rena Sakellaridou, Morpho Papanikolaou (sparch SAKELLARIDOU / PAPANIKOLAOU ARCHITECTS)
Chrysokona Mavrou
Collaborators: E. Papaevangelou, N. Tsompikou, E. Korompeli, G. Papanikolaou, F. Smouklis
Students of architecture: K. Moustakas, P. Tzannetakis

Special Consultans:
Pagonis – Polichronopoulos – Kinatos CO (Civil Engineers Consultants)
J.Papagrigorakis & Associates (Mechanical Engineer Consultant)

+ All images and drawings courtesy sparch SAKELLARIDOU / PAPANIKOLAOU ARCHITECTS