David Byrne has been doing a lot to raise the profile of transportation by bicycle in the past few years, and this is great stuff, but I’m wondering, will it be made clear that these are bike racks, and not just public sculpture, so that cyclists will know that they are allowed to actually lock their bicycles to them? Also, I’m not sure why they’re being removed after 11 months, but when they are, are there plans in place to put permanent bike racks in their place?
It would truly be a shame to have 11 months of bike racks, artistic or not, replaced by nothing but empty sidewalk.
From Wired:
Who says bike racks have to always be a U or M shaped piece of metal frame?
Former Talking Heads music group co-founder and New York City based artist David Byrne has created some awesome bike rack installations in shapes including the dollar sign, a car and a guitar among other things.
And in a stroke of genius, the racks are contextually installed. That means the steel dollar design is at Wall Street, the guitar design named ‘Hipster’ is in Williamsburg, while a stiletto shaped shoe rack found itself outside Bergdorf Goodman. The car shaped silhouette finds its home at the entrance to Lincoln Tunnel.
Fabricating the bike racks, which range from two feet to six feet wide, and from around three feet to six feet tall, wasn’t a breeze.
Byrne found the squarish shaped pipe the city uses would not work for his design. But to make them practical and in similar thickness and material as the existing racks, metal pieces were welded and then the edges ground to create racks in red, black and silver colors.
The original sketches came when when New York’s Department of Transportation asked Byrne to help judge the entries in a design competition for bicycle racks. Enthused by that Byrne dashed off some of his own sketches, which the city immediately commissioned.
The bike racks have been installed at eight locations in Manhattan and one in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and will be removed in 11 months.
More info and photos from New York Department of Transportation
One Comment
More bike racks is better than fewer, but most of those look like they’ll only handle a couple of bikes… Oh well, complain complain.