Architecture firm Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) has designed a fluorescent heart to mark Valentine's Day in New York's Times Square.
Dubbed BIG ♥ NYC, the installation contains 400 trasparent, LED tubes that create a suspended red heart in a 10-foot crystalline cube. BIG said that it sought to use "the very materials that constitute Times Square: movement, lights, the masses."
Flatcut fabricated the project, while Local Projects, which worked on the 9/11 Memorial, provided interactive design. Robert Silman Associates was the structural engineer, while Zumtobel Lighting provided the illumination.
Although headquartered in Denmark, BIG has recently risen to prominence in New York. Founder Bjarke Ingels has been based full-time in the firm's office at the Starrett-Lehigh Building in Chelsea, as his striking W57 plan for the Durst Organization undergoes land use approval. Ingels said on Twitter that the project is scheduled to break ground on April 1.
The heart exhibit marks the fourth year that the Times Square Alliance, the local business improvement district, has commissioned a heart sculpture in the area. Past works include a veined piece by Gage Clemenceau Architects, an "Ice Heart" by Moorhead & Moorhead and an abstract heart by Brooklyn-based Freecell.
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BIG's display opens on Monday and will run through Feb. 29.
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