Engineering art

It's like science fell hopelessly in love with the color yellow.

Two things struck me about Christo's astounding installation, The Floating Piers: 1) it takes an enormous amount of engineering, science, and support to make the whole things work; and 2) Only an artist can make the technology disappear amid a wondrous yellow landscape that inspires such awe and delight.

It was hard to see the engineering that went into the core of this project.  But if you paid attention, you could see the massive effort required just to manage the project during it's 16 day life.  It's more difficult to express the ethereal quality of walking along a gently swaying, heaving grand boulevard.  

Building Block

220,000 of these plastic cubes were used to create the 3 kilometers of The Floating Piers. 2.7 million liters of water were used to create the gently sloping effect at the sides of the piers which slanted down to water level.

Safety First

There was an entire fleet of these red boats paroling the edges of The Piers to ensure safety and help with other needs.

A Nightly Ritual

Like clockwork, every evening at 8:30 p.m. these boats drifted along the edge of The Piers.  Workers on The Piers paced out spacing as another dropped off lighting boxes.

Let There Be Light

Workers on The Floating Piers unfolded the boxes to reveal these LED spot lights.

Night Light

The magical lighting was one of my favorite things about The Floating Piers.  They all came to life at the same moment just as dusk fell.

Waiting for a Charge

Early in the morning, all the lights were grouped and waited for pickup to be charged for the following evening.