the gates, central park

centralpark_IKO_2005043_lrg, originally uploaded by timon and keely.

so, the gates recently opened in central park (if you haven't heard the news already, it seems to be the only thing to talk about locally). the gates is an installation by jean-claude and christo that cost more than $20 million, used 99,155 square meters of fabric, 96.5 kilometers of vinyl tube, and 4,799 metric tons of steel (equivalent to 2/3 of the steel used in the eiffel tower) to erect 7500 "gates" throughout the park. it certainly brought in the tourists and their business. new york is not usually bustling in february. even some of my family from indiana visited this past weekend, the last weekend.

anyway, the day they opened, feb. 12, 2005, the ikonos satellite captured a 1-meter resolution image of the park. this is the best resolution image of central park i've seen yet. if you squint, you can see about two-thirds down on the left edge of the park, the american museum of natural history (turqouse roofs and covers 4 blocks) where i happily go to work.