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The Gates is a Land art project by Christo and Jeanne Claude.
The project is sometimes referred to as "The Gates, Central Park, New York, 1979-2005" in reference to the time that passed from the artists' initial proposal until they were able to go ahead with it.
Progress
On January 3, 2005, work began on the installation of this protracted project in Central Park in New York City.
During the week of January 17th, the park was filled with workers using fork lift vehicles to move the rectangular metal plates into position all over central park.
The Gates during construction: One of the many metal Base parts (February 6, 2005) There were small signs placed on every walkway in the park with alphanumeric codes which the workers were using to place the metal places onto the designated spots.
As of January 27, most of the rectangular metal plates have been placed in their positions. Many have small orange plastic markers sticking up a foot or two (around half of metre) from each end. The markers may be intended to help people find the base plates when they are covered with snow. The snow (there was a major snow storm on January 22nd) and extreme cold seems to have stopped any progress from being made this week. Much of the material for the gates seems to be in piles just East of the Sheeps Meadow (near the South West part of the park, next to the sand for the "beach" volley ball).
As of February 7, there are many teams of workers wearing silver grey smocks moving the vertical parts of the gates, and attaching them to the base plates. The documentation describes the color as "saffron" but local observers would describe it as orange. Here is the hardware being used to make the vertical pieces parallel, even when the base plates are not parallel (due to uneven or sloping ground). Hardware being used to assemble "The Gates" When attached, the vertical pieces are about 6 metres high, with a cross bar at the top from which the flag piece will be unfurled.
Some of The Gates, assembled. It is scheduled to run from February 12 through February 27.
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