The Broadway Bouquet captures the quintessentially New York spirit of spectacle and wonder that the city’s scale-bending urban environment cultivates. This public art installation revels in the culture of cut flowers found on countless street corners from Manhattan to the outer boroughs and turns it into a larger than life experience where individual trees and shrubs replace cut stems and flowers. This portable landscape is turned into a destination for the public that inspires delight and wonder in a space that might otherwise be dedicated to the automobile.
The Broadway Bouquet is a 40 ft (12 m) long by 8 ft (2,4 m) high temporary public art installation that was displayed at the intersection of Broadway and 24th Street in the Flatiron District of Manhattan on Saturday April 21, 2018. The art installation by Terrain Work, a NYC-based landscape architecture, urban design and public art studio, was a featured piece of the NYC/DOT Car Free Earth Day event.
The annual event closes thirty blocks of Broadway from Times Square to Union Square to vehicular traffic, creating a temporary pedestrian space for people to explore for the day. A variety of environmental programming including public art, musical performances, and various exercise activities were introduced by city agencies and nonprofit organizations along Broadway to promote activism and education surrounding climate change, sustainability and rethinking how we use our city streets.
The Broadway Bouquet provides a tangible example to the public of what we give up – civic space and public art – when cities are dominated by vehicular traffic. The art piece captures the imagination by illustrating the potential for a car free future with a living breathing garden in the middle of one of the busiest spaces in the world.
