In a Sea of Stalled and/or Screwed Projects, We Get a Carousel

In these days of financial market meltdown and grand city plans that turn into vitriolic shit shows that will likely never happen, it's refreshing to find something as simple and fun as a carousel that's actually going to be built in Hudson River Park in Chelsea. Seriously. It'll be on Pier 62 at W. 23rd Street and, per the Villager, will feature "green turtles, horseshoe crabs, a peregrine falcon, a black bear cub and even a butterfly-covered unicorn." The Hudson River Park Trust signed a half-million dollar contract for it with an Ohio company. They have seahorses and harbor seals in stock, but the cormorants, crawfish, beavers, toads, Atlantic sturgeon, green turtles, bluebirds, striped bass, blackfish, mallard, black ducks and, yes, the butterfly unicorn have to be special ordered. The tech specs are for a 36-foot-diameter carousel with 33 wooden figures and a wheelchair-accessible oyster chariot. Before popping the cork on the champagne, however, there is the issue of the $2 million in which the carousel will go. That contract's expected in December. Target for completion is 2010. The carousel was part of the park plan developed by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates. It's the same firm associated with the design of another park in Brooklyn that's gone down the old throat way less smoothly than this one. We want the first ride on the butterfly unicorn.
· Hudson River Park carousel gets go-ahead to go round in Chelsea [Villager]
· Hudson River Park [Van Valkenburgh Associates]For more stories from Curbed, go to curbed.com.