X welcomes lovers of all kinds to Times Square through the end of February (photo by twi-ny/mdr)
Father Duffy Square, Times Square
Broadway between 46th & 47th Sts.
Through February 28, free
arts.timessquarenyc.org
x slideshow
For eleven years, Times Square has celebrated the romantic month of February with the winner of the Times Square Valentine Heart Design Competition. The 2019 runners-up were Agency Agency’s Heart Warmer, Büro Koray Duman Architects’s Times Crossing, Isometric Studio’s HOPE Sculpture, Pavilions Pavilions — Whole Hearts’ N H D M, Love Labyrinth’s Only If —, and Splice Design Architecture DPC’s Human Heartedness,, but it’s Reddymade and AIA New York’s X that has been standing in Duffy Square since February 1. Illuminating the Crossroads of the World, the Times Square Arts project is made of a pair of large rectangular aluminum planes that intersect each other through circular holes that form hearts when viewed from certain angles. In the center is the repeated phrase “Into difference add equality find love,” while the periphery advises, “Caution: Don’t forget the flowers.” Suchi Reddy, the founding principal of Reddymade and an Indian immigrant, said in a statement, “Exploring the idea of communities as spaces of intersection led me to the tectonic expression of the ‘X,’ which fits the context of Times Square, one of the most thriving intersections of people, place, and culture, and its XXX history. X is for love.” Previous Love in Times Square winners include Aranda\Lasch + Marcelo Coelho’s Window to the Heart, the Office for Creative Research’s We Were Strangers Once Too, and Collective-LOK’s Heart of Hearts.