Twenty giant seesaws offer illuminating rides in the Garment District (photo by twi-ny/mdr)
Winter Garden, Garment District
Broadway between 37th & 38th Sts.
Through February 1, free,
garmentdistrict.nyc
If the winter doldrums are getting you down, if the cold and dark are wearing on your nerves, the Garment District Alliance and the New York City Department of Transportation’s Seasonal Streets Program have just the thing to break the monotony: a seesaw. Through February 1, Impulse will continue on Broadway between Thirty-Seventh & Thirty-Eighth Sts., twenty giant teeter-totters equipped with motion-detector LED lights and sound (the subtle sound design is by Mitchell Akiyama, with electronics by Robocut Studio) that come together in happy-making union.
Designed by Lateral Office and CS Design in collaboration with EGP Group and fabricated by Generique Design, the installation brings the playground fixture to a usually busy urban environment, but the street is cut off to vehicular traffic so up to four people at a time can “ride, take a free ride / Take their place / Have their seat / It’s for free.” Just be fair to your fellow teeterboarders who might be waiting patiently as you go up and down, up and down, amid relaxing light and sound, as well as plenty of laughter.