© 2008 Olafur Eliasson, photo by Julienne Schaer

Olafur Eliasson, "The New York City Waterfalls (Pier 35)" (2008), commissioned by the Public Art Fund

Olafur Eliasson Remembering Jeanne-Claude, Polemicist and Diplomat Phillips de Pury Makes Its (Small) Mark Copenhagen Gets Bridge by Eliasson New York Sales Preview The Art of Eating French Gallery Rallies 1,000 Artists Against AIDS Assimilating “Semele”

Send a letter to the Editor

Save to Del.icio.us Digg this

The public artwork, consisting of four 90- to 120-foot-tall waterfalls installed in the East River, attracted an estimated 1.4 million visitors during its run from June 26 to October 13, according to Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

"People didn't buy tickets or pass through a turnstile to experience the Waterfalls, but this exhibition brought people to areas of the city they might not otherwise ever have visited," the mayor said Tuesday in a statement. "We've always understood that we have to encourage big, bold projects that set our city apart, and this will be increasingly important while areas of our economy are struggling from the turmoil on Wall Street."

The project drew some criticism during its run, with residents and businesses along the Brooklyn waterfront complaining that the mist generated from the waterfalls was damaging plants there. In response, the Public Art Fund cut the works' operating hours in half in September.

The public art project was the city's largest since 2005, when Christo and Jeanne-Claude lined 23 miles of wintry Central Park paths with gates draped with saffron-colored fabric. More than 5 million people saw that project, which was credited with bringing $254 million to the local economy.