For two weeks in the winter of 2005, Central Park was filled with 7,500 saffron-paneled gates. The project was a gift from the artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude, who had been trying for four decades to launch the project. Their struggle - and success - comes to the the small screen with tonight's premiere of The Gates on HBO. You can remember those weeks through the second part of the documentary, with almost all New Yorkers......

Computer rendering of the waterfalls by the Public Art Fund. Details have emerged on the ambitious, $15 million East River waterfalls project coming to New York in mid-July to cap off the Olafur Eliasson retrospective at MoMa. The project will consist of four man-made waterfalls, ranging 90 to 120-foot tall, installed temporarily at four sites along the shores of Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Governors Island: by the Brooklyn anchorage of the Brooklyn Bridge, between Piers......

The Gates (directed by Albert Maysles and Antonio Ferrara): As the Tribeca Film Festival winds down this weekend, the lovely closing film couldn't be more fitting for Gothamists. Perhaps you recall the orange hullabaloo in Central Park two winters ago around Christo and Jean-Claude's art piece, The Gates. But what you may not be aware of is the ongoing artistic relationship between the documentarians the Maysles brothers (also known for their doc on the Beales,......

A $100,000 donation to study how a free subway can save money? Yes, someone really did it: The NY Sun explains that 92 year old Theodore Kheel has donated the 100 G's to the Institute for Rational Urban Mobility to study the concept. The belief is that making subways and other mass transit free, then drivers would have an incentive to switch. The IRUM is the group behind the 42nd Street light rail idea......

This is almost like The Burg's baby years! Here's the part one of the pilot of the Columbia University soap opera, The Gates (here's part two and part three). One of the actors told the Columbia Spectator, "I don't think I'm going to have any more friends. I'm scared I'm going to come off as a spectacular douche bag." Can collegiate TV production levels rehabilitate Columbia's image after The Mirror Has Two Faces and......

Doctors Without Borders will be pitching a tent in Central Park this fall. There will be an 8,000 square foot exhibit that looks like a refugee camp placed in Cherry Hill (near Bethesda Fountain) to give an approximation of what's it's like to live in a refugee conditions after disasters. Here's what Doctors Without Borders says:Guided by MSF aid workers, visitors to this outdoor educational exhibit are asked to imagine that they are among the......

It's hard to believe that another year is coming to a close (we're going to be three next February!) and Gothamist can barely remember what happened last week, let alone 11 months ago. But we've come up with a list of some things that do rise to the top: - Crimes made for the media: Everyone knows that a crime can sell papers as well as scare and outrage people...this year, they included the......

Remember the Gates-- 7503 panels of saffron colored fabric in Central Park? Hard to believe that was less than a year ago, but it's true. Gothamist briefly went mad for saffron, and our Gatesapalooza lasted for about two weeks! Some of the highlights: This cool satelitte photo of the park (2.5mb, 3696x4422 pixels) The Flickr photo stream (11,000+ photos!) Our favorite Gates post The Gates at Night Official Christo and Jean-Claude Gates Page.......

Albert Maysles, Documentary Filmmaker...

It hardly feels like The Gates happened six months ago, but they did and the Post has an update of where they are now. Most likely, The Gates are headed to a home improvement store not in this NYC-area, as the materials have been recycled as promised. The billowing curtains were stripped and respun into "new" nylon thread, while the metal parts were melted down and the saffron metal parts were ground into 500,000......

Psych - it's April Fool's Day! The Project for Public Spaces has issued its April Fool's newsletter, which includes a faux-Christo project that would involve gating city sewer grates in New York (photo, above). Gothamist loved this "quote" from the Mayor:"The Gates raised so much money we couldn't believe it. We've got to capitalize on this wrapping craze fast if we're going to fund the MTA's capital budget AND build the Jets stadium." Hee!......

Short of naming saffron the Big Apple's color, Mayor Bloomberg bestowed The Gates masterminds Christo and Jeanne-Claude with the Doris C. Freedman award for enriching the public environment. Interesting facts: Freedman was the founder of the Public Art Fund, and Mayor Ed Koch created the "Percent for Art" law, "which requires the city to spend 1 percent of its budget for eligible city-funded construction projects on art for city facilities." The AP said that Christo......

When out-of-town relatives pay the occasional weekend visit, Gothamist is happy to play tour guide to the culinary and cultural delights of our fine city. But sometimes even the best-laid restaurant plan can fall apart on a technicality, forcing us to improvise. For instance, two weekends ago, we had planned a grand tour of The Gates and a little museum-going, but first we needed a hearty brunch to start the day. It was a cold,......

The Gates crews continue breaking down the exhibit, but not without some incident: A man from Astoria, described as being "kind of artistic," was arrested after he tried to steal one of the saffron fabric panels. Leopoldo Chang and a worker struggled over the fabric, but then Chang gave up and left. However, a worker alerted authorities and Chang was arrested for misdemeanor larceny and possession of stolen property (Gothamist is a little confused,......

Clearly, someone at Newsweek must miss The Gates, because the cover of Martha Stewart busting out of what looks like are saffron colored curtains! The AP is all over the cover illustration, because Martha "appears to be sporting a model's body." A Newsweek editor says, "Anybody who knows the story and is familiar with Martha's current situation would know this particular picture [was an illustration and not a photograph]." Well, it sure is a flattering......

When it comes to sweets, candy gets no respect. In New York, grown-ups can--without embarrassment--satisfy their collective sweet tooth with high-end chocolates, beautiful wedding cakes (and trendy cupcakes), gourmet doughnuts, and Viennese pastries. But for those of us who still get cravings for good old-fashioned candy, is there a place for us in NYC? Gothamist had been wondering this for awhile. And when an old college friend came to visit last week to see The......

It's Bloomberg time: Let's see...First, Mayor Bloomberg told the City Council to mind its own beeswax and stop "picking-and-choosing" which big chain stores come the town. This refers to scaring Wal-Mart out of Queens (at least for now), saying that Wal-Mart had a right to be in NYC, just as people have the right to unionize or not unionize. This comes as former Secretary of the Treasury Robert Reich wrote a NY Times editorial, "Don't......

New York magazine tries to estimate the impact of Mayor Bloomberg's ideas, actualized and proposed, on the city. They look at last summer's Republican National Convention, The Gates, and the Olympics, factoring in cost, purported benefit, the disruption factor, etc. The Mayor does seem hellbent into making NYC the world's "second home," but Gothamist hope that this still means, if he's reelected, that even if we don't these projects, he'll make sure the city......

The Gates have finished their popular run in Central Park, delighting visitors from around the world as well as around the corner. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, whose roof was open to the public to see The Gates, was reportedly overwhelmed with visitors (even more so than the holidays!) and there was spillover into other museums and neighborhoods in the city, leading vendors and store owners, whose businesses were up anywhere from 50-100%, to......

Gothamist is pretty excited that Michelin will be reviewing NYC restaurants, because we love strange, pudgy, benign seeming characters. However, we were wondering how Michelin, a tire company whose guides have become as essential as AAA guides (like an indie rock band, Michelin is "huge in Europe") with the stature of Zagat, would work in our less driver-centric city. Luckily, the NY Times article filled us in: The star system retains Michelin's link to car......

With next Monday's dismantling of The Gates fast approaching, Newsday looks at how the Gates will live on beyond the confines of Central Park and obssessive photobloggers. All the parts will be recycled, and here's a rundown:- The steel bases are to be melted and recast as rods for reinforcing concrete, steel plates or steel coils.- The aluminum corners and base sleeves are to be recycled into such products as gutters and aluminum sheeting.- The......

Finally, the first big, non-graffiti The Gates accident that isn't some art lover accidentally walking into one: A cab crashed into one of the frames yesterday morning after hitting a patch of ice at 8:30AM. The Post reported that one of the frames at Central Park South and Sixth Avenue was mangled; however, these kinds of incidents were anticipated and the frame was replaced by 9AM. The cabby said, "I don't want to be famous......

Wow, it seems like Christo and Jeanne-Claude are like the Sean Penn and Madonna of the art world - at least for a few moments - as Newsday reports that the most famous public-art touting-and-building couple, plus their photographer Wolfgang Volz, tussled with a Newsday reporter and photographer:Jeanne-Claude, whose saffron hair has evoked comparisons to the billowing bright sheets in Central Park, seemed to see red yesterday when a Newsday photographer tried to take......

-Check out the latest additions to our family: Bostonist and Seattlest - What happens when thousands of saffron fabric attacks Central Park and gives people The Gates Fever - The plausibility of Hitch as a NYC film - Your iPod's earphones might make you an easy target - just ask NYC high school kids - The City Council considers banning spray paint sales - The Mayor kicks off his reelection campaign - It's hard to......

Sunday begins a 4-day NYC visit from representatives of the International Olympic Committee, who the city will try to razzle and dazzle in the hopes of being tapped for the 2012 Olympic Games. As part of their welcome, the Observer reports that committee members will be taken up to Central Park for a look at members of the Road Runners club racing through "The Gates," will dine at the Bloomberg mansion, and will ride in......

Though the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show is over, Gothamist has been enjoying city rag's photographs from the final night. The win of the "liver-colored" German pointer Ch Kan-Point's VJK Autumn Roses (aka Carlee) was shocking to us, because "liver-colored" doesn't really sound so good, unless it's foie gras. But the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show is the only awards show where they get to say, "This bitch really deserved to win"...well, the only......

There are so many wonderful things about The Gates. How the city is coming together to talk about art. How Central Park, so barren and quiet in February, is buzzing with activity. And how people are selling bits of The Gates, from detritus to actual parts of the installation, on eBay. The NY Times notes how a 15 year-old kid's eBay auction of a plain old cardboard tube (used in the unfurling) has caused controversy,......

Whoa, the Weather Service is getting very specific on us for this afternoon: A slight chance of showers between 1pm and 2pm, then a chance of showers and thunderstorms between 2pm and 3pm, then showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm between 3pm and 5pm, then a chance of showers and thunderstorms after 5pm. Increasing clouds, with a high around 57. South wind 11 to 15 mph becoming west. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New rainfall......

Mayor Bloomberg kicked off his reelection campaign last night at BB King's Blues Club. His campaign workers made sure there were Latinos in the house, and the Mayor said:"I pledged to keep the city safe and clean and have our economy come back -- get it back on track -- and most important I pledged to reform our schools...And tonight, I can stand here and look you in the eye and say I'm keeping my......

The Gates have only been with us for a few days, and already, New Yorkers are making it feel at home. A Tale of Two Cities points out that vandalism has already occured, with the above picture from Newsday, while Verbose Coma notes that the spirit of The Gates can be found everywhere. And last night, The Daily Show had senior conceptual art correspondent Stephen Colbert discuss the project...Gothamist recommends you see the repeat......