The Hive is an installation by artists Elmgreen & Dragset designed as part of the reconstituted James A. Farley Post Office in Manhattan. Located in the entry hall of the new Penn Station terminal building, the illuminated installation captures the city’s irresistible urban energy via an imaginary global metropolis hanging upside-down from the ceiling. Ninety-one unique aluminum and stainless-steel building structures, representative of signature buildings from New York, cantilever downward from a mirror polished urban grid.
Seismically, the individual scale buildings act as pendulums within the entry hall connected directly to the terminal’s structure. The train hall itself acts as a pendulum cantilevered out of the ground plane above the train tunnels below. The complex interplay of movements between the various components of the miniature and full-scale buildings became a key component of the structural investigation.
The completed sculpture required a tremendous amount of coordination between all parties involved in its design, fabrication, and installation. Each building’s unique structure was iterated through a process which assured continuity of the illuminated surfaces uninhibited by shadows from neighboring buildings.
The method of installation also required detailed organization; each building was individually set into place by means of a ground-supported lift and connected to the mirrored ground plane through an interior threaded rod. The final step in installation was fastening the roof cap plate in place completing the vision of the cityscape.
PROJECT TEAM
Artist: Elmgreen & Dragset, Fabricator: UAP Company
