The Sphere

The Sphere (officially Sphere at Plaza Fountain) is a  high, cast bronze sculpture by German artist Fritz Koenig. It is located in Liberty Park at the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Originally located at the Austin J. Tobin Plaza, the centerpiece survived the collapse of the World Trade Center towers, which resulted from the September 11 attacks in 2001.

The Sphere was recovered from the rubble, visibly damaged but largely intact. After being dismantled and stored near a hangar at John F. Kennedy International Airport, the sculpture was the subject of the 2001 documentary Koenig's Sphere. On March 11, 2002, six months after the attack, the sculpture was moved temporarily to Battery Park, where in unrestored condition it was rededicated (September 11, 2002) with an eternal flame.  

Having become a major tourist attraction, the unrestored sculpture was rededicated on August 16, 2017 by the Port Authority at a permanent location in Liberty Park, overlooking the September 11 Memorial and its original location.

Description 

The Sphere is  high and cast in 52 bronze segments. Koenig called it his "biggest child". It was put together in Bremen, West Germany and shipped as a whole to Lower Manhattan.

The artwork was meant to symbolize world peace through world trade, and was placed at the center of a ring of fountains and other decorative touches designed by WTC architect Minoru Yamasaki to mimic the Grand Mosque of Mecca, Masjid al-Haram, in which The Sphere stood at the place of the Kaaba. The structural engineers who took a part on this project were Leslie E. Robertson Associates (LERA), who helped make the globe able to rotate once every 24 hours.

Acquisition
The piece was commissioned by the owner of the World Trade Center, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ), in 1966. The Authority's original choice had been Henry Moore, but Koenig was chosen after architect Minoru Yamasaki saw some of Koenig's work at the Staempfli Gallery in Manhattan. Koenig started work in 1967 while the WTC was in the planning stages, and finished it four years later. Originally titled Grosse Kugelkaryatide N.Y. by the artist, the sculpture was soon referred to as The Sphere.

Location history

Immediately after 9/11

After the September 11 attacks, upon recovery from the rubble pile the sculpture was dismantled and sent to storage near John F. Kennedy International Airport. Its extraction had been widely covered in local news media in the New York metropolitan area. As it was a memorable feature of the Twin Towers site, there was much discussion about using it in a memorial, especially since it seemed to have survived the attacks relatively unscathed.

German film director Percy Adlon, who had twice previously devoted films to Koenig, made Koenigs Kugel (Koenig's Sphere) at a time when the sculpture's fate was still uncertain. In the film, the artist and the director visit Ground Zero five weeks after the attacks as the former retells the story of its creation. At first, Koenig opposed reinstalling The Sphere, considering it "a beautiful corpse".

Relocation to Battery Park

The sculpture was eventually returned to Manhattan, and on March 11, 2002, six months to the day after the attacks, it was re-erected in Battery Park, near the Hope Garden, several blocks away from where it once stood. Koenig himself supervised the work; it took four engineers and 15 ironworkers to create a new base. Mayor Michael Bloomberg, his predecessor Rudy Giuliani and other local officials spoke at a ceremony rededicating it as a memorial to the victims. "It was a sculpture, now it's a monument", Koenig said, noting how the relatively fragile metal globe had mostly survived the cataclysm. "It now has a different beauty, one I could never imagine. It has its own life – different from the one I gave to it."

A plaque alongside The Sphere read as follows:

Relocation to Liberty Park

According to NYC Parks spokeswoman Vickie Karp, the city was looking to relocate The Sphere in summer 2012, when construction began to restore Battery Park’s lawn, requiring the sculpture to be moved. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ), which owns The Sphere, considered placing the sculpture in Liberty Park, located between the 90 West Street building and the World Trade Center Memorial site. Liberty Park would not be constructed until at least 2014, so a temporary location was needed to place The Sphere. By February 2011, PANYNJ had not made an official final decision on where to place the sculpture once Battery Park construction commenced, requiring the sculpture to be moved, possibly into storage.

An online petition created by 9/11 families demanding the return of The Sphere to the 9/11 Memorial gained more than 7,123 signatures . Officials from the 9/11 Memorial stated that they did not want any 9/11 artifacts cluttering the 8-acre memorial plaza. On June 28, 2012, PANYNJ expressed support for the effort to move The Sphere to the plaza of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum. After a public comment by Michael Burke during a meeting of the Board of Commissioners, Executive Director Patrick J. Foye stated:

When Liberty Park opened in June 2016, the question had not been resolved. On July 22, 2016, the Port Authority voted to move the sculpture to Liberty Park, and in August 2017, PANYNJ relocated the sculpture to Liberty Park. On September 6, 2017, the Sphere was unveiled in its permanent home in Liberty Park, overlooking the World Trade Center site. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey held a ceremony at Liberty Park on November 29, 2017 to mark its return to the World Trade Center site.

See also
 Plop art
 Artwork damaged or destroyed in the September 11 attacks

Notes

References

External links

Category:1971 sculptures
Category:Artwork in the World Trade Center
Category:Bronze sculptures in Manhattan
Category:Memorials for the September 11 attacks
Category:Monuments and memorials in Manhattan
Category:Outdoor sculptures in Manhattan