Many of us lose our hearts in NYC. Find yours in Times Square at the annual Valentine Heart exhibit.
This year’s heart-shaped public art installation places the world’s largest lens in the center of Times Square, to shine a light on love in the world’s greatest and most vibrant multi-cultural mecca.
Window to the Heart is on display the entire month of February, from the 1st to the 28th, in Duffy Square, between 46th and 47th Streets.
2018 marks the 10th anniversary of the Times Square Valentine Heart Design Competition, an annual event where Times Square Arts invites architecture and design firms to submit proposals for a public art installation celebrating Love in Times Square in February.
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Last year’s Times Square Valentine Heart exhibit, We Were Strangers Too, focused on the immigrants from many lands who have made NYC the greatest city on the planet.
World’s Largest Lens in Times Square
In one of the world’s most Instagrammed places, filled with cameras of all shapes and sizes, Window to the Heart places the world’s largest lens in the center of Times Square.
The 12 foot in diameter Fresnel lens was designed with 3D-printing manufacturer Formlabs to distort and capture the image of Times Square, optically bending light – and attention – to the heart-shaped window at its center.
Visitors can look through the window or photograph themselves within it, completing the loop between the lens of the eye and the lens of the camera.
Rather than using the traditional lens-making methods of casting, cutting, and repeatedly polishing glass, Window to the Heart leverages the latest advances in design, materials, and fabrication to craft something that was previously unattainable.
High Tech 3D Printing
Each lens segment is 3D-printed at a high resolution clear resin, a material capable of the unique surface quality and clarity required by optical elements.
With the lens made entirely from a 3D-printed material instead of glass, Window to the Heart upends the centuries-old methods of lens-making to invite individuals to reimagine how they see and photograph the world.
Times Square is one of the world’s most Instagrammed places and selfie spots, and this giant Valentine is sure to add to the collection.
Window on the Heart was designed by Aranda\Lasch + Marcelo Coelho with Formlabs, and built by structural engineers Laufs Engineering Design – LED
Artist rendering courtesy Times Square Alliance
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