Christo’s ‘Wrapped River’ Project Is Approved!

Architizer News

Christo’s ‘Wrapped River’ Project Is Approved!

November 8, 2011

OVER THE RIVER, PROJECT FOR ARKANSAS RIVER, STATE OF COLORADO (2007)

Twenty years since beginning the project in the early 1990s and after having already spent $10 million towards its realization, the artist Christo has finally received federal approval to execute his largest work to date. As the New York Times reports, Christo will suspend nearly 6 miles of fabric over a 42-mile stretch of the Arkansas River in southern Colorado, on property owned by the Department of the Interior. The federal agency gave the project, entitled ‘Over the River‘, its authorization in the hope that the work boosts the Colorado tourism industry. Read on.

CHRISTO, OVER THE RIVER, PROJECT FOR ARKANSAS RIVER, COLORADO (1992)

The germ of the idea came to Christo and his late wife and partner Jeanne-Claude nearly 30 years ago as they were wrapping the Pont Neuf in Paris. In an interview with the Atlantic this past June, Christo related the prismatic effects of the sunlight passing through the fabric when hung over the Seine. Some years later, beginning in 1992 through 1994–around the time they were wrapping the Reichstag–the two artists began scouting for places to stage a new project which would recreate the effect on a much larger scale. The pair traveled 15,000 miles to 89 different locations before deciding on a swath of land about 3 hours southwest of Denver that is bisected by the Arkansas River–chosen for its aesthetic qualities, not to mention its high riverbanks which would ensure that the installation would not impede upon rafting downstream.

The Arkansas River. Photo: The New York Times

To construct the $50 million installation, Christo will use 36 miles of cables and fabrics, anchored to the ground by 9,000 21-foot tall steel rods. The fabric will be patterned and assembled according to where natural boundaries occur and aesthetic conditions present themselves. Speaking of the process of transferring drawing to structure, the artist commented, “We’re not like architects. . . .We don’t know how the projects will look. For this project, there are many unknowns. The fabric panels will not always be rectangular. The banks of the river are not always the same height. When there’s a curve in the river we need trapezoidal panels.”

Critics unsuccessfully petitioned to reject the project because of the potential harm the construction might incur on local wildlife, particularly, Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep, which, the group claims, could be barred from water sources by fabric and rigging. But officials have stated that Christo has planned to mitigate the installation’s ecological effects, and, it should be noted, at his own expense. Though he still must seek permits from the Colorado Department of Transportation and the State Patrol to proceed with construction, Christo is confident he can begin work be early next year, with a completion date scheduled for 2014. When finished, the work will be opened for just two weeks in the summer months, but that will be enough time to draw $121 million in economic output and 400,000 visitors to the site.