From the slaughterhouse to the playground

Carved out of limestone and measuring 4 feet from below its neck to the crown of its horned head, the bovine bust, suspended from the boom of the truck that had transported it there, was inched closer to a pedestal in a fountain area of the playground, which is scheduled to reopen next month after an extensive renovation.

The bust swayed as onlookers held their breath. It rotated slightly.

The expression on the sculpture was as placid as always, making it seem like just another day for the cow head. After all, the swaying steer and its identical twin, both of which were relocating to the playground, have been on the move for decades.

As it was reported in The Times in 2014, the bovine busts, along with two ram heads with long, curling horns, began life as facade ornaments for the New York Butchers’ Dressed Meat Co. The building was completed in 1919 on 11th Avenue between 39th and 40th streets.

It was demolished in 1991 to make way for an office building, but right before the wrecking ball came, the sculptures were plucked from the facade.

First they went to a warehouse in Brooklyn.

Then they wended their way back to the West Side of Manhattan, eventually settling down in Hudson River Park, where at least they could spend their days outdoors again. For seven years, they spent their time on a lot in the park near West 34th Street, waiting for a permanent home.

Finally, they have one.

“The cows will have a lovely view of the West Side Highway and the new buildings going up on 11th Avenue,” said Madelyn Wils, president and chief executive of the Hudson River Park Trust, a public benefit corporation that operates the 4-mile waterfront park, which encompasses Chelsea Waterside Park.

The busts, along with Art Deco-style winged carvings that once adorned the entrance ramps to the West Side Highway and had also been languishing in the lot, will play a mere supporting role in the new playground, which was designed by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, the landscape architecture firm that designed Brooklyn Bridge Park.

The main attraction is an enormous rendition of a pipefish that was crafted in Denmark and pays homage to the real pipefish that are among the nearly 60 species of fish that inhabit the lower portion of the Hudson River.

The live creature, with a seahorse-like head on a serpentine body, is about eight inches long, whereas the playground’s version is 64 feet long and wraps around a tower with a spiraling ladder and a slide wide enough for two people to go down side by side. The pipefish is painted attention-getting yellow, blue and orange.

The steers aren’t quite so flashy — but they do look nice and clean.

Specialists from Opus Architectural Arts, a Long Island City-based restoration and decorative arts company, washed off soot, dirt, grime and rust that had accumulated over decades, said Michelle Quartin, the firm’s founder and owner. They applied “bio-friendly paint remover” to a big black blot that had been splashed onto one of the steer’s snouts — perhaps in a long-ago act of vandalism — and used brushes to gently scrub off the paint by hand.

Holes were drilled from the back of the heads to the front so that water could spout out of the mouths.

The winged cartouches — made of granite, which is a harder stone — were also given a bath, and they had their edges rounded because they will rest on the ground and children will likely climb on them.

“The nice thing is they already had a hole up the middle,” said Scott Streeb, a senior associate with Michael Van Valkenburgh, referring to pre-existing openings that once may have accommodated lampposts. He and his colleagues were delighted to incorporate the West Side artifacts into the playground’s new design, he said.

The playground, which is a beloved destination for children from neighborhood schools and apartment buildings, including the New York City Housing Authority’s Chelsea-Elliot Houses and Robert Fulton Houses, opened in the northeast corner of Chelsea Waterside Park in 2000. It is being renovated after years of malfunctioning water features and drainage problems.

It was “loved to death,” Wils said.

To date, $2.5 million has been raised for the $3.4 million playground project, with help from the Hudson River Park Friends Playground Committee, local elected officials and real estate companies, Wils said, adding that the park plans to raise the balance through donations and fundraising.

After the playground is completed, the dog run and picnic area on the southern half of Chelsea Waterside Park will be upgraded.

The Chelsea projects are among many improvements being undertaken in Hudson River Park, which was founded two decades ago and has been developed in stages. The park recently received $50 million from New York state and another $50 million from the city and hopes to have $50 million more when the air rights over some of its piers are sold, Wils said.

In August, work will begin at Pier 26, at North Moore Street in TriBeCa, and will include the creation of an environmentally themed playground centered on two large-scale sturgeon from the same company that made the Chelsea playground’s pipefish.

As for the steers, the only question is whether they will miss the rams that have been their constant companions ever since they were all rescued from the slaughterhouse facade.

The rams were supposed to be part of the Chelsea playground — and, in fact, had been trucked there first, months ago — but their horns had broken and they were deemed too fragile.

So they are back in the lot near West 34th Street for the time being.

There is talk that they may end up in a park closer to Hell’s Kitchen, Wils said.

“We’ll find a home for them.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

From the slaughterhouse to the playground

NEW YORK — On a recent morning, a steer head weighing 2 tons dangled from a nylon strap over the playground in Chelsea Waterside Park, on 11th Avenue between 22nd and 24th streets.

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From the slaughterhouse to the playground

NEW YORK — On a recent morning, a steer head weighing 2 tons dangled from a nylon strap over the playground in Chelsea Waterside Park, on 11th Avenue between 22nd and 24th streets.

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JOIN OUR PULSE COMMUNITY!

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