The Gates

The Gates: "On January 22, 2003 Michael R. Bloomberg, Mayor of New York City, announced that the city has given permission to New York artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude to realize their temporary work of art:The Gates, Central Park, New York, 1979-2005.

The 7500 Gates, 16 feet (4.87 meters) high with a width varying from 5' 6' to 18 feet (1,67 m to 5,48 meters) will follow the edges of the walkways and will be perpendicular to the selected 23 miles of footpaths in Central Park. Free hanging saffron colored fabric panels suspended from the horizontal top part of the gates will come down to approximately 7 feet ( 2,13 meters) above the ground. The gates will be spaced at 12 foot (3,65 meter) intervals, except where low branches extend above the walkways allowing the synthetic woven panels to wave horizontally towards the next gate and be seen from far away through the leafless branches of the trees. The temporary work of art The Gates is scheduled for February 2005, to remain for 16 days, then the 7,500 Gates shall be removed and the materials will be recycled.

As Christo and Jeanne-Claude have always done for their previous projects, The Gates will be entirely financed by the artists through C.V.J. Corp, (Jeanne-Claude Javacheff, President) with the sale of studies, preparatory drawings and collages, scale models, earlier works of the fifties and sixties, and original lithographs on other subjects.

The 5 inch (12,7 cm) square vertical and horizontal poles will be extruded in 65 miles (104,6 km) of recyclable saffron colored vinyl. The vertical poles will be secured by 15,000 narrow, steel base footings, 600 pounds (275 Kilograms) each, positioned on the paved surfaces. There will be no holes in the ground at all.

The off-site fabrication of the gates structures and assembly of the 7500 fabric panels made of 1,089,882 square feet (101,250 square meters) of fabric will be done in local workshops, and factories.

The on-site installation of the bases, by small teams, spread in the park, will neither disturb the maintenance and management of Central Park nor the every day use of the park by the people of New York.

In teams of eight, 600 workers wearing "The Gates" uniforms, will be responsible for installing 100 gates per team. All workers will be financially compensated and receive one hot meal per day. Professional security will work in the park after dark. The unfurling of the fabric panels will bloom in one day.

All materials will be recycled.


• 5,290 US Tons of steel (4,799 Metric Tons) (10,580,000 pounds) (equal to 2/3 the steel in the Eiffel Tower) for 15,000 specially designed steel footing weights, varying between 615 and 837 pounds each, according to the width of the gate, (279 - 379 Kg.). Gates vary in width because there are 25 different widths of walkways in Central Park. The weights are resting on the hard surface of the walkways. There will be no holes in Central Park.

• 315,491 linear feet (60 miles) (96.5 Km.) of Vinyl tube, 5 inch x 5 inch square, (12,7 x 12,7 cm.) extruded in saffron color, recyclable, specially designed, (for each gate: 2 vertical 16 feet long (4,87 meter), and one horizontal (varying between 6 and 18 feet, because the width of the walkways varies)

• 15,000 specially designed, recyclable, cast aluminum upper corner reinforcements which hold together the 2 vertical poles to the horizontal pole.

• 15,000 base anchor sleeves. Which will be bolted to the steel footing weights.

• 15,000 (1/2 inch x 8 inch x 8 inch) (1.27 x 22,8 x 22,8 cm.) steel leveling plates. The leveling plate is between the base anchor sleeve and the steel base, it has a pivoting bolt which will ensure the perfect verticality of the poles, even when the walkways are inclined.

• 165,000 bolts and self locking nuts. (7,500 x 22)

• 15,000 (8 x 8 x 8 inch) (22,8 x 22,8 x 22,8 cm.) Vinyl leveling plate covers, to hide the bolts.

• 116,389 miles (187,311 Km.) of nylon thread to be extruded in saffron color and specially woven into 1,067,330 square feet (99,155 square meters) of recyclable, rip-stop fabric, and then shipped to the sewing factory to be cut and sewn into 7,500 fabric panels of various widths. 46 miles (74 Km.) of hems.


On January 3, 2005, weather permitting, our professional workers will enter Central Park. Using forklifts and pallet jacks, they will place the 15,000 steel weights bases at their specific positions on the edges of the walkways, usually at 12 foot intervals, unless there are low branches.

On Monday, February 7, 2005, weather permitting, approximately 700 non-skilled workers (in teams of 7) will elevate The Gates assemblies -- 2 vertical and one horizontal pole, the upper and lower aluminum corners and base assembly and the fabric panel in a cocoon, attached to the upper horizontal pole. The fabric panels will not initially be seen because they will be restrained in the cocoons which will remain closed until Saturday, February 12, when all the cocoons will be opened, in one day (maybe in one morning), weather permitting, as with all our projects.

The Gates will remain in Central park for 16 days, then the removal will start."