From the art world comes the latest wild idea from Christo, the artist who has wrapped trees and draped orange awnings on a winding path through New York City’s Central Park. Last month, federal regulators gave the go-ahead for a $50 million project to install an enormous piece of fabric over the Arkansas River in southern Colorado. As the New York Times reports, “Over the River will include eight suspended panel segments totaling 5.9 miles along a 42-mile stretch of the river, about three hours southwest of Denver. Construction could begin next year, pending final local approvals, with the goal being a two-week display of the work as early as August 2014.”
While the project could generate over $100 million in economic output and bring up to 400,000 tourists to watch the construction and then look at the actually display, the project was held up over environmental and aesthetic concerns. A few points of contention included “road safety in the narrow canyon highway through the installation zone, which extends from the towns of Salida to Cañon City, to potential impacts on wildlife, especially on the Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep that habituate the Arkansas River canyon and are Colorado’s state mammal.”
The projects Christo comes up with are often memorable and quite interesting. However, it seems $50 million could be put to better uses. Are these kind of projects worth the time, effort, and money spent or are they a waste? Does doing something like this in such a beautiful natural landscape degrade the natural beauty of the space or increase awareness by getting people to visit and appreciate a natural scene they normally wouldn’t? Do projects like this continue the dangerous assumption that humanity has control over the natural world? What do you think?
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