The Sphere facts for kids
Quick facts for kids The Sphere |
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| Sphere at Plaza Fountain | |
Installation in Liberty Park, 2018
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| Artist | Fritz Koenig |
| Year | 1971 |
| Type | Bronze |
| Dimensions | 7.6 m (25 ft) |
| Location | Liberty Park, New York City |
| Owner | Port Authority of New York & New Jersey (PANYNJ) |
The Sphere (officially called Sphere at Plaza Fountain) is a huge sculpture made of bronze. It stands 25-foot (7.6 m) tall. The famous German artist Fritz Koenig created it.
You can find The Sphere in Liberty Park at the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan, New York City. It was first placed in the Austin J. Tobin Plaza. This amazing sculpture survived the terrible events of September 11, 2001, when the World Trade Center towers collapsed.
After the attacks, The Sphere was found in the rubble. It was damaged but mostly still in one piece. It was then moved to a storage area. Later, on March 11, 2002, it was temporarily moved to Battery Park. There, it was rededicated as a memorial on September 11, 2002, with an eternal flame.
The Sphere became a very popular place for visitors. On August 16, 2017, the Port Authority moved it to a permanent spot in Liberty Park. From there, it overlooks the September 11 Memorial and where it originally stood.
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About The Sphere Sculpture
The Sphere is 25 feet (7.6 m) high. It is made from 52 separate pieces of bronze metal. The artist, Fritz Koenig, called it his "biggest child."
The sculpture was built in Bremen, West Germany. Then, it was shipped as one whole piece to New York City.
This artwork was designed to show world peace through world trade. It was placed in the middle of a ring of fountains. These fountains and other decorations were designed by the World Trade Center architect, Minoru Yamasaki. They were meant to look like the Grand Mosque of Mecca, Masjid al-Haram. In that design, The Sphere stood where the Kaaba would be.
How The Sphere Was Created
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) asked for this sculpture to be made in 1966. They owned the World Trade Center. At first, they wanted a different artist, Henry Moore. But then, the architect Minoru Yamasaki saw some of Fritz Koenig's work. He liked it, and Koenig was chosen instead.
Koenig started working on The Sphere in 1967. This was while the World Trade Center buildings were still being planned. He finished it four years later. The artist first named it Grosse Kugelkaryatide N.Y.. But soon, everyone just called it The Sphere.
The Sphere's Journey After 9/11
Right After the Attacks
After the September 11 attacks, The Sphere was found in the huge pile of rubble. It was taken apart and stored near John F. Kennedy International Airport. Many local news channels reported on how it was found.
Since it was a well-known part of the Twin Towers area, people talked a lot about using it in a memorial. This was especially true because it seemed to have survived the attacks quite well.
A German film director, Percy Adlon, made a movie about it called Koenigs Kugel (Koenig's Sphere). This was when no one knew what would happen to the sculpture. In the movie, the artist and director visited Ground Zero. This was five weeks after the attacks. Koenig shared the story of how he created the sculpture. At first, Koenig did not want The Sphere to be put back. He thought it was "a beautiful corpse."
Moving to Battery Park
Eventually, the sculpture was brought back to Manhattan. On March 11, 2002, exactly six months after the attacks, it was put back up in Battery Park. This park is a few blocks away from its original spot.
Fritz Koenig himself watched over the work. It took four engineers and 15 ironworkers to build a new base for it. The mayor, Michael Bloomberg, and former mayor Rudy Giuliani spoke at a special event. They rededicated The Sphere as a memorial to the victims.
Koenig said, "It was a sculpture, now it's a monument." He noted how the metal globe, which was not very strong, had mostly survived the disaster. "It now has a different beauty, one I could never imagine. It has its own life – different from the one I gave to it."
A sign next to The Sphere in Battery Park said:
For three decades, this sculpture stood in the plaza of the World Trade Center. Entitled The Sphere, it was conceived by artist Fritz Koenig as a symbol of world peace. It was damaged during the tragic events of September 11, 2001, but endures as an icon of hope and the indestructible spirit of this country. The Sphere was placed here on March 11, 2002 as a temporary memorial to all who lost their lives in the terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center.
This eternal flame was ignited on September 11, 2002 in honor of all those who were lost. Their spirit and sacrifice will never be forgotten.
Finding a Permanent Home in Liberty Park
In the summer of 2012, the city wanted to move The Sphere again. This was because construction was starting to fix the lawn in Battery Park. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) owns The Sphere. They thought about putting it in Liberty Park. This park is located near the World Trade Center Memorial.
Liberty Park was not going to be finished until at least 2014. So, a temporary place was needed for The Sphere. By February 2011, PANYNJ had not decided where to put the sculpture once the Battery Park work began. It might even have gone into storage.
Many families affected by 9/11 started an online petition. They asked for The Sphere to be returned to the 9/11 Memorial. More than 7,123 people signed it. However, officials from the 9/11 Memorial said they did not want any artifacts to make the memorial plaza look too crowded.
On June 28, 2012, PANYNJ said they supported moving The Sphere to the plaza of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum. Patrick J. Foye, the head of the Port Authority, said:
The point that Mr. Burke made resonates with many people in New York and New Jersey and many people here at the Port Authority, especially given the fact that 84 members of the Port Authority family were killed on 9/11. This is an artifact that survived and was affected by the horrors of 9/11, and placing it on the memorial plaza, we think, is entirely appropriate.
—Patrick J. Foye, head of Port Authority, who supported making The Sphere a part of the 9/11 Memorial, The Washington Post
When Liberty Park opened in June 2016, the question of where to put The Sphere was still not decided. But on July 22, 2016, the Port Authority voted to move the sculpture to Liberty Park. In August 2017, PANYNJ moved the sculpture there. On September 6, 2017, The Sphere was shown in its permanent home in Liberty Park. It now looks out over the World Trade Center site. The Port Authority held a special ceremony on November 29, 2017, to celebrate its return to the World Trade Center area.
See also
In Spanish: The Sphere para niños
