Situ Studio has been selected from eight competitors as winner of the fifth annual Times Square Valentine Heart Design, cosponsored by Times Square Arts, the public art program of the Times Square Alliance, along with Design Trust for Public Space. The young, Brooklyn-based practice won the jury over with their Heartwalk proposal made of New York and New Jersey boardwalk boards that were salvaged from the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.

The installation will be unveiled on Tuesday, February 12, 2013, and remain on view until March 8, 2013.

Learn more about Situ Studio’s winning proposal after the break.

Inspired by the “collective experience of Hurricane Sandy and the love that binds people together during trying times,” Heartwalk begins as two ribbons of salvaged wooden planks that gradually lift to from a heart-shaped enclosure in the middle of Duffy Square. The installation will be illuminated from within, inviting passerbys to enter the installation and “literally stand in the heart of the world’s greatest city.”

Bradley Samuels, Situ Studio partner, stated, “We were interested in creating a room within the city – a public space that was simultaneously interior and exterior. Taking inspiration from the collective experience of Sandy, Heartwalk is a reflection on the things that bind us together, ephemeral and permanent.”

“Situ Studio, one of the most inventive and vibrant of New York’s small young design firms, repeatedly transforms daily urban environments with simple materials in unexpected configurations,” said Barry Bergdoll, The Philip Johnson Chief Curator of Architecture and Design, The Museum of Modern Art, and jury member. “This heart is a frame for lovers and a great civic gesture commemorating the outpouring of support and help in the wake of Sandy. Heartwalk is a heartwarming stage on which to pause for a moment in the heart of the world’s busiest intersection – a swell of emotions that can dialogue with the TKTS pavilion and the great cacophony of Times Square.”

Previous winners of the Times Square Valentine Heart Design include the firms: BIG (2012); Freecell (2011); Moorhead & Moorhead (2010); and Gage / Clemenceau Architects (2009).

2013 Jury: