Garment District’s Broadway plazas get illuminating ‘Iceberg’ installation

Broadway is getting a little bit brighter. The Garment District Alliance recently unveiled an interactive art installation, called Iceberg, that’s located on the Broadway pedestrian plazas between 37th and 38th streets. The installation invites visitors to “create their own light show through an illuminating runway” and emits light and sound patterns as visitors walk through the installation’s metal arches.

The installation, created by ATOMIC3 and Appareil Architecture in collaboration with Jean-Sébastien Côté and Philippe Jean, is inspired by actual icebergs (hence, the name) and was designed to tell “the story of an iceberg, from its calving into Arctic waters to its final melting near a southern shore.” To brings this vision to life, the installation was designed with a series of illuminated metallic arches that each produce particular sounds when activated.

The installation is also meant to call attention “the seriousness of climate change,” says Garment District Alliance president Barbara A. Blair. Per the release for the installation, “human activity ‘warms up’ the ice monuments and transforms their original nature into a visual and auditory symphony.”

“This is an astonishing installation that transforms Broadway into a gleaming, interactive experience for pedestrians, while reinforcing an important environmental message,” said Blair.

Iceberg is part of the year-round public art program, Garment District on the Plazas, and will be around until February 24.