Mini 'Skyscraper' Unveiled in Midtown
New York, NY —
There is a gleaming new skyscraper in midtown, but this one is only sixty feet tall. It's a stainless steel sculpture by the California artist Chris Burden, built to resemble a structure created from the old child's toy, an Erector Set.
REPORTER: The sculpture, titled "What My Father Gave Me," was unveiled today in Rockefeller Center. Burden said he knew right away when he was approached by the Public Art Fund that he would create a giant toy building.
BURDEN: Y'know if you look up at it, it can become part of the city-scape. I always wanted to build a skyscraper using these parts. There's close to a million parts in this thing.
REPORTER: The bright metal structure brought back memories for Pete Peterson, an an engineer from Maryland visiting New York on business. He says he used to play with Erector Sets all the time.
PETERSON: It reminds me of typical New York City. It brings me back, way back unfortunately, to my childhood.
REPORTER: Alan Stolzer, a native New Yorker, also recognized the childhood toy right away, but doesn't think that's enough to make a piece of art.
STOLZER: This to me is the same thing-- you remember in Central Park they put up all those orange, well like some person was doing their laundry in Central Park. It's not art. It's not creative. It doesn't develop anything.
REPORTER: Burden's sculpture will remain in Rockefeller Center across from Sak's Fifth Avenue department store until July 19th.
