At Long Last, Mirrored Public Sculpture Revealed Beneath 56 Leonard Tower

The sculpture at the corner of Leonard and Church Streets, designed by Anish Kapoor, reflects the neighborhood around it. Photo: Carl Glassman/Tribeca Trib

On Tuesday, more than five years after the completion of the 57-story residential tower at 56 Leonard Street [1], Anish Kapoor [2]’s chrome-finished companion sculpture officially went on view. The 48-foot long, 19-foot high piece, seemingly squashed beneath the skyscraper, offers passersby a funhouse mirror-like reflection of the surrounding Leonard and Church streetscape—and themselves.

“I think it looks like a balloon and the building is pressing on it. And then you see yourself from a different perspective,” said Rodrato Longo, a tourist from Spain who had stopped to view the work. “It’s like, wow, really interesting.” 

“Well, I’m glad they finished it. It’s been too long,” said Mitch Feinberg, who lives part-time in Tribeca and was closely examining the 40-ton sculpture. “It’s nice to have public works of art on the street that we can all enjoy.”

A spokesman for the Alexico Group [3], the developer, said in an email that the lengthy delay in completing the work, which began on site in November 2019, was partly due to Covid-19-related restrictions and shipping delays. In addition, he said, “the process to create a seamless finish among 38 pieces of polished stainless steel is extremely intricate. The proprietary means and methods used to actualize the seamless finish had never previously been utilized. We worked closely with the artist throughout the installation process to ensure that the completed sculpture is precisely as it was envisioned.”

The developer did not respond to questions about the cost of the piece or how it would be protected from vandalism.

“The city can feel frenetic, fast and hard, imposing architecture, concrete, noise,” Kapoor said in a statement. “My work, at 56 Leonard Street, proposes a form that though made of stainless steel is also soft and ephemeral. Mirrors cause us to pause, to be absorbed and pulled in a way that disrupts time, slows it down perhaps; it’s a material that creates a new kind of immaterial space.”

The untitled sculpture, often referred to as “the bean,” will be dedicated and named at a ceremony in the coming months, the developer said.