Friday, June 29, 2012, by Jessica Dailey
Meet Wendy, the newest resident of Long Island City. Created by architecture firm HWKN, Wendy will be residing in the courtyard of MoMA PS1 for the summer to host dance parties every weekend. She’s the winner of the Young Architects Program, and she looks pretty much exactly like the renderings that PS1 and HWKN have been marketing. As the museum’s architecture and design curator said, “It looks like you put the model on a Xerox and then blew it up.” Architects Marc Kushner and Matthias Hollwich describe Wendy as “a storm pushing at the boundaries of architecture.”
She straddles the walls of the courtyard, with her giant blue arms stretching out to clean the air with their coating of titanium nanoparticles. Mist floats from inside, cooling visitors, and giant fans help disseminate the fresh air she’s creating. About every five minutes, her water canon shoots out a steady stream, nearly soaking us when we weren’t paying attention (the giant puddle on the ground should have been a clue). You can walk up inside her to the elevated platform where the DJ booth sits, overlooking the courtyard.
As for the name Wendy, HWKN wanted something personal, something that people would easily remember. Hollwich said it has worked so well that several PR people have emailed them asking to have drinks with Wendy. But you really can do just that, as the PS1 Warm Up dance parties start next Saturday, July 7 and will be held every weekend through September 8. There will be beer for sale and culinary wizard M. Wells will be serving up tasty bites.
· Wendy coverage [Curbed]
· MoMA PS1 Warm Up schedule [official]
