B of the Bang

January 12, 2005 9:29 AM

B of the Bang. Manchester's commemoration of the Commonwealth Games "unveiled" tonight. This is far from the first Thomas Heatherwick design to grace urban areas: other sculptures of note include Paddington's roll-up bridge, Newcastle's Blue Carpet, some roundabouts in Essex and this, er, thing. Shame his website design doesn't match the beauty of his other creations.
posted by grahamspankee (8 comments total)

i'm really looking forward to seeing this. it is an astonishing sculpture.
posted by quarsan at 9:56 AM on January 12, 2005

Pointy.
posted by TwelveTwo at 10:00 AM on January 12, 2005

Dude sure uses alot of toothpicks
posted by Spacelegoman at 11:04 AM on January 12, 2005

The roll up bridge is excellent
posted by ZippityBuddha at 11:39 AM on January 12, 2005

It looks like a migraine.
posted by crayfish at 12:21 PM on January 12, 2005

...it started to bend and rise in what the designer Thomas Heatherwick describes as a 'sensuous manner'.

Heh.
posted by thebabelfish at 12:27 PM on January 12, 2005

It's had a few teething problems though...
"Engineers were today trying to establish just why a huge metal spike fell from Manchester's landmark sculpture B of the Bang."
posted by niceness at 12:47 PM on January 12, 2005

I think the competitive drive of post-industrial British cities and towns to make themselves unique with some wacky/exciting sculpture is great. I'm not sure about the supposed tourism and business benefits, but it's making our built environment more fun.

So long as no-one starts trashing the beautiful Victoriana in Manchester, of course. They can have the ugly post-war stuff if they need space for new things.
posted by alasdair at 7:44 AM on January 13, 2005