Client: NYU-Langone Medical Center

Location: New York, NY, United States

Completion date: 2018

Artwork budget: $500,000

Project Team

Industry Resource

John Grant

Public Art Services

Artist

Christopher Collins

Artist

Donald Lipski

Industry Resource

Nick Geurts

Yetiweurks

Overview

NYU has built a new state of the art Children's Hospital. This sweet 24' tall Dalmatian dog–balancing an actual NYC taxi on her nose (a 2016 Prius)–greets visitors as they enter.

Goals

Lipski says: "It’s a privilege to be able to do this for the kids. I wanted to make something so astounding it would distract even those arriving for the most serious procedures, and so lovable that young patients coming back again and again with chronic conditions would see it as an old friend. I like to think that the parents, the doctors and nurses and staff, the neighbors, will all be smitten by this playful, heroic young dog doing the impossible. Art has actual healing power.

Process

re:Engineering genius Nick Geurts designed a structure that would hold the taxi up in a hurricane. Nature sculptor Christopher Collins sculpted a scale-model dog that was scanned and enlarged. The FAST Corporation did the fiberglass work. YetiWeurks built out the taxi. Installation was by Crozier Fine Arts. All was overseen by Lipski's indispensable long-time Project Manager, John Grant of Public Art Services.

Additional Information

Toyota donated the car for the project, with the engine, transmission and other non-essentials removed. The taxi's lights go on at night. And when it rains--thanks to electrical wizard Ryan Elmondorf--so do the windshield wipers. The piece is prominent on 34th St., a major thoroughfare, and can be seen from the F.D.R. Expressway.