Join us at Cooper Hewitt on Thursday, February 25 from 7–8pm for "Design and Process: Public Art Installations in Context," a talk with Phu Hoang and Rachely Rotem of MODU and Eric Forman of Eric Forman Studio on public art installations as part of a broader design practice and their importance in civic spaces.

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MODU and Eric Forman Studio’s Heart Squared is the winner of 2020 Times Square Valentine Heart Design Competition, which was curated by Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. As this year’s winning design, Heart Squared will be unveiled on January 30 at 11:30am at Father Duffy Square, between 46th and 47th Streets. The installation will remain on view for the month of February.

Tilted in various directions within a steel frame that evokes the outline of an anatomic heart, the 125 mirrors of Heart Squared transform the spectacle of Times Square into kaleidoscopic images of people, buildings, and brightly-lit billboards. While the position of each mirror seems random, the designers developed a specialized technique to calculate the specific angles in order to hide a playful surprise. As viewers move around the structure, those hundreds of reflections suddenly coalesce, revealing a pixel heart of urban life surrounded by a field of mirrored sky.

“We are using the magic of mirrors and light to remix the urban spectacle into something unexpected, to give people a new way to see the city — and each other.”

— Eric Forman, Eric Forman Studio

Heart Squared brings people together to discover the heart within — a heart that reflects anyone and everyone who engages with it, its colors and composition changing as the sun rises and sets, as billboard lights and screens shift, and as thousands of people pass by. Viewers can interact spontaneously with one another through the mirrors or find their own experiences within the piece, celebrating their love of the city and the incredible diversity of people within it.

“Heart Squared represents the collective heart of the city and as such, is an engaging civic statement about celebrating our differences and bringing people together in a fundamentally inclusive way.”

— Phu Hoang and Rachely Rotem, MODU

Listen to an audio description of Heart Squared:

This marks the 12th anniversary of the Times Square Valentine Heart Design Competition, an annual process by which Times Square Arts and a curatorial partner invite architecture and design firms to submit proposals for a public art installation celebrating Love in Times Square in February. Situated in front of the Red Steps each year, the Valentine Heart installation continues Times Square’s commitment to celebrating great design — a commitment exemplified by the Red Steps themselves, which have won multiple architecture awards; by the Times Square Design Lab initiative; and by Times Square’s connection to events like NYCxDESIGN, which has stationed its Design Pavilion on the Broadway Plazas for the past three years.

Other architecture and design firms invited to submit proposals for the 2020 Times Square Valentine Heart Design included: Agency Agency / Tei Carpenter, HOU DE SOUSA, Isometric Studio, Office III, Other Means.

See the proposals from all of the 2020 Times Square Valentine Heart Design Competition invitees by clicking the image below.

On February 25th, Cooper Hewitt will host a public program with the MODU and Eric Forman Studio to delve deeper into the design process story and explore the work in the greater context of public art and design installations.

“As America’s Design Museum, Cooper Hewitt is delighted to collaborate with Times Square Arts to infuse inclusive and accessible design at the Crossroads of the World,” said Caroline Baumann, director of Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. “Through its innovative use of mirrors to create a kaleidoscopic portrait of urban life, MODU and Eric Forman Studio’s Heart Squared demonstrates the power of design to foster community and spark connections.”

— Caroline Baumann, director of Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

The proposals for the 2020 Valentine Heart Design Competition were reviewed by representatives from the Valentine Heart Selection Committee: Sean Anderson, Associate Curator, Department of Architecture and Design, MoMA; Victor Calise, Commissioner, Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities; Jean Cooney, Director, Times Square Arts; Kevin​ Davey, Director, UAP Company; Wendy Feuer, Assistant Commissioner Urban Design + Art + Wayfinding, NYC DOT; Jennifer Lantzas, Deputy Director of Public Art, NYC Parks; Andrea Lipps, Contemporary Design Curator, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum; Nadine Maleh, Executive Director, Capital Projects, Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice; Suchi Reddy, Founder, Reddymade (2019 Valentine Heart Design Competition winner); and Tim Tompkins, President, Times Square Alliance.

MODU and Eric Forman Studio’s design, Heart Squared, shapes the imagery of Times Square’s iconic screens, diverse people, and ever-shining lights, turning a mirror on what draws so many of us together: the city itself.”

— Tim Tompkins, President, Times Square Alliance

Follow the conversation on social media using #HeartTSq.

Previous winners of the Times Square Valentine Heart Design include: Suchi Reddy / Reddymade (2019); Aranda/Lasch + Marcelo Coelho (2018); The Office for Creative Research (2017); Collective-LOK (2016); Stereotank(2015); Young Projects (2014); Situ Studio (2013); BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group) (2012); Freecell (2011); Moorhead & Moorhead (2010); and Gage / Clemenceau Architects (2009).

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