Christo and Jeanne-Claude: Over The River

Red-tape flap over Christo's "River"

source: Copyright © 2006 The Denver Post

Red-tape flap over Christo's "River"

By Rich Tosches
Denver Post Staff Writer

Pete Zwaneveld of the BLM said he has received 1,100 letters and e-mails from the public regarding Christo s Arkansas River project. "I d say the notes are about 60-40 against it." (Post / Rich Tosches)

Cañon City - The artist Christo, as you likely know, wants to stretch sheets of brightly colored fabric across the Arkansas River. The planning for the project is now in its ninth year. By way of comparison, it took only five years to build the Hoover Dam, four years to build the Golden Gate Bridge and just a few months for Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie to create an entire family.

Today, the plan by Christo and fellow artist Jeanne- Claude to stretch the sheets across the river and send shimmering shafts of light dancing onto the water is well on its way to a scheduled unveiling in the summer of 2009.

There are only a few remaining roadblocks. And frankly, those obstacles are so minor they're hardly worth mentioning. Approval from the Bureau of Land Management, for example. And approval from the Colorado State Parks department, the state Department of Transportation, State Patrol, Division of Wildlife, officials in Fremont and Chaffee counties, officials in Cañon City and Salida to the west. Oh, and the Federal Aviation Administration.

Thumbs up or down

All of that approval hinges on the ongoing assessment by those government folks of the impact the bright, flapping sheets might have on a few things.

Traffic is one.

And, of course, river rafting, fishing, stress levels of bighorn sheep, movement of dirt and rock, non-native weed infestation, things that might fall into the river and thus require a special permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, bald eagles crashing into the cables, rattlesnakes biting the tourists, the cannon that shot Hunter S.

Thompson's ashes into the air near Aspen, cement blocks to anchor the cables, whether the fabric goes down the river and clogs Cañon City's water plant, the wind, vandalism and, last but not least, trucks crashing and splashing startled art lovers with uranium.

Which leads to the obvious question: What the heck does the ash cannon that blasted Thompson's remains into the forest have to do with this?

"We'd like to get FAA air restriction on planes and helicopters flying above the river," said the man who has been up to his ears in the Christo plan for all of its nine years, BLM environmental coordinator Pete Zwaneveld.

"When they shot that Hunter Thompson guy into the air, they had an FAA permit. We'd like to get something like that."

Zwaneveld, 57, a jeans and plaid-shirt kind of guy, is paid for his work on the Christo project not with tax money but with a seemingly bottomless fund set up by the wealthy artist.

He sits in his BLM cubicle in Cañon City these days, wrestling with 1,100 letters and e-mails he has received from the public. His summary of the notes will be part of his BLM report due out in September - a huge factor in whether Christo gets the thumbs up or just the thumb. The public comment period officially closed about two weeks ago.

"I'd say the notes are about 60-40 against it," Zwaneveld said Thursday. "I'm neutral, but I'd say there's certainly a chance the project will happen. Maybe not in 2009, but maybe in 2010."

Which will give everyone a little more time to deal with the issues. Such as the rattlesnakes.

"People will get out of their cars to take pictures," he said. "They'll want to get up high on the rocks along the river canyon.

There are lots, and I mean lots, of rattlesnakes in those rocks."
Potential hazards

With snakes and tourists mingling, "Over the River" (the official name of the project) could easily become "Into the Ambulance."

Which is another problem. With thousands of visitors flocking to the two-week art exhibit, U.S. 50 along the Arkansas River would become deluged with traffic. And construction of the project - a real road-jammer - would take two years, according to Zwaneveld, who said he has met with Christo and Jeanne-Claude about two dozen times since 1996.

"Getting an ambulance in there would be a problem," Zwaneveld said. "We might have ambulances stationed 24 hours a day along the river."

And the sheep?

"That's a real concern," he said. "A few years ago the Division of Wildlife did a study on the bighorns, implanting heart monitors inside several of them. When the sheep saw a raft, which is common, their heart rates went way up. A letter from a Colorado State University professor called the sheep 'nervous Nellies' and said the stress levels would kill them."

Making the Nellies especially nervous would be the massive cranes and bulldozers needed to install 2,400 gigantic cement anchor blocks along the riverbanks. Each block would weigh about 400 pounds, with a pair (one on each side of the river) supporting one of the 1,200 cables.

"Each block needs a level pad," Zwaneveld said. "And we're concerned that disrupting all that dirt would allow non-native weeds to grow."

On a brighter note, the uranium might kill the weeds.

On Feb. 15, a truck carrying uranium ore on U.S. 50 near the town of Swissvale - one of Christo's most coveted stretches of river for some of his fabric panels - crashed on a sharp turn, spilling uranium onto the road.

"The Department of Transportation is pretty concerned about a thing like that happening with all those tourists packed into the canyon," said Zwaneveld.

And then there are the eagles. Many of them winter along the river, and, well, there'd be 1,200 metal cables there, too.

"What we definitely wouldn't want," Zwaneveld said, "is having eagles fly into the cables. It would kill them. Or they'd break a wing and fall into the river and drown. There's the Endangered Species Act, the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act, the Bald Eagle Protection Act. ...

"That would really be bad."

Staff writer Rich Tosches writes each Wednesday and Sunday. He can be reached at rtosches@denverpost.com

Christo's Arkansas River dream already a success

source: Copyright © 2006 The Denver Post

Christo's Arkansas River dream already a success

By Susan J. Tweit

Art, it has been said, provokes a response by revealing the familiar in new light. By that definition, "Over the River," the project on southern Colorado's Arkansas River envisioned by artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude, is already a success, even though it has yet to be approved and installation is almost four years away.

"Over the River" comprises 7 miles of translucent fabric panels that would be suspended above the Arkansas River for two weeks in August 2009, along a 45-mile stretch of winding canyon not far from my hometown of Salida.

Opponents fear the project will ruin a "pristine" river canyon; drive off bighorn sheep and other wildlife; cause traffic gridlock on the sole highway running through the canyon; prevent emergency vehicles from reaching accidents, medical emergencies, wildfires, crimes and even terrorist attacks; and cost the taxpayers an enormous sum of money.

Local supporters wax enthusiastic: "It's an incredible opportunity for our valley," says Steve Reese of Friends of Over the River. "It's just too good to pass up."

What is it about "Over the River" that provokes such a passionate response?

It could be the scale of the piece, which will employ 962 porous fabric panels as wide as 120 feet, attached to cables stretched high enough above the water to not snag passing boaters, and secured by some 2,400 removable bolts. The longest block of panels will extend 2.25 river miles, the shortest about half a mile.

True, the project is larger than the artists' only other Colorado work, "Valley Curtain" near Rifle, which tore in 60 mile per hour gusts just 28 hours after it was erected in 1972. After "Valley Curtain," the team beefed up its engineering for the 10 works that followed, including "The Gates" in New York's Central Park last year.

It could be the potential for environmental damage. The Arkansas River canyon is a spectacular place with towering walls of crystalline rock and rapids that attract thousands of boaters during the two-month river-running season.

But neither river nor canyon are pristine. The railroad blasted its way up one river bank in the late 1870s, and a federal highway first paved in the 1930s has radically reshaped the other bank.

Unlike those projects, the artists propose a disappearing footprint for "Over the River." All waste, construction materials and trash will be hauled off, and special underground anchors will be invisible once the bolts are unscrewed.

It could be the wildlife, including some 400 bighorn sheep beloved of area residents. Yet it's hard to imagine that wildlife would be fazed by the project's dispersed construction. The sheep have managed to survive decades of railroad-maintenance and highway-widening projects; diseases introduced from domestic livestock; booms in house construction and recreation; trapping and radio-collaring; a winter feeding program featuring an antibiotic-laced apple mash so intoxicating that the sheep often sleep it off after eating their fill; and the noise and pollution generated by hundreds of thousands of vehicles passing through the canyon each year.

It could be the traffic, which - no one disputes - will be horrendous, with an estimated quarter-million people coming to see "Over the River" in a two-week period.

Traffic snarls are not uncommon in the canyon. One wet spring, boxcar-sized chunks of cliff dropped on the highway, closing it entirely for weeks. Another summer, road-widening projects impeded traffic for months.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude have hired traffic planners and offered to explore mass transit, pay for helicopters, extra law-enforcement, firefighting and medical personnel, as well as to promote alternate routes.

It could be the money, though that will come entirely out of the artists' pockets for an ongoing environmental review, reimbursement of public-employee time and expenses for the 10 federal, state and local entities involved in the project, from start to finish.

It could be the idea of all of this effort and expense going for something so ephemeral and quixotic as suspending panels of fabric over a river where they will shimmer and ripple for two weeks, reflecting water and sky and landscape in a way none of us have ever experienced before.

Whether the project makes it through the permit process, it has already succeeded in engaging communities up and down the canyon, spurring us to talk about what we cherish. That, to my mind, is the whole point of art: It forces us to pay attention; it transforms our view of the everyday world.

Susan J. Tweit of Salida is a contributor to Writers on the Range, a service of High Country News

Art project wields big brush of controversy

source: Copyright © 2006 The Denver Post

Art project wields big brush of controversy

By Charlie Meyers
Denver Post Staff Writer

The proposed draping of the Arkansas River by the artists known as Christo and Jeanne-Claude already has destroyed the harmony of two towns and probably will wreck the traffic flow on a major U.S. highway.

But no animals likely will die in the experiment - certainly not any trout.

Whether this "Over the River" project tentatively scheduled for 2009 will disrupt fishing - or whether such a bizarre undertaking actually can be considered art - is quite another matter.

"People are in fear of a huge traffic jam," Greg Felt, a partner in the ArkAnglers fly shops, said of the mob of curiosity- seekers expected to clog U.S. 50 between Salida and Cañon City.

Anglers and other citizens who shudder at the disruption this spectacle might bring have flooded the local Bureau of Land Management (BLM) office with a chorus of condemnation. Business people rubbing palms over the prospect of these tourist hordes are singing a different song.

Like most decisions these days, money seems to carry the sweetest tune.

"It's pretty much going to be a done deal," said Bill Edrington, owner of the Royal Gorge Anglers shop in Cañon City.

Edrington has kept close tabs on a process that ultimately will require an environmental impact statement from BLM, with companion comments from the Division of Wildlife, Colorado Department of Transportation, Colorado State Patrol and State Parks.

As a lifelong observer of bureaucracy and human nature, Edrington knows a setup when he sees it.

"A majority of the community sees the dollar signs. This is just a gut feeling I get going to the meetings," he said.

Most opponents, Edrington notes, file emotional appeals rooted in the basic absurdity of hanging 2 1/2 miles of fabric across eight separate spans of a dramatic canyon that, by general reckoning, doesn't need embellishing.

The telling elements instead are how officials might alleviate a traffic jam that, among other things, will discourage most anglers from reaching their favorite spots.

Another concern is whether a herd of bighorn sheep will be spooked by all that fabric flapping in the breeze to the detriment of their feeding and watering patterns.

A more immediate worry is the way the debate has fractured what traditionally are close-knit communities.

"It's put neighbor against neighbor. Lines have been drawn in the sand. Feelings have been hurt," Felt said.

As for the presumed economic windfall, "All this is scheduled for summer, when all the tourists facilities already are packed," he said.

For the benefit of latecomers, it must be mentioned that this project stands as a sort of rematch for New York-based Christo, who as a solo act is 0-for-Colorado. A curtain strung across Rifle Gap in 1972 amid similar controversy was ripped to shreds by a windstorm just 28 hours later - giving rise to the concept of nature as art critic.

Whatever the decision, the Arkansas River will keep flowing, normal traffic patterns someday will be restored and, as both Felt and Edrington concede, trout won't be harmed.

Who knows? Maybe a discerning wind will perform an encore.

Charlie Meyers can be reached at 303-820-1609 or cmeyers@denverpost.com.

Locals say river is art in itself

source: Copyright © 2005 The Denver Post

By Rich Tosches
Denver Post Staff Writer

Wanda Tezak, owner of a rock shop near Texas Creek

Cotopaxi - The artists Christo and Jeanne- Claude, as you most certainly know by now, want desperately to stretch gigantic, billowing panels of loosely woven, aluminum-coated translucent cloth across the Arkansas River.

They call the proposed project "Over the River," because, they say, the name perfectly captures the "genesis" of their vision.

Rancher Denzell Goodwin, who has run cattle along the banks of the Arkansas for 60 years and is a man who does not waste words, has an even shorter name for the planned art extravaganza: "that thing."

Goodwin, who lives with his cows along the river near the town of Howard, said two things worry him about the project.

"First of all it'll cause unbelievable traffic, and we just don't need it around here. The other problem with that thing is the bighorn sheep and the deer and the elk. They come down to the river every night to drink. You got those ... those sheets hanging over the river flapping around, it's going to upset all those animals. Gonna confuse them. That's about all that thing is gonna do."

It's like that around these parts. The people of Cotopaxi and Howard and the neighboring river towns of Coaldale and Texas Creek live here because of the rugged, rocky beauty of the land, the simple life and, of course, the Arkansas.

The river springs to life beneath the Twin Lakes reservoir south of Leadville and comes roaring through their towns - bringing cash. In the spring and summer, it's filled with people who pay good money to sit in a rubber raft, slam into rocks and get soaked with cold water. It's also a favorite place of fly-fishermen. And frankly, if a guy is willing to pay $40 for a handful of small fishhooks covered with fur, imagine what he'd pay for lunch.

The people around here seem to like things the way they are. Suspending 962 sheets of fancy, gauzy, reflective fabric 10 to 20 feet above the river in seven separate sections covering a total of about 7 miles of the river is, well, just not the kind of thing that makes its way onto their wish list.

The proposed project would be on display for two weeks in 2008, at the earliest, if the artists can get the necessary environmental permits. Construction of the project along U.S. 50, a mostly two-lane road that snakes alongside the river, would take months.

Officials believe the exhibit would draw tens of thousands of viewers.

"Imagine the traffic problems," said Bill Edrington, an avid fly-fisherman and co-

owner of a fly shop, Royal Gorge Anglers in Cañon City - a business that depends on anglers having easy access to the river.

Twenty-five miles to the west, in Texas Creek, Wanda Tezak doesn't know what to think. She and her husband, Jim, own the El Carma Rock Shop, which could benefit from a bedazzled throng of Over the River gawkers with cash in their pockets.

"I hope it happens," said Tezak. "I guess people would come to see it, but I don't know why. That Christo, he believes in this project very strongly for some darn reason. It's all very puzzling to me."

Kevin Champion, who owns a construction company, stands inside the Cotopaxi post office and smiles at the mention of Over the River.

"The traffic would be a problem," he said. "As to whether it's art, well, who knows? I am not an artist-type person. Hanging colored sheets across the river, well, it might be art for all I know."

It's a question, of course, that has no answer. Art is art. Or not.

Take, for example, the woman who works at the deli counter of the Cotopaxi Store, "Linda M," who was making sandwiches last week.

"Sheets across the river, that's not art," said Linda M, who asked that her last name not be used. "Now wolves. Wolves are art. I like wolves. I have wolf pictures, wolf puzzles, wolf drinking glasses, wolf plates. Anything with wolves on it. My husband said if I buy one more thing with wolves on it, he's going to divorce me. And then at Christmas he buys me something with wolves on it.

"But hanging sheets across the river, it's stupid is all it is."

Staff writer Rich Tosches can be reached at rtosches@denverpost.com.

A river runs under it

source: Copyright © 2005 The Denver Post

A river runs under it

Their work is art - and Jeanne-Claude and Christo are happy to explain

By Kyle MacMillan
Denver Post Fine Arts Critic

Jeanne-Claude and Christo (Post / John Leyba)

Christo and Jeanne-Claude were standing on a barge underneath the Pont Neuf in Paris in 1985 when inspiration hit.

The renowned husband-and-wife artistic duo were overseeing the installation of a fabric panel underneath an archway of the French capital's oldest bridge over the Seine River.

As the couple watched the panel, which had been lying flat on the barge, slowly being elevated into place, they looked at each other and smiled.

The seed of what would become a future initiative 5,000 miles away - to cover portions of the Arkansas River southwest of Colorado Springs with translucent panels - had simultaneously planted itself in both artists' imaginations.

"In 1992, suddenly we realized: What was that big smile in Paris in 1985? What did we see?" Jeanne-Claude said. "We saw fabric suspended in the air, the sunshine shining through it, reflecting on the water of the River Seine. That's 'Over the River."'

After a four-year hiatus to focus on the February completion of "The Gates," which saw more than 7,500 curtained gates lining the sidewalks of New York City's Central Park, Christo and Jeanne-Claude have retargeted their energy to what they hope will be their second Colorado project.

Details from Christo s preparatory drawings for Over the River. The couple sells artworks like these to raise money for their projects, which they fund entirely on their own. (Baldwin Gallery)

If in the next 12 months the couple can secure the necessary permits from the 11 relevant governments and other entities with ties to the site - a big if - the project could go on view as early as two weeks in July-August 2008.

The couple, along with chief engineer Vince Davenport and project director Jonita Davenport, recently spent 10 days in Colorado. They met with state and local officials, reacquainted themselves with the site and took part in a kind of town-hall meeting Monday evening in Salida.

During that packed gathering and a Post interview the week before in Denver, Christo and Jeanne-Claude spoke not only about the complicated logistics of this large-scale, collaborative project but also some of its less widely known aesthetic aspects.

Since 1961, the artists have completed 19 of their monumental environmental projects, ranging from wrapping the German Reichstag in 1995 to partitioning a valley 7 miles north of Rifle with a 142,000-square-foot curtain in 1972.

"The exciting part is that all our projects, they are unique images," Christo said. "We will never build another 'Gates.' We will never build another 'Umbrellas.' We will never surround another island. That's probably what triggers the excitement, because it's new for us and for everybody."

Unlike a painter who works alone in his or her studio to create a painting, few if any artists, at least in modern history, have worked on a larger scale than Christo and Jeanne-Claude or have involved more people in their projects.

Around 2,500 people worked on the construction, installation and exhibition of "The Gates." Jonita Davenport estimates that at least 1,000 people will directly contribute in some way to the realization of "Over the River."

Thousands of others will be involved indirectly either by visiting or interacting with the work, should it become a reality, or by taking part in advance discussions, such as the one this past Monday in Salida.

"This discussion here was not invented to look beautiful for the moviemakers or the press," Christo said. "This is a real discussion. People have a concern. They have a question. They ask it. We need to answer it and create the real pulse of the project.

"When the work is created, the work carries this huge amount of interpretation - critical, positive and negative," he said. "But that's all about the work of art. In some way, everybody becomes a part of our work. You can be against or for it, but you cannot help but be a part of the work of art."

Beginning in 1992, the artists and their collaborators spent three years traveling 14,000 miles in four Western states - Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico - to examine the suitability of 89 rivers for "Over the River."

They narrowed the list of possibilities to six. In late 1996, they selected a stretch of the Arkansas River between Salida and Cañon City as the final site for an array of reasons.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude liked the river's varied topography and its mostly unblocked visibility from U.S. 50, which runs adjacent to it. They also were pleased that the channel is used by rafters. Many people live along it.

"It's not a pristine river at the end of the world," Jeanne-Claude said. "It's a human river."

The artists and their collaborators plan to stagger a total of 6.7 miles of fabric over 40 miles of the river, with interruptions ranging from 15 miles to a few hundred feet - the latter to accommodate trees, rocks and other encumbrances along the banks.

The panels will be made of a loosely woven translucent fabric that will easily allow rain water to pass through. They will be strong enough to withstand heavy winds that could blow through the canyon during a thunderstorm.

The couple already has spent more than $2 million on the project, including a wind-tunnel test of the fabric and a simulated installation of several of the panels over a river running through a ranch near Grand Junction.

"The advantage of the color we have chosen - which is not really a color; it's aluminum that coats the fabric - is that it will keep changing all the time," Jeanne-Claude said.

"The reason we know this is because we used aluminum coating for the wrapped Reichstag in Berlin," she said. "In the early morning it was pink, at noon it was silvery platinum, and at it sunset it was golden.

"And, of course, with the blue sky of Colorado, very often, I imagine, it will be blue."

Like some of the couple's previous works, such as "The Umbrellas" and "The Gates," this project will have an inner and outer dimension. It can be experienced by passersby above or by rafters on the river below who will have the sense of actually being in it.

"From above is the silver part," Christo said. "It's opaque and creates waves like waves in the ocean, because the fabric panels are moving with the wind and creating a fascinating, mesmerizing energy.

"While underneath, using that very loosely woven fabric, you have the contours of the mountains, the clouds, and, of course, that creates beautiful shadows in the water and on yourself."

No one knows how much "Over the River" will ultimately cost if the artists are able to secure the necessary permits, but it could equal the $21 million price tag for "The Gates."

"Vince is trying to scare us, saying it will be more expensive than ' The Gates,"' said Jeanne-Claude. "I hope not."

--

"OVER THE RIVER"
The internationally known husband-and-wife artist team of Christo and Jeanne- Claude have proposed the suspension of heavy, translucent fabric panels over a stretch of the Arkansas River southwest of Colorado Springs. Here are some details about the project:
Site: 40 miles of the Arkansas River between Salida and Cañon City, with interruptions in the panels ranging from 15 miles to a few hundred feet.

Project conception: 1985

Earliest possible completion: Two weeks in July/August 2008

Projected completion of an environmental impact report: June 2006

Height above the water: 10 to 23 feet

Number of panels: 962

Cumulative length: 6.7 miles

Panel weight: 400-500 pounds

Panel length: 25-30 feet

Panel width: 50-90 feet

Fine arts critic Kyle MacMillan can be reached at 303-820-1675 or kmacmillan@denverpost.com.

Artists hope blessings flow for river canopy

source: Copyright © 2005 The Denver Post

Artists hope blessings flow for river canopy

Christo and Jeanne-Claude have renewed their quest for permission to place fabric over parts of the Arkansas River.

By Jim Hughes
Denver Post Staff Writer

This drawing gives an idea of how translucent fabric may be placed. (Wolfgang Volz ©Christo 1996)

The artists who planted thousands of pumpkin-colored banners in New York City's Central Park began a new round of negotiations with Colorado officials Wednesday in their quest to cover parts of the Arkansas River with gossamer panels of fabric.

After receiving international acclaim last winter for "The Gates," Christo and Jeanne-Claude are once again pursuing their "Over the River" project between Salida and Cañon City.

First proposed in the 1990s, the idea was shelved by the pair four years ago after they received long- withheld permission for "The Gates," they said.

State, local and federal governments permitting, "Over the River" would occur over two midsummer weeks in 2008, at the earliest, the husband-and-wife team said.

Husband-and-wife artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude speak Tuesday at the Brown Palace Hotel in Denver about the process of obtaining permission for Over the River. (Post / Lyn Alweis)

Their display, whose seven increments would range from a half mile to 2 1/2 miles long, is designed to be observed from above by motorists on U.S. 50 and from below by hikers and rafters, they said. The fabric is designed to reflect the sky for those watching from above and to diffuse the light when seen from below.

Though the artists and their team have had engineers devise a system of bolts and cables to suspend the panels, and have tested the design in a Canadian wind tunnel and on a ranch near Grand Junction, it still could be changed by the permitting process, as previous projects have been, the artists said.

But instead of worrying about that possibility, Christo and Jeanne-Claude said they embrace the influence bureaucrats may have on their creation.

"All of our projects - the permitting process is part of the work of art," Christo said. "They really give it energy."

Among their past displays was "Valley Curtain," erected near Rifle in 1972. A 1,250-foot-long swath of nylon that took 28 months to finish, it was undone by high winds after 28 hours.

Already, supporters and opponents for the new Colorado project have lined up, describing it as either an economic-development boon or a nightmare of traffic jams and spooked animals.

The local chapter of the Sierra Club, which is closely monitoring the project, has not yet taken a position. But its members worry that the project might harm wildlife, said John Stansfield, the group's wilderness chairman.

"The canyon, to me, was always a natural wonder of Colorado," he said. "I just don't see the need to drape the canyon. Why do we need to gild the lily?"

Christo said the two-week display would have a minimal impact.

"After 14 days, we will be gone and they can have the canyon," he said.

The artists are scheduled to appear before a capacity crowd at Salida's Steam Plant theater Monday night to present their plan and answer questions.

Government officials will gather public comment in the months ahead, they said.

State parks chief Lyle Laverty met with the artists Wednesday.

"We talked about the process, and that the critical part is going to be the environmental assessment by the Bureau of Land Management," Laverty said. "The key is going to be identifying issues very early upfront, so (Christo and Jeanne-Claude) can figure out solutions."

On Tuesday, Christo and Jeanne-Claude will sit down in Cañon City with Bureau of Land Management and Colorado State Parks officials. The permitting process is expected to involve more than 10 government agencies.

New York's top permitting official for Central Park gave the pair high marks for their responses to public concerns there.

After initially rejecting a proposal for "The Gates" in 1981, city officials came around under Mayor Michael Bloomberg, said Adrian Benepe, the city's commissioner of parks and recreation. The artists fulfilled their obligations to the city, he said.

"Everything they said they would do, they did," he said. "And then, when we asked them to do additional things, they would do those things without complaint."

Staff writer Jim Hughes can be reached at 303-820-1244 or jhughes@denverpost.com.