By Julie Shapiro
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
FINANCIAL DISTRICT — Famed sculptor Anish Kapoor is designing a new work for the British Memorial Garden in lower Manhattan.
Kapoor is still in the early stages of creating the 12-foot black granite sculpture to commemorate the 67 British nationals killed on 9/11, said Isabel Carden, a director of the British Memorial Garden Trust.
Carden recently visited Kapoor in London to talk about the sculpture and said Kapoor asked about the current feeling about 9/11 in lower Manhattan.
“It will be the first and only [Kapoor sculpture] in the city,” said Rodney Johnson, vice chairman of the garden’s board, at a Community Board 1 meeting Wednesday night. “It will become quite a tourist draw.”
Kapoor won a design competition back in 2004 for the British Memorial Garden, but many residents disliked his planned 20-foot-tall rectangular sculpture, saying it would be obtrusive and prevent enjoyment of the park. Carden said Kapoor is now designing a different sculpture.
The British Memorial Garden has struggled with funding in the past, but after a new board took over last fall, construction on the small park at Hanover Square is nearly complete. The garden will hold a formal opening in July.
“It’s a gem,” said Catherine McVay Hughes, a CB1 member and Financial District resident. “It’s really beautiful.”
One other Kapoor sculpture is in the works for lower Manhattan, but it won’t be arriving anytime soon. Herzog & de Meuron commissioned a large bean-shaped Kapoor for the base of their new residential tower at 56 Leonard St. in TriBeCa, but the entire development project stalled shortly after it was announced in 2008.
