UPPER WEST SIDE — Next to four lanes of trucks, taxis, cars and buses speeding along Amsterdam Avenue, a wooden structure with walls made of bubbling plastic bottles stands on the sidewalk, puzzling and captivating passersby.
The hut, which went up this week in front of the JCC Manhattan, is a traditional sukkah that remains open to the stars and offers shelter for those celebrating the Jewish holiday Sukkot.
But this hut, commissioned by the JCC and created by Israeli artist and environmentalist Avital Geva, is far from traditional in appearance.
Two of its walls are made of plastic 1-liter bottles filled with gurgling brown water that are fed with air pumped by a nearby generator. The other walls are made of diaphanous curtains that swing in the breeze, while patches of sky peak through a lattice of hay and dried corn on its roof.
The bottles are full of algae deposits that change color with time and are an extension of an exhibit inside the center's lobby focused on the theme of the earth's renewal.
Inside the sidewalk hut are a set of plastic chairs and a small table, ready for anyone who chooses to celebrate the holiday with a meal inside.
"I wonder if people would actually sit in it," said Shana Zionts, 30, an Upper West Sider who stopped with her friend to consider the sukkah. "It's very cool."
Danielle Alexander, 30, who is visiting the city, said it caught her attention.
"It definitely drew my interest so much so that we wanted to cross the street to see it," she said.
Alexander liked the interactivity it promoted by standing smack in the middle of a busy stretch of sidewalk.
"During the construction of [the sukkah,] everyone had questions and was wondering what was going on," said Megan Whitman, senior director of arts and ideas at the JCC. "People have been incredibly intrigued."
But that's part of the point, she said.
"You can walk through it, or you can stop and take the time and learn more," Whitman explained. "It meets you where you are."
The recycled bottles, retrieved from local synagogues, are a reminder to think about reuse and regeneration, she said.
"Environmental action is on a lot of people’s minds," Whitman said. "It resonates with the broader public."
For those who don't want to celebrate Sukkot amid honking horns, exhaust and throngs of pedestrians, there is a larger sukkah set up on the roof of the JCC and open to the public through the end of the holiday on Oct. 19.
