The 161st Street BID unveils “Homerun,” a new sculpture by LeMonde Studio at Lou Gehrig Plaza celebrating the Yankees home opener on Friday, April 5.
Photo ET Rodriguez
Friday is opening day at Yankee Stadium and the Lou Gehrig Plaza is celebrating with a “Home Run.”
Flanked between the Bronx Supreme Court and Joyce Kilmer Park on 161st Street, the pedestrian square named after the late, great Yankee first baseman has been a venue for several art installations over the years. From now through May, the plaza will be home to yet another, honoring the inaugural home game of the Yankees.
“This is our baseball bench,” Trey Jenkins, executive director of the 161st Street Business Improvement District, said Thursday, April 4, at the unveiling of the plaza’s newest sculpture.
Composed of wood and stainless steel, “Home Run” by LeMonde Studio — a Canadian design firm with an eye towards sustainability — is a multi-faceted art installation featuring a larger-than-life baseball bat, a baseball with indented grooves for sitting, a large home base and two circle patches of artificial grass along Walton Avenue. As one walks east, they will find a life-size photo frame with light bulbs around the perimeter. With the manipulation of a hand crank, the frame lights up and an old-time radio announcer voice exclaims, “Take me out to the ballgame!”
“Everyone in the industry told me I was crazy when I decided to come and work in the Bronx,” said Nicholas Synnott, COO of LeMonde Studios. “Everyone was like, ‘What are you doing? Go to Manhattan, this is where the big [Business Improvement Districts] are, this is where the money is,’ but we are all about engaging communities, getting the people to rally behind it and we’ve been overwhelmed by the community here.”
LeMonde Studio debuted in the Bronx in 2023 at Lou Gehrig Plaza for the 50th anniversary of hip-hop with their sculpture, “Boombox,” and have continued to…
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