{"id":761471,"date":"2026-07-14T01:45:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T01:45:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/761471\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T01:45:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T01:45:11","slug":"scale-rule-fit-students-and-others-bring-a-childlike-whimsy-to-union-square","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/761471\/","title":{"rendered":"Scale Rule, FIT students, and others bring a childlike whimsy to Union Square"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>For an art <a href=\"https:\/\/www.archpaper.com\/tag\/installations\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">installation<\/a> staged near <a href=\"https:\/\/www.unionsquarenyc.org\/about-usp\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Union Square<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/scalerule.org\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Scale Rule<\/a>, seven <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fitnyc.edu\/academics\/academic-divisions\/art-and-design\/index.php\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Fashion Institute of Technology<\/a> students, architects at <a href=\"https:\/\/grimshaw.global\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Grimshaw<\/a>, and engineers at Schlaich Bergermann Partner (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sbp.de\/en\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">sbp<\/a>) scaled up a classic waiting room object: the bead maze.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0The installation located in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.archpaper.com\/tag\/union-square\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Union Square\u2019<\/a>s University Plaza is a collaborative project from the Union Square Partnership (USP) and New York City Department of Transportation\u2019s Art Program (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nyc.gov\/html\/dot\/html\/pedestrians\/dotart.shtml\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NYC DOT Art)<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re proud to work alongside FIT, NYC DOT Art, Scale Rule, and the wider project team to continue to grow Union Square as a place where art thrives,\u201d executive director of USP, Julie Stein said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-419557 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/USPBeadMaze_jkratochvil_DSC_2970.jpg\" alt=\"person interacting with bead maze \" width=\"2048\" height=\"1366\"  \/>Ryan Michael Johnson, one of the seven FIT student designers, interacting with the plywood beads. (Jane Kratochvil)<\/p>\n<p>Bead Maze, inspired by the classic children\u2019s toy of the same name, is an interactive installation of three curving steel pipes that vary in height from three feet to as tall as 12 feet. The sculpture occupies a 350-square-foot footprint, upon which visitors and passerby can sit or stand to play with the moveable plywood \u201cbeads\u201d that shift about the blue and purple pipes. A signature orange acrylic bead fixed atop the tallest trail, acts as the installation\u2019s \u201cbeacon.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Seven FIT School of Art and Design seniors led the design process with guidance from Scale Rule, a design collective that works with pro bono architects and engineers to realize student concepts from conceptualization through installation. Brooklyn-based <a href=\"https:\/\/a05studio.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">A05 studio<\/a> helped with fabrication.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt Scale Rule, our mission is to bring more people into the process of designing the built environment we all inhabit,\u201d \u00a0Scale Rule cofounder, Dan Bergsagel said about the project. \u201cBead Maze has been an exciting opportunity to advance that aim with a new student cohort and at a different scale.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The project\u2019s fabrication and installation costs were in part funded by FIT Foundation Board member, Bob Fisch.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt [Bead Maze] reflects the kind of opportunity I hoped the award could create\u2014giving students the chance to develop their ideas in a real civic setting and to learn from working alongside experienced architects and engineers.\u201d\u00a0 Fisch said in a statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Bead Maze is open for play and viewing through November.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For an art installation staged near Union Square, Scale Rule, seven Fashion Institute of Technology students, architects at&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":761472,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[228,226,227,229,88,30312,1999,257571],"class_list":["post-761471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-installations","tag-new-york-city","tag-union-square"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=761471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761471\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/761472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=761471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=761471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=761471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}