After two years of steadfast trial and inevitable error, Harvest Dome 2.0 was finally docked into the Harlem River at the Inwood Hill Park Inlet in New York during its debut last week.

Created by husband-and-wife team Amanda Schachter and Alexander Levi of SLO Architecture, the first Harvest Dome crashed into Rikers Island where it was later destroyed by NYC's Department of Correction in October 2011. Without losing hope, Schachter and Levi launched a Kickstarter fund we helped promote last year to build Harvest Dome 2.0. And to their success, they raised $7,596 out of their $7,500 minimum goal.



The cactus-like 24-foot-diameter orb was built entirely out of over 400 disposed umbrella skeletons collected around NYC and a ring of 128 two-liter soda bottles to keep it afloat. A bright addition to Harvest Dome 2.0 is the LED lights inserted into each bottle to create a glowing halo that illuminates the river at night.


 

The dome was built as an artistic representation of NYC's accumulation of waterborne debris, and also to bring attention to NYC's waterways and watersheds. However, Schachter deems it is more like "performance architecture" as it gathers attention from onlookers and interacts with the river's ebb and flow.

Harvest Dome 2.0 will be on display until the end of August.

Photos courtesy of SLO Architecture and Andreas Symietz.