Brooklyn Heights

Snow sculptures bring imaginative critters to Brooklyn Bridge Park

From ‘Tie-Dye Guy’ to Quadropus’

February 18, 2014 By Mary Frost Brooklyn Daily Eagle
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Castles and dragons and octopi, oh my! Roughly 100 snow enthusiasts of all ages gathered at Pier 5 in Brooklyn Bridge Park this past Saturday for the park’s first-ever snow sculpture contest, sponsored by the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy.

In the family division, kids and parents worked quickly to create snow castles, turtles, cats, dragons, snow Olympians and even an igloo, while adults built snowmen both big and small and even a realistic octopus.

Richard Loyd, Director of Development at Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy (BBPC), told the Brooklyn Eagle, “The program staff wanted to do something to extend park use into the winter. It’s been great – we had about 20 family teams and six or seven adults.”

Oliver Sack, age 6, his sister Charlotte, age 3, and their parents decided to build a snow family. “We had a vote on it,” Oliver said. (Charlotte had originally wanted to build a snow pony, but abided with the results of the vote.)

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The Claudio family – dad Rich, son Richie, age 6 and mom Angie — created “Tie-Dye Guy,” an adorable little snow guy wearing a tie-dyed T-shirt. “It was Richie’s idea,” said Angie.

Sophia Kirk, age 11, and Piper Livingston, also 11, created a life-sized Olympic skier snowperson. The two artists attend M.S. 51. “We’ve been friends since pre-K,” they said.

The largest family sculpture was the igloo, built by the Pesin family (Hunter, Emma, and dad Josh), the Ramsundars (Maximillian, age 8, and mom Nimmi), and Kobe Tsoiasue, age 8. Josh Pesin arrived to the contest fresh from running the “Cold Feet 10K” race on Staten Island.

Shawn Wright, in the adult category, sculpted a life-sized man sitting at a picnic table, with a smaller snowman sitting on his shoulder. “They kind of forced me to be in the adult section,” he joked.

Fornino owner and chef Michael Ayoub supplied hot chocolate, miniature cupcakes and a wood-burning bonfire for hand-warming. Denise Sullivan, event coordinator for Fornino, said the restaurant’s Pier 6 pizza deck would open for the season on March 22.

Brooklyn Heights residents Alex Charnov and Adam Orme, acting as independent observers, said they enjoyed “the squid monster so far. And the igloo’s pretty awesome. It could work.”

So many great snow sculptures were created that judges from BBPC had a hard time picking the best. In the end, Katherine (age 7) and Henry Winchester (age 5) and their dad were chosen as winners in the family division, for their castle and dragon sculpture.

In the adult division, octopus artists Brad Robinson, Maya Schulman and Kyle Radcliffe IV took home the prize with their sculpture “Quadropus.” (Shown above)

Travis Craw, program director for Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy, said the snow’s timing had been perfect. “We hope to build on this in the future.”  Isa Delbello, who runs educational programs there, said the contest was “an excellent opportunity to utilize the park even during the frigid months.”

Prizes included ski passes to Stratton Mountain in Vermont, and gift cards for Waterfront Wines, the Moxie Spot, and Fornino.


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