We left the Grant memorial and turned left, intending to head for the Riverside Church and then the Columbia U campus, but were immediately arrested by the sight of a great Gaudi-esque bench/wall that almost encircles the memorial site. We'd been to Gaudi's Park Guell installations in Barcelona (here and here) and an imitation/allusion in Lima (here), but...New York City?! And the Grant memorial?! Although Grant was much given to literary art--he nearly quit West Point for his interest in novels and plays--one wonders what he would have made of Gaudi. In any case, the Riverside "rolling mosaic bench" was a 1972 community arts undertaking, the largest of its time, but without any reference to Antonio Gaudi. Or General Grant. Sic transit, Gloria.
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