Bead Maze: Reimagining How Public Art is Made

Reimagining How Public Art is Made

In June 2026, a colorful new installation appeared in Union Square, inviting New Yorkers to pause, explore, and play. Bead Maze—a large-scale public artwork inspired by the familiar childhood toy—transformed the plaza into a space of curiosity and movement, its looping paths and vivid forms drawing in passersby of all ages.

But the artwork itself is only part of the story.

Behind Bead Maze lies a broader experiment in education, collaboration, and public-making—one that began not in a professional studio, but in a university classroom. The concept was conceived by seven students from the Fashion Institute of Technology’s School of Art and Design Fine Arts program. What followed was a process that took their idea from sketch to built civic installation, guided by a team of architects, structural engineers, community partners, and city agencies.

Developed through a partnership between Scale Rule, FIT, Union Square Partnership, NYC DOT Art, Grimshaw, and schlaich bergermann partner (sbp), Bead Maze represents a new model for public art—one that places learning, mentorship, and interdisciplinary collaboration at its center, and challenges who gets to shape the public realm.

The Architecture of Public Art

Public art often arrives in our cities as a finished object. We see the result, but rarely the process: the conversations, the testing, the compromises, the design thinking that brought it into existence.

Scale Rule begins much earlier.

The project launched through a series of workshops with FIT students, framed around the theme of “The Architecture of Public Art.” Rather than treating architecture, engineering, and art as separate disciplines, the sessions explored how they intersect in the making of public work—from concept development and site analysis to fabrication, permitting, and construction.

The workshops invited students to grapple with questions that professional designers face every day: How does an artwork engage with its surroundings? What makes a public installation genuinely accessible? How do ideas evolve when they encounter the real-world constraints of budget, materiality, safety, and constructability? 

For many, it was a first opportunity to see how creative ideas move beyond the studio and into the public realm—and to understand that architecture is not a finished product, but an ongoing conversation between vision and reality.

From Student Concept to Civic Installation

Following the workshops, students developed and presented proposals for a temporary public artwork in Union Square. The selected concept—created by a team of seven FIT students—drew inspiration from the bead maze toy. Its looping paths and colorful forms captured a sense of playfulness, movement, and exploration: qualities perfectly suited to one of New York City’s most active public spaces.

The role of the professional design team was not to replace that concept, but to help realize it.

Working alongside Scale Rule, Grimshaw and sbp guided the project through the same processes used to deliver complex public commissions: design development, structural studies, material exploration, fabrication coordination, permitting, and installation planning. Drawings were produced. Physical models were built. Details were refined through iteration. The team studied how visitors would move around the installation, how it would read from multiple approaches across the plaza, and how the structure could withstand the demands of sustained public use.

Throughout, the students’ original concept remained at the center of the work. The professional team brought expertise and rigor; the students brought authorship. The result is an installation that retains the spirit and inventiveness of the original vision while demonstrating what becomes possible when student ideas are supported by interdisciplinary expertise and genuine commitment.

Learning Through Making

At its core, Bead Maze is a project about learning—but the lessons ran in both directions.

For the FIT students, the experience provided something rare in design education: participation in a projects lifecycle. From initial concept through fabrication and installation, they encountered the full complexity of bringing an idea into physical existence in public space. That is an education no classroom exercise alone can replicate.

For the architects and engineers at Grimshaw and sbp, the project offered something equally valuable: a reminder of the importance of mentorship, and of the responsibility design professionals carry in opening pathways into the profession. Too often, design education and professional practice exist as separate worlds—divided by time, access, and institutional structure. Scale Rule seeks to bridge that gap by creating opportunities where students can work alongside practitioners, engage with real sites and real constraints, and see their ideas take physical form.

In doing so, the project transforms public space into a classroom and the city into a platform for learning—expanding our understanding of public art not simply as an object to be observed, but as a vehicle for education, participation, and community building.

Project Partners 

Union Square Partnership (USP), the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT)’s School of Art and Design, Scale Rule, New York City Department of Transportation’s Art Program (NYC DOT Art) and Bob Fisch

Design Team

FIT Students: Jacqueline Lafayette, Samuel Leone, Michelle Bing Lin, Brenna Mahonney, Ryan Michael, Cianna Gibson, Noa Doron

Scale Rule: Dan Bergsagel

Grimshaw: Lola Sheppard, Maddie Symons, Ji-Young Yoon, Haodi Zhang, Catalina Lizasoain, William Horgan (Jury Member), Chris Obayda

SBP: Dan Bergsagel, Rudolf Starossek, John Archilla

Fabrication: A05 Fabricators — Brian Chu and team