Valentine's Display In Times Square Encourages People To See World Through Lens Of Love
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – Valentine's Day is still two weeks away, but love is already in the air in Times Square.
As CBS2's Jessica Moore reports, the world's largest lens is designed to connect your eyes and your heart.
Looking for love this Valentine's Day? Consider your mission complete.
"In the month of February when a lot of people are thinking about love, we're offering a little bit of free love here in Times Square," Times Square Alliance Tim Tompkins told Moore.
"It's absolutely beautiful," one woman said. "They're always doing wonderful things in Times Square."
Annual heart construction competition underway in Times Square. @JessicaMooreTV reports pic.twitter.com/3QziAbRFJk
— CBS New York (@CBSNewYork) February 1, 2018
Marcelo Coelho is one of the designers behind "Window to the Heart," a 12 foot wide resin lens in the middle of Times Square and winner of this year's Valentine Heart Competition. The peculiar looking sculpture by day illuminates the Crossroads of the World by night.
"What the lens does is it really warps all of Times Square and brings it toward the center. So when you look at the lens, you see basically all that's surrounding you sort of focus in the middle of the lens, and that's where the heart is," he said.
The painstaking process of creating the world's largest lens required a lot of time, effort and creativity. Each one of the tiles was printed using a 3-D printer.
Artists and designers spent all Wednesday night installing each tile to create the beautiful piece of artwork. They say their hope is that people see the world through the lens of love.
So far, it's working.
"It's pretty neat. A sign of love -- it's good," one man said.
"Especially here in Times Square where there's people from all over the country coming with a whole lot of different ideas, this is sort of something everybody can get behind," said Matt Crampton, of San Francisco.
"It's really pretty, and I really like it. It's one of my favorite things that I saw here in New York," Roslyn Gonzalez, of Miami, added.
Looking for a little love in your life? The installation is open all month long and, best of all, the love really is free.
"Window to the Heart" beat out six other designs to win this year's competition. The judges said they were impressed with the message encouraging everyone to see life through the lens of love.