Rector Gate | R.M. Fischer

Welcome to the world of sci-fi in Battery City. At the edge of Rector Park, where the Esplanade and Rector Place intersect, a fantastic, 50-foot-tall archway of steel, bronze and granite is guaranteed to set
your imagination soaring. It's R. M. Fischer’s Rector Gate.

It was created in the 20th century (1988), but it’s also futuristic, in an enchantingly old-fashioned way (Flash Gordon, 1950, anyone?). Fischer seems to have been inspired by both past and future. One can’t
help wondering what it means, with its bulbous spires, skeletal cupola at the top and support columns that have been compared to giant cheese graters -- but it is fun. Like other public sculptures in Battery Park City, this one was created for the specific location rather than brought in after the fact.

Festive, theatrical and oddly ethereal by day, Rector Gate looks very dramatic at night when all lit up. Birds have sometimes made a nest in the light fixture that dangles at its center. There is seating at the base of the arch. This is an ideal spot to sit or stand and look across the expanse of the Hudson toward New Jersey.

Fischer, a New York-based artist, also designed the clock at the entrance to the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel and Boston's State House Clock, among other works across the U.S. His Kansas City Sky Stations atop the convention center have made their mark on that city’s skyline. Fischer’s work can also be found in many public collections including New York's Museum of Modern Art, the Brooklyn Art Museum, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.

By Kathie