Rainbows in Design: Ascend with Pride

Every June, cities around the world celebrate LGBTQ Pride Month to honor and support the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) community. The rainbow Pride flag has been applied by designers and architects around the world to advocate for equality and inclusivity. Over the past year and, especially in the time of COVID-19, rainbows inspire happiness, joy and hope.

Graphic designer Fallon Kesicier installed New York’s “largest Pride flag” on the steps of the Louis Kahn-designed Four Freedoms State Park to celebrate Pride Month. Large decals, or stickers, temporarily adorned the 24 granite steps that lead to the island’s Four Freedoms monument on Roosevelt Island, which was designed by late American architect Louis Kahn in 1973.

Kesicier’s colorful installation transformed the steps into a backdrop ripe for photographers and Instagram users.

Every four steps feature one of six different colors of the LGBT+ Pride flag, originally designed and created in 1978 by Gilbert Baker. From the base of the steps at ground level, they appear as one large flag measuring 12-by-100 feet.

The original designer Kahn’s philosophy of inclusionary architecture was very apropos for this installation: “Design is not making beauty, beauty emerges from selection, affinities, integration, love”.
For more information, visit https://www.fallonkesicier.com/pride-stairs.

All images used with permission.