NEW YORK.- The Central Park Conservancy, the group that helps run Central Park, has approved the artist Christo’s plan to drape 26 miles of winding walkways in saffron-colored cloth, two decades after a more ambitious project was rejected. The plan still needs approval from the city’s parks department. Mayor Michael Bloomberg has said he supports it.

 

The Bulgarian-born artist and his wife, Jeanne-Claude, want to erect 7,500 rectangular steel gates, each 15 feet tall with golden nylon streaming from it. The plan turned down in 1981 proposed 15,000 gates. The artists also agreed not to interfere with damage-prone parts of the park.

 

"My position has always been caution in terms of ecological impact. All those problems have been answered by them. So I’m very happy because I think it is a very exciting and dynamic possibility," said Evelyn Lauder, who serves on the Central Park Conservancy committee that evaluated the project.

 

The artists are known for their large-scale fabric installations, including wrapping the German Reichstag and the Pont Neuf in Paris and surrounding part of Australia’s coast.

 

If approved, their Central Park project will stand for two weeks. It will be financed through sales of planning models, drawings and the like.