My Big Fat German Snowflake: Episode 2 — Ingo Maurer's New World Record Creation Goes Up

A bookofjoe World Exclusive.

Just in this morning from Claude Maurer, breaking news about this year's Unicef Crystal Snowflake (above and below).

You may recall that a year ago I wrote about the remarkable 21st–century version of New York City's venerable holiday snowflake tradition, featuring a signature creation at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and 57th Street, one of the most important corners in the world.

Ingo Maurer, the German lighting designer widely recognized as the planet's premier creator of things illuminated, conceived it and then made it real.

Well.

Here's Claude's email:

Dear Joe,

The new Unicef Crystal Snowfalke will most probably go up during one of the nights this weekend.

It'll be lit on November 28th.

As an attachment I send you two images - still in Munich.

See how big this one is!

This one has about 3300 pounds, 23 feet in diameter, about 7520 watts.

Last year's Snowflake will be in Beverly Hills over the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel on Rodeo Drive.

Best,

Claude

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For comparison, last year's weighed 1,433 pounds and was 17 feet in diameter.

This time the New York Times is gonna have to refer to me.

What a difference a year makes.

The photo directly above shows this year's Snowflake with the team that created it.