Green Street Pole Mystery In The East Village Sparks Questions

EAST VILLAGE, NY — It's a New York City streetscape mystery.

An ordinary green pole (drive rail) in the East Village is turning heads after it has gone through a makeover to add flair attachments (horizontal pieces).

"Can anyone tell me about this remarkable little street sign seating conversion I spotted on St. Marks?" Jessie Singer tweeted out Tuesday morning. "Love it so."

The DOT was just as perplexed as people on Twitter.

A spokesperson from the DOT told Patch that it found no connection between the city agency and the sign beside the fact that the base of it is a standard drive rail.

The agency could not provide any other information about it.

There were also some murmurings that it might be a project from nearby Cooper Union students.

Those theories were right.

The East Village street sign is part of a thesis project by an undergraduate student in Cooper Union's School of Architecture.

The spokesperson from Cooper Union didn't break down to Patch exactly what the flair attachments were meant to be used for, but said that Hoskulds-Linet will be making his final presentation on Thursday afternoon.

The person from Cooper Union also didn't say how long the attachments would be up on the East Village street sign, but said that they might have already been taken down.

The main ideas brought forth in Singer's tweet are that the flair attachments are either for seating or skateboarding.

She also added that there appeared to be a little ladder where you can climb the sign.

"Wouldn’t be surprised if this was a project by an industrial design student," one person commented.

Taking a quick look at Google Maps, the green pole in question does not have the flair attachments as of July 2021.