MIAMI — A grand piano recently showed up on a sandbar in Miami's Biscayne Bay, about 200 yards from condominiums on the shore.
The piano, which weighs at least 650 pounds, was placed at the highest spot along the sandbar so it doesn't get underwater during high tide.While officials aren't sure how it got there, they know it won't be going anywhere unless it becomes a hazard to wildlife or boaters.
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission spokesman Jorge Pino says the agency is not responsible for moving such items. And, he adds, unless it becomes a navigational hazard, the U.S. Coast Guard won't get involved.
For now, the piano has become a fancy roost for seagulls.
Miami sound machine! Mystery as 650lbs grand piano 'appears' on Florida sandbar
By Daily Mail Reporteron 26th January 2011
It's a tuneful mystery that has struck a chord with residents in Miami's Biscayne Bay...a 650lbs grand piano has appeared on a sandbank.
Exactly how it got there, nobody seems to know...and as yet no-one has turned up to tinkle the ivories.
The piano was placed at the highest point along the sandbar, about 200 yards from shore, so that it doesn't disappear underwater during high tide.
Watch out for sharps: A battered grand piano, bearing the marks of its new position as a fancy roost for seagulls, is perched on a sandbar in Miami's Biscayne Bay
Final note: The piano sits at the end of the sandbar - where it is highest, so that it is least likely to be swept away by the tide
It's causing no treble: A Coast Guard boat inspects the piano, which sits some 200 yards from the shore. Authorities have said it is not their job to move it and they won't until it presents a hazard
It could have come from one of the condominiums that line the shore of the bay - or it could have come from further afield.
27 January 2011 Last updated at 17:15 GMT
He said he was prepared to remove the instrument, an old movie prop.
"I wanted to create a whimsical, surreal experience," he told the Associated Press on Thursday.
Promotional video Nicholas said he had hatched the plan after partiers at a raucous New Year's Eve party set the piano, which had sat gathering dust in a garage for years, alight.
On 2 January, he and his father Mark Harrington, a production designer for films, and others took the piano out to the sand bar, where it remained unremarked upon until National Geographic posted pictures of the piano on its website last week.
They filmed the process for a video that Nicholas intended to submit with his application to Cooper Union, a prestigious art and engineering school in New York City.
Florida authorities have disclaimed responsibility for moving the piano, and the US Coast Guard has said it will not move it unless it becomes a navigation hazard.
But Nicholas and his mother told the Associated Press they were prepared to remove it themselves.
“The officers asked me, ‘Should your mom get arrested? Or should you get arrested?’ ” Nick said. “I said: ‘Arrest me. It’s my piano.’ ”
The mystery that has gripped much of South Florida and head-scratching Web surfers everywhere for the past week — who dumped an old grand piano on a sandbar and why on earth would anyone do that? — has finally been solved.
The teenager had intended to make a “surreal video” of the piano perched atop the sandbar’s highest point, with Miami’s glittering skyline as a backdrop, to impress the college admissions officers at the Cooper Union in Manhattan, where he hopes to study art or music.
The video was never made, although Nick and his family took some pictures of him pretending to play it while the piano was on fire. Not long afterward, boaters discovered it, and for days people guessed about the back story of the “piano bar.”
The odyssey of the baby grand began five years ago when it was used by Nick’s father, J. Mark Harrington, a film and television production designer, for a shoot. It was then moved to the garage of Nick’s grandmother. He and his family ferried the old piano on his family’s 22-foot Open Fisherman to the sandbar.
Nick remained quiet until an independent filmmaking couple claimed credit on Wednesday for putting the piano there. Nick, figuring his college admissions idea would be second-guessed unless he came forward right away to claim credit, decided to go public and call The Miami Herald.
“I never imagined this would become so big,” he said.
Within hours of the mystery being solved, the authorities informed the teenager that the piano amounts to litter and an eyesore and must be removed.
Dumping an object weighing more than 500 pounds is a third-degree felony in Florida, punishable by a maximum of five years in prison and a fine of up to $5,000. The grand piano weighs at least 650 pounds.
“The bottom line is this young man committed a felony by dumping the piano in the bay,” said Jorge Pino, a spokesman for the South Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, whose officers visited Nick along with representatives from the Miami-Dade marine patrol and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.
Mr. Pino said the authorities were approaching the situation with “leniency in mind,” because of the boy’s age. “We understand the kid’s desire to express his artistic point of view,” he said. “And that is O.K. But he has to be very careful not to violate the law the next time he does so.”
The seed for the idea was planted last autumn when Nick’s adviser at MAST Academy, Ariel Diaz-Escanaverino, urged him to come up with a creative idea that would set him apart from other students applying for college.
“He wanted to do something artistic,” Mr. Diaz-Escanaverino said.
Nick said he immediately thought of the piano. So last Christmas, he and his father transported it from his grandmother’s house to the family’s house by boat, down a canal. On New Year’s Eve, at a party attended by about 100 people, the revelers decided to light the piano on fire. “We filled it with gasoline,” he said, “and threw sparklers at it.”
On Jan. 2, Nick, his brother, Andrew, his father and a neighbor carted the piano to the family boat and ran it out to the sandbar. Nick had wanted to shoot a video that included a pianist, a bagpipe player and a guitarist.
Instead, they lighted the piano on fire for the second time in three days. A series of photos were taken of Nick pretending to play the blazing piano.
After the visit by the authorities on Thursday, the Harrington family and their friends began making arrangements to pull the piano from the bay. But a salvage company hired by an unidentified person later said it had removed the piano. The Harringtons, who say they hope they can find a home for the piano, perhaps in a museum, want it back, Mr. Diaz-Escanaverino said.
Nick’s mother, Annabel said she liked it much better when the piano’s origin was a mystery.
“It just became so magical, and took on such a powerful energy — this wonderment of how it got there,” she said. “At first, people just saw it for what it was, and no one saw it as something polluting the bay.”
Nick said he hoped the experience would enhance his college applications but admitted that he was not sure. “It can be seen as a positive, artsy thing, or it can be seen as an irresponsible thing,” he said. “I would hate it if it became that. For that reason, I’m glad the piano is going away. Since it’s no longer a mystery, it will now just be a memory.”
Florida teenager 'put piano on Miami sand bar'
 |
| The piano sat unremarked upon for weeks |
A 16-year-old boy has admitted placing an old grand piano on a sand bar in Miami's Biscayne Bay, ending a mystery that had gripped the city.
Nicholas Harrington said he had used the family boat to haul the piano to its lonely perch as an art project to boost his bid for university.He said he was prepared to remove the instrument, an old movie prop.
"I wanted to create a whimsical, surreal experience," he told the Associated Press on Thursday.
Promotional video Nicholas said he had hatched the plan after partiers at a raucous New Year's Eve party set the piano, which had sat gathering dust in a garage for years, alight.
On 2 January, he and his father Mark Harrington, a production designer for films, and others took the piano out to the sand bar, where it remained unremarked upon until National Geographic posted pictures of the piano on its website last week.
They filmed the process for a video that Nicholas intended to submit with his application to Cooper Union, a prestigious art and engineering school in New York City.
Florida authorities have disclaimed responsibility for moving the piano, and the US Coast Guard has said it will not move it unless it becomes a navigation hazard.
But Nicholas and his mother told the Associated Press they were prepared to remove it themselves.
Piano on a Sandbar: Mystery Solved
Published: January 27, 2011
MIAMI SHORES, Fla. — The marine patrol officers and fish and wildlife agents made an onshore visit Thursday to the home of one Nick Harrington, 16, to deliver an ultimatum: Remove the grand piano from Biscayne Bay within 24 hours or face felony charges, a $5,000 fine or, perhaps, worse.
How did a baby grand end up on a sandbar in Biscayne Bay? Nick Harrington 16, says he is responsible. It involved trying to get into college.
A grand piano perched on a narrow sandbar in Biscayne Bay in Miami.
The mystery that has gripped much of South Florida and head-scratching Web surfers everywhere for the past week — who dumped an old grand piano on a sandbar and why on earth would anyone do that? — has finally been solved.
The teenager had intended to make a “surreal video” of the piano perched atop the sandbar’s highest point, with Miami’s glittering skyline as a backdrop, to impress the college admissions officers at the Cooper Union in Manhattan, where he hopes to study art or music.
The video was never made, although Nick and his family took some pictures of him pretending to play it while the piano was on fire. Not long afterward, boaters discovered it, and for days people guessed about the back story of the “piano bar.”
The odyssey of the baby grand began five years ago when it was used by Nick’s father, J. Mark Harrington, a film and television production designer, for a shoot. It was then moved to the garage of Nick’s grandmother. He and his family ferried the old piano on his family’s 22-foot Open Fisherman to the sandbar.
Nick remained quiet until an independent filmmaking couple claimed credit on Wednesday for putting the piano there. Nick, figuring his college admissions idea would be second-guessed unless he came forward right away to claim credit, decided to go public and call The Miami Herald.
“I never imagined this would become so big,” he said.
Within hours of the mystery being solved, the authorities informed the teenager that the piano amounts to litter and an eyesore and must be removed.
Dumping an object weighing more than 500 pounds is a third-degree felony in Florida, punishable by a maximum of five years in prison and a fine of up to $5,000. The grand piano weighs at least 650 pounds.
“The bottom line is this young man committed a felony by dumping the piano in the bay,” said Jorge Pino, a spokesman for the South Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, whose officers visited Nick along with representatives from the Miami-Dade marine patrol and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.
Mr. Pino said the authorities were approaching the situation with “leniency in mind,” because of the boy’s age. “We understand the kid’s desire to express his artistic point of view,” he said. “And that is O.K. But he has to be very careful not to violate the law the next time he does so.”
The seed for the idea was planted last autumn when Nick’s adviser at MAST Academy, Ariel Diaz-Escanaverino, urged him to come up with a creative idea that would set him apart from other students applying for college.
“He wanted to do something artistic,” Mr. Diaz-Escanaverino said.
Nick said he immediately thought of the piano. So last Christmas, he and his father transported it from his grandmother’s house to the family’s house by boat, down a canal. On New Year’s Eve, at a party attended by about 100 people, the revelers decided to light the piano on fire. “We filled it with gasoline,” he said, “and threw sparklers at it.”
On Jan. 2, Nick, his brother, Andrew, his father and a neighbor carted the piano to the family boat and ran it out to the sandbar. Nick had wanted to shoot a video that included a pianist, a bagpipe player and a guitarist.
Instead, they lighted the piano on fire for the second time in three days. A series of photos were taken of Nick pretending to play the blazing piano.
After the visit by the authorities on Thursday, the Harrington family and their friends began making arrangements to pull the piano from the bay. But a salvage company hired by an unidentified person later said it had removed the piano. The Harringtons, who say they hope they can find a home for the piano, perhaps in a museum, want it back, Mr. Diaz-Escanaverino said.
Nick’s mother, Annabel said she liked it much better when the piano’s origin was a mystery.
“It just became so magical, and took on such a powerful energy — this wonderment of how it got there,” she said. “At first, people just saw it for what it was, and no one saw it as something polluting the bay.”
Nick said he hoped the experience would enhance his college applications but admitted that he was not sure. “It can be seen as a positive, artsy thing, or it can be seen as an irresponsible thing,” he said. “I would hate it if it became that. For that reason, I’m glad the piano is going away. Since it’s no longer a mystery, it will now just be a memory.”
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