A Brooklyn artist’s floating “condo” for birds has been left high and dry by the state Department of Conservation.
Chico MacMurtrie’s aluminum tree sculpture – which had been floating in the East River only a month when it was pulled out earlier this month – is not allowed back in the water because a permit application had been completed incorrectly, the department said yesterday.
MacMurtrie has said his “A Tree for Anable Basin” is a goof on the luxury high-rise boom in Long Island City, Queens.
He created the fake tree to float off Long Island City and provide homes for birds that may have once nested in real trees cleared by the new buildings’ construction.
The sculpture was moored Oct. 16 but because the East River is protected water, the state ordered him to remove it on Nov. 16.
MacMurtrie has said he had wanted the permit to move his creation to a nearby inlet.
He was unavailable for comment.