Last week, when the sun finally came out in Our Fair City, giant sunflowers sprouted in the plaza between Broadway and Fifth Avenue at 23^rd Street - just a few blocks from DART HQ. This pedestrian zone, with lush flower-filled planters, umbrella tables and chairs, is now a free Wi-Fi zone, courtesy Toyota.

NYC's Flatiron Plaza sprouts Toyota's free Wi-Fi flowers.

The installation serves as an ad for Toyota's third generation Prius, with its solar sunroof that powers the car's ventilation system. The 18-foot-high flowers have solar panels behind the petals. The base serves as a sculpted bench that accommodates 10, and each stem has outlets for charging your cell phone or laptop.

When I stopped in at lunchtime, the benches were pretty full up with visitors using and charging their laptops. Two workers from the local yoghurt-and-berries outlet came by offering a tray of free samples (icy cold and delicious!), so these flowers could be very good for neighborhood business.

Perhaps perhaps the Wi-Fi sunflowers will also serve as inspiration for students at nearby School of Visual Arts, Parsons The New School, and Pratt Institute: installation art as advertising vehicle. Personally, I think Toyota could have done a lot better on the art side of things.

According to the press release, "Toyota is making an unprecedented foray into social networking with deep programs on Facebook, Twitter and HowStuffWorks." According to the information I found on Facebook, New York's solar flowers will be on the Flatiron Plaza only until August 2^nd, when they will move to Chicago's Navy Pier, and later to Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.