On a sunny, blue-sky morning with a breeze that hinted at fall, a soaring rose-hued sculpture drew curious looks Friday from early visitors to New Orleans City Park. At 22 feet tall, the “Rose Crystal Tower,” by famed glass artist Dale Chihuly, creates a whimsical and monumental marker to the entrance of the park’s New Orleans Botanical Garden.

At the sculpture’s unveiling ceremony Friday, the garden’s director, Paul Soniat, said he was thrilled to have the sculpture there for two years, until November 2020…