People loved or hated the bent blue tubes that adorned Orchestra Hall when it opened in 1974. There were jokes about how they belonged on a ship's deck, or should be hidden from view altogether.

The haters will be happy to see the blue tubes go, as part of the just-underway renovation of Orchestra Hall in downtown Minneapolis. Some who view them more fondly have been selected to get them as gifts, complete with free delivery.

The photos by Billy Steve Clayton of the Star Tribune, taken this week, show the dismantled tubes lying like beached blue whales in adjacent Peavey Plaza. While some of them actually functioned as air-exchange ducts, othere were merely decorative.

The orchestra put out word via Facebook, seeking to give away tubes to recipient's with good ideas about how they would use them. They got about a dozen proposals, and announced Friday that tubes would go to five lucky winners, including a sculpture park in Red Wing, a St. Paul composer's house (to be used as a sound installation and bat house), a mini-golf park in Minnestrista, sculptor Peter Morales for a planned piece at Franconia Sculpture Park in Shafer, Minn. Franconia will also get 10 tubes to be used in a variety of ways.

The tubes are being shipped free by Mortenson Construction, contractor on the Orchestra Hall redo. The new hall is scheduled to open in 2013.