This Is Outrageous!

Astor Place, New York - Little Ukraine - Saturday, May 6th, 2006 : goo

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First off sorry for the lack of pictures - I'll be going out in a minute to try to get some good ones.
I'm trying to decide how best to put this story into context, so let me start by saying that two years ago a building was constructed on Astor Place in the East Village that is considered by many to be just plain ugly. I won't try to describe all the implications of the construction of this building - here is a link to a good New Yorker article by Paul Goldberger, from which I'll pull a few sections-

http://www.newyorker.com/critics/skyline/articles/050502crsk_skyline

Goldberger says,
"The first thing you think when you see the new luxury apartment building at Astor Place—a slick, undulating tower clad in sparkly green glass—is that it doesn’t belong in the neighborhood. The tone of Astor Place is set by places like Cooper Union, the Public Theatre, and the gargantuan former Wanamaker store on Broadway: heavy brawny blocks of masonry that sit foursquare on the ground. Louis Sullivan once described one of Henry Hobson Richardson’s great stone buildings as a man with “virile force—broad vigorous, and with a whelm of energy.” The new building, designed by Charles Gwathmey is an elf prancing among men.
Of course, cities are often enriched by architecture that seems, at first, to be alien: the pristine glass towers of Mies van der Rohe and the sylphlike bridges of Santiago Calatrava have brought grace to countless harsh, older cityscapes. But this new building, which is on one of the most prominent sites in lower Manhattan, does not have a transforming effect. If, as Vincent Scully proposed, architecture is a conversation between generations, this young intruder hasn’t much to say to its neighbors. Its shape is fussy, and the glass façade is garishly reflective: Mies van der Rohe as filtered through Donald Trump. Instead of adding a lyrical counterpoint to Astor Place, the tower disrupts the neighborhood’s rhythm.
In an inelegant way, Gwathmey’s building has exposed a truth about this part of lower Manhattan: inside those rough-and-tumble old masonry buildings is a lot of wealth. By designing a tower with such a self-conscious shimmer, the architect has destroyed the illusion that this neighborhood, which underwent gentrification long ago, is now anything other than a place for the rich. The thirty-nine apartments inside the Gwathmey building start at two million dollars."
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In 1987, long-time East Village resident Jim Power began the first of his mosaics on lampposts around the area, which are by now a very well-known part of the East Village scenery and a really fine example of street art. The city originally tried to stop Power but eventually, I suppose due to popular demand, allowed him to continue and in time he was even presented with a New Yorker of the Month award for his beautification of the neighborhood.
Here are some pictures of his work:
http://home.att.net/~gunter/view/jpower/jpower.html

ANYWAY let me get to the point - sorry for the long leadup, but I really wanted the weight of this to be felt. This morning I was walking by the aforementioned Astor Place Building and I saw a man in uniform with a hammer and chisel removing Jim's mosaic from the lamppost in front of the building. I asked him if it was the city or the Building removing the work, and he told me it was the Building. I can't explain how upset I was for the loss of this art. Where was the city on this one?? The Village preservation groups?? The worst part is, I can't imagine WHY the Building would want to remove the mosaic. It was not damaged to the best of my knowledge and was nothing less than pleasant to look at. I simply don't understand it. I'm going back out now to try to get some pictures to put this all in context. If you've made it this far, thanks for reading.

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