By Devin Gannon, Mon, October 25, 2021 All photos courtesy of Tishman Speyer
Rockefeller Center last week kicked off a nearly two-week celebration of Mexican culture and Día de Los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, with the installation of larger-than-life Mexican folk-art sculptures and other artworks around the plaza. As part of the campus-wide commemoration, see an 11-foot dragon and a 13.5-foot feathered jaguar, an exhibition of fashionably dressed skeleton figures, a Día de Los Muertos display altar, and a floral installation adorning the center’s iconic bronze statue Atlas.
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By Michelle Cohen, Fri, October 15, 2021 All photos: Alexandre Ayer / @DiversityPics for the Garment District Alliance.
The Port Authority bus terminal in Midtown may not be one of New York City’s most beautiful places, but the world’s busiest terminal recently got a beauty boost in the form of a 40-foot-high, 600-foot-wide gallery wall that features the diverse and fabulous faces of over 1,200 New Yorkers. The Garment District Alliance (GDA) and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) have collaborated to bring the giant photo gallery, “Inside Out: NY Together,” part of an international initiative by world-renowned artist JR, to the Manhattan bus gateway.
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By Dana Schulz, Fri, September 24, 2021 Listing photos courtesy of Warburg Realty
By the looks of this beautiful kitchen, you’d never know the apartment is only a studio. Instead of the usual cramped, galley kitchen, this one is large, high-end, and even has space for a full-size dining table. The entire place has been finished in a Parisian, salon-style, complete with delicate panel moldings and ceiling medallions, black-and-white marble floors, textured wall and ceiling treatments, and a claw-foot tub. Located at 372 Fifth Avenue, it’s on the market for $650,000.
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By Devin Gannon, Wed, September 22, 2021 Photos courtesy of Alexandre Ayer / @DiversityPics for the Garment District Alliance
Seven supersized origami-inspired sculptures are now on display in Midtown Manhattan as part of the neighborhood’s latest public art exhibit. Installed by the Garment District Alliance and the Department of Transportation, the exhibition, Hacer: Transformations, features brightly colored steel sculptures of animals that vary in size and resemble the paper-folding art. Created by California-based artist Hacer, the installation will be on display along Broadway between 36th and 39th Streets through November 23.
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By Dana Schulz, Fri, September 10, 2021 All photos © Dana Schulz for 6sqft
Artist Nick Cave is best known for his Soundsuits, wearable sculptures made of natural materials like dyed human hair and feathers that make noise when worn. For his latest endeavor, creating a public art piece for the passageway that connects the B, D, F, and M trains to the 42nd Street shuttle, Cave translated his Soundsuits into colorful, energetic mosaics of dancers in Soundsuits made of raffia and fur. According to the New York Times, the $1.8M project was commissioned by MTA Arts & Design as part of the larger $250 million undertaking to revamp the shuttle. In addition to more than 24 intricate mosaics, Cave’s piece, titled “Every One,” includes a series of 11 digital screens that play videos of people in actual Soundsuits dancing.
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By Devin Gannon, Fri, September 10, 2021 All renderings courtesy of Tishman Speyer
One of the city’s most popular observation decks could be getting a facelift. Tishman Speyer Properties has proposed several enhancements to the Top of the Rock deck at landmarked 30 Rockefeller Plaza, including a rotating attraction that lets visitors recreate the iconic “Lunch atop a Skyscraper” photo, a kinetic globe, and a new viewing platform on the 70th floor. The proposal was recommended for approval by Manhattan Community Board 5 last week and will be heard by the Landmarks Preservation Commission on Tuesday.
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By Devin Gannon, Mon, August 23, 2021 Photo credit: Jonathan Blanc / NYPL
The New York Public Library’s much-anticipated permanent exhibition of rotating rare objects and artifacts finally opens to the public next month. First announced in 2018, the Polonsky Exhibition of The New York Public Library’s Treasures features 250 unique, historic items from the library’s incredible holdings, which includes more than 45 million objects in its research collections. Highlights include Thomas Jefferson’s handwritten copy of the Declaration of Independence, Charles Dickens’ writing desk, a letter written by James Baldwin to Angela Davis, the 1811 Comissioners’ Map and Survey of Manhattan Island, and much more.
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By Devin Gannon, Mon, August 16, 2021 Rendering by Paul Bennett Architects PC
The first permanent museum dedicated to Broadway will open in Times Square next year. Originally scheduled to debut in 2020 but delayed because of the pandemic, the Museum of Broadway will open at 145 West 45th Street in the summer of 2022, officials announced on Monday. The interactive experience will explore and celebrate the history and legacy of Broadway musicals, plays, and theatres.
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By Devin Gannon, Thu, August 12, 2021 Courtesy of Diane Bondareff/AP Images for Tishman Speyer
The distinct art of KAWS is now on display at Rockefeller Center. The 18-foot tall bronze sculpture, dubbed SHARE, features two of the artist’s signature cartoon-like figures, Companion and BFF. The installation, which coincides with the current sweeping exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum, “KAWS: WHAT PARTY,” will be on view at the Center Plaza until October 29.
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By Rebecca Paul, Wed, August 4, 2021 “A Scene in Shantytown, New York” appearing in the March 4, 1880 edition of the New York Daily Graphic, via Wikimedia Commons
Following the October stock market crash of 1929, there was an unprecedented number of people in the U.S. without homes or jobs. And as the Great Depression set in, demand grew and the overflow became far too overwhelming and unmanageable for government resources to manage. Homeless people in large cities began to build their own houses out of found materials, and some even built more permanent structures from brick. Small shanty towns—later named Hoovervilles after President Hoover—began to spring up in vacant lots, public land and empty alleys. Three of these pop-up villages were located in New York City, the largest of which was on what is now Central Park’s Great Lawn.
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