— unpredictable thoughts

The gateway to SOHO.

I was happy to hear that “the gate­way to SOHO” has tri­umphed due to a com­pro­mise. Some­thing we don’t hear of in this amer­i­can life under George Bush.

I was going to design school in nyc when this work was installed. I walked by it many times on my way to wan­der through gal­leries, shop at Pearl Paints on Canal Street, and scav­age the dumpsers out­side the small man­u­fac­tur­ing that still existed in SOHO at the time. It was always won­der­ful to see this piece. I’m glad to know that I will get to see it again.

IN THE NEWS:

On Oct. 17 the New York Land­marks Preser­va­tion Com­mis­sion voted unan­i­mously in favor of pro­tect­ing The Wall, a 1974 work by For­rest Myers located on the north face of 599 Broad­way at Hous­ton Street in SoHo [see “Front Page,” Jan. ‘98]. The famil­iar work is based on an exist­ing set of 42 metal braces in a grid of seven down, six across, which were installed to secure the brick wall when an adja­cent build­ing was torn down decades ago to widen Hous­ton. Myers attached a pro­ject­ing 4-foot-long alu­minum girder to each brace, and then painted the whole laven­der and turquoise. Jen­nifer J. Raab, chair­man of the Land­marks Com­mis­sion, who cham­pi­ons the work, expressed the widely held sen­ti­ment that the work is the “gate­way to SoHo.” Oth­ers who actively strove to pro­tect the wall are City Coun­cil mem­ber Kathryn Freed, State Sen­a­tor Thomas Duane, New Museum direc­tor Lisa Phillips, and artists John Cham­ber­lain, Robert Rauschen­berg, Richard Serra and Frank Stella. Read the full story here.

Morn­ing Edi­tion, March 15, 2005 · An acclaimed eight-story sculp­ture in New York City is at the cen­ter of a dis­pute headed to court today. The sculp­ture was made some 30 years ago and is attached to the out­side wall of a con­do­minium. The art­work is known as “the Gate­way to SoHo” or sim­ply, “The Wall.” Now, the own­ers of the build­ing want to take it down and use the space as a revenue-generating bill­board. you can lis­ten to the broad­cast here.

The orig­i­nal owner of 599 Broad­way, Charles Tan­nen­baum, com­mis­sioned Mr. Myers’s work as a way of dis­guis­ing an eye­sore — naked joists that once were attached to a neigh­bor­ing build­ing that had been torn down. As its rep­u­ta­tion grew, it became known as “The Gate­way to SoHo.” New York Times arti­cle here.