culturenow.org

Vol. 2  Issue 4 - April, 2012

LEGACIES

When we started documenting artwork in the public realm for our very first map of Lower Manhattan in 2002 we discovered a 1970's era office building on Water Street whose arcade was filled with a nautical themed art collection. You could barely see the roof from the sidewalk but if you happened to glance upwards, there perched on top was a vintage WWI era biplane. Post 9/11 it cheered us up immensely. Weird and wonderful, we almost thought it was our secret. Well...

Melvyn Kaufman died last week. Like most good Jewish boys of his era, he went into the family business which in his family meant real estate. Over the course of his long career, he became one of New York's most colorful and interesting developers. Believing that lobbies for office buildings were dull and underutilized spaces, he filled them with some very unusual and whimsical artwork often commissioned in partnership with his favorite architect Emory Roth and his graphic designer Rudolph de Harak. What Melvyn Kaufman left us with is an idiosyncratic and highly personal collection of public art.

This month also the Architectural League is celebrating the 30th anniversary of Emerging Voices, their signature spring lecture series showcasing up and coming Architects. We've spent many an interesting evening over the past three decades in the audience (as we like to say aging in place). To look back and select one of the many compelling voices to highlight is an embarrassment of riches; we chose Architecture Research Office because we love their work, we went to their Emerging Voice Lecture and are more than thrilled that they won the 2011 Cooper Hewitt Design Award which officially validates the choice.

For us, April is about Legacies. Like the Bloomberg Administration as it completes its final year and scrambles to implement every civic improvement they can, we've been thinking a lot about the design choices people make now that have long term impacts on the cityscape.

Abby Suckle, President

Featured Art Collection: WILLIAM KAUFMAN ORGANIZATION As the driving force behind his firm's public Art Collection, Melvyn Kaufman liked commissioning unusual and often interactive artworks. While 767 Third Avenue was under construction, for instance, it turned out that there was an adjacent apartment building which featured what the Kaufman brothers considered a dull beige wall fronting their plaza. Their solution was to attach a tall grid of metal beams to the blank wall of the nearby apartment and create a 3-story high chessboard with 30 in wide chess pieces. The chessboard features famous historical chess matches between world champions. Every Wednesday at noon a workman climbs into a cherrypicker and makes the next move. The flag nearby indicates which color moves next. To find out more about the game in progress, there is a concierge in the lobby; underneath are a few tables for enthusiasts to play their own games. Another kinetic artwork commissioned by Kaufman is what some have called the world's largest digital clock filling up three stories of 200 Water Street's facade and keeping track of minutes, hours and seconds. The graphic red phone shelters were designed for the plaza below, street furniture which has survived both the advent of universal cellular phones and the repurposing of the building as a dorm for NYU students.	Chessboard (1981) Pamela Waters Studio	Digital Clock (1971) Rudolph De Harak
	Phone Booths (1971) Rudolph De Harak	Sopwith Camel & Landing Strip (1971)