Myers:
The gateway to SoHo.
599 Broadway, just south of Houston Street, NY
“The Wall,” commissioned in 1973, covered about one-sixth of an acre on the side of the building at 599 Broadway, just south of Houston Street. It was essentially a kind of dimpled field — 42 protruding aluminum beams evenly spaced.
Its parts have been in storage since 2002, perhaps never to be on display again. The building’s owners wanted to put advertising billboards in its place.The city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission unanimously approved, with little or no community opposition, a compromise reached by the creator of “The Wall” and the owners of 599 Broadway. It calls for advertising to go up on some of the space where “The Wall” once stood, satisfying the owners. But one floor above that, and illuminated at night, “The Wall” can return, satisfying the artist, Forrest Myers.
via nytimes, here..
"Well, at that time it was us against the world. But we also thought we would change the world, and not necessarily political but how people saw stuff. And we wanted everybody to be able to do it. And now that its happened we’re not sure its such a good thing."
- Forrest Myers
"I consider myself a SoHo Pioneer. I came [downtown] in 1962 and they were building the world trade center where I and other artists were living and I actually got run out of there too, they were going to demolish buildings… And so I moved to SoHo and people said why are you going to SoHothere’s nothing there but a bunch of trucks.Well at that time there were a lot of spaces for rent, not only in SoHo, but other places. Artists lived downtown… there were so few artists when I came to New York it was just odd. There were about 400 artists."
- Forrest Myers, via Soho Journal. here..
Forrest
Myers:
The gateway to SoHo.
599 Broadway, just south of Houston Street, NY
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