From Bryant Park to Grand Central: a Walking Tour
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511 West 25th Street, Suite 707 cultureNOW New York, NY 10001 Telephone 212.604.0900 Facsimile 212.414.2753 Website www.culturenow.org FROM BRYANT PARK TO GRAND CENTRAL: A WALKING TOUR BAR ASSOCIATION MURAL Let’s start the tour on 44th Street and 6th Avenue. Walking east towards 5th Avenue, you should see on your right the American Bar Association Building which features a mural done by Richard Haas in the lobby ceiling completed in 1983. Continuing east is the classical 1880’s limestone General Society of Mechanic and Tradesmen Building. The Grand Central Academy of Art occupies a loft there. The Academy exhibits the cast collection of the Institute of Classical Architecture & Classical America, which was donated by the Metropolitan Museum of Art and is displayed in its loft studios. The collection includes over 200 nineteenth century casts of Antique and Renaissance sculpture. CHASE MANHATTAN BANK Bar Association Mural As you approach 5th avenue, turn right heading downtown towards 43rd street. At 510 5th Avenue (labeled as number “54” on our ArtMap), on your right hand side you will see the Chase Manhattan Bank Building, designed by architect Gordon Bunshaft. Unusual for a bank at the time, the building features a 5-story clear glass wall along 5th Avenue. With its 60-foot curtain walls of untinted glass, open floors, and luminous ceiling grid, the building boldly announced that modern bank- ing need not be behind fortress-like stone walls or in subterranean chambers. To make this theme of transparency more emphatic, the architects put the door to the Mosler safe only 10 feet inside the 5th Avenue glass line, right on the ground floor. They hired noted Industrial Designer, Henry Dreyfuss to design it. The door, which originally stood open during business hours, made for an astonishing window dis- play. It is 16 inches thick and weighs 30 tons, yet, according to magazine articles published at the time of the building’s opening, “is so delicately balanced that it can be opened and shut using one finger. 15,000 visitors jammed the glass box on Mosler Safe opening day. If you happen to be at the Bank during business hours, take the escalator upstairs where you can see two sculptures commissioned for the building: a mobile hang- ing from the second floor ceiling done by Harry Bertoia and a 70 ft long screen of intersecting brass, copper and nickel panels designed by Harry Bertoia and Henry Dreyfuss. NYU SCHOOL OF CONTINUING EDUCATION Continue downtown along 5th Avenue and turn right on 42nd Street, heading back Mobile towards 6th Avenue. At this point your tour should begin to be along Bryant Park and the New York City Public Library. On the North side of the street is the NYU School of Continuing Education at 11 West 42nd Street where a Richard Haas Mural, Eight Manhattan Views was painted in 1979. He worked in collaboration with Bart Voorsanger who was the architect. One of the views is of the NY Public Library outside. LIBRARY FLAGPOLES As you walk south on Fifth Avenue towards the library you will see some truly spectacular flagpoles. The bases labeled 21 on the Art Map, were created in 1912 by Thomas Hastings and Raffaele J. Menconi in collaboration with Tiffany Studios. They have been called ‘the most beautiful in the country’. Screen THE LIBRARY LIONS, ‘PATIENCE & FORTITUDE’ As you continue walking along the perimeter of the New York City Public Library, you will come across the famous lions that flank the main entrance and one of the ‘best outdoor meeting places in the city’ (marked 187). Nicknamed “Patience and Fortitude” by Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, the lions have become so emblematic of the Library that they have even been trademarked. At Christmas they wear large green wreathes with red bows; at Easter the wreathes are floral. They have worn graduation caps, and have been featured in many movies. They were created in 1911 by Sculptor Edward Clark Potter who was known for his animal sculptures and carved by the Piccirilli brothers. Potter was paid $8000 for his modeling; the Piccirilli brothers received $5000. There is a similar pair of lions at the East Entrance of the Morgan Library that Potter also made. Flagpoles Next please look at the façade and sculptural adornment on the front of the library. It took 9 years to complete them all. Considered by many to be among the most note- worthy examples of Beaux Arts architectural sculpture in the country, they symbolize various fields of knowledge reflective of the Library’s function. THE SCULPTURES There are two statues in classical style located in the niches of the library entitled “Truth” and “Beauty”. These were created by Frederick MacMonnies in 1914-1920. The Library Lions: Patience & Fortitude Truth, the partially clad male figure, sits on a sphinx—the symbol of mystery. To his right is Beauty: a nude woman seated on a Pegasus, the winged horse whose hoof touched the earth and created the sacred wellspring. Above on the pediment are a collection of sculptures by George Gray Barnard entitled “Arts and History” . History is an allegory suggesting that the past events underlie life’s present course. Mi- chelle Cohen in her book ‘Manhattan’s Outdoor Sculpture’ also speaks of a contro- versy over the installation of the reliefs where the sculptor fought with Donnelly & Ricci, the firm that carved the figures, that the figures were not carved correctly and not properly tilted forward. Despite Barnard’s complaints, the sculptures were not replaced. Walking around to the rear of the Library, you will come across a terrace, designed by Thomas Hastings, which includes many classical ornaments: garlands, urns, and ram’s heads. This is the site of the William Cullen Bryant Memorial from 1911. Bry- ant (1794-1878) was a newspaper editor, one of America’s most popular poets, and a civic improver who led the campaign to create Central Park. Herbert Adams, one of the best ‘New York sculptors of his period, created the bronze figure of Bryant. William Cullen Bryant Memorial The memorial was dedicated in 1911, at the completion of the Library.’ And if you get a chance to go into the Library, be sure to check out the Richard Haas 2003 mural in the Dewitt Clinton Reading Room and the Edward Laning 1940 mural entitled “The History of the Recorded Word.” BRYANT PARK Leaving the Library and continuing along 42nd, you should come across a statue of William Earl Dodge completed by John Quincy Adams Ward in 1885 (351 on the art map). Known as the ‘Christian Merchant’ because he was very successful in business but mindful of his moral responsibilities, William Earl Dodge was one of the founders of the Young Men’s Christian Association. He also served as the President of the National Temperance Society. The sculpture came about because after he William Earl Dodge died, his friends came together to erect a commemorative statue. Michelle Cohen in ‘Manhattan’s Outdoor Sculpture’ says that it was symptomatic of a growing desire to honor admired citizens in public statuary which she calls a ‘departure from the artistic geniuses, generals, and statesmen usually comemorated’. He was originally placed on a pedestal by Richard Morris Hunt in Herald Square, but was moved in 1941 to this location. There was a Richard Morris Hunt drinking fountain that served as the original pedestal which was lost in the move. Continuing east around the perimeter of Bryant Park, you will see on the north-east corner another full figure statue—this one of Benito Juarez, sculpted in 2004 by Moi- ses Cabrera Orozco, labeled (223 on the art map). The newest monument in Bryant Park, this statue of Benito Juarez was a gift from the State of Oaxaca to the City of New York. The statue, handcrafted by Moises Carera, is the first Mexican figure to Benito Juarez be placed in the city of New York. Juarez is a Mexican national hero and Mexico’s first president of Indian descent. Revered by his countrymen as a great political leader, Juarez proclaimed the ‘Reforma Law,’ thus establishing the foundation for the Mexican Republic and preserving the independence of Mexico. As you turn left down 6th avenue heading downtown, look into the park’s western gateway to see the Josephine Shaw Lowell Memorial Fountain (15 on the art map) created by Charles Adam Platt and dedicated in 1912. Lowell, who was born in 1843 and died in 1905, was a social worker and the founder of the Charity Organization Society. After one block, take another turn towards 5th Avenue so you continue to border the Josephine Shaw Lovell Temperance Fountain park. Two busts on this southern side of the park should catch your attention. The first is a bronze bust of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the great German writer who lived from 1749 to 1832. The German sculptor Karl Fischer created this bust in 1832, the year of Goethe’s death. The Goethe Club of New York purchased it in 1876 and donated it to Bryant Park in 1932, the centenary of the writer’s death. Another bronze bust can be seen just to the west of the Bryant Memorial. Sculptor Jo Davidson cre- ated a bust of the American writer Gertrude Stein in 1920, now in the collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art. The Bryant Park bust is a cast made from the original. Also take note of the Wendell Wilkie Memorial plaque as you walk along the side-wall. UNDER BRYANT PARK Step below grade at the subway to check out the Arts for Transit work by Sam Kunce ‘Under Bryant Park’ from 2002.