Arts
January 24, 2008
Your Friends and Neighbors, 475 Kent Edition
It’s still unclear when or if the hundreds of tenants evacuated from 475 Kent Avenue on Sunday night will be able to move back into the building. Betsy Kelleher, who told the Times she has been fighting for years to get the building legally converted into apartments, left a post on a 475 Kent message board saying that judges are likely to allow the residents to move back in after the hazardous materials are removed: “as a result of the fact that this is a multiple dwelling and there are already laws in place protecting this many tenants in ‘defacto multiple dwellings’ our lawyers can go to the court to ask for an order from a judge that says we can return to our homes.” (Another conspiracy theory making the rounds: That the shut-down was payback from the Fire Department against owner Nachman Brach.) The AP, meanwhile, had a story about the many well-known photographers and artists who lived in the building, including: David Alan Harvey and Robert Clark, National Geographic photographers; Paolo Pellegrin and Alex Majoli, noted war photographers and members of Magnum Photos; Stanley Greene, who has covered the devastation in Chechnya; Kadir van Lohuizen, who has covered conflicts in Africa; Simon Lee, a visual artist; and Eve Sussman, whose exhibit at the 2004 Whitney Biennial was one of that year’s favorites.
Renowned Photojournalists Forced Out of NYC Building [AP/SI Live]
‘Commune of Creative Types’ in the Burg is Emptied Out [Brownstoner]
475 Kent: Confusion, Anger & Calls to Allow Residents Back [GL]
475 Kent Message Board [475kent.com]
Photo by D-Trubble.
January 3, 2008
Closing Bell: A Peek Inside the New Galapagos
It's been seven months since news of Galapagos' move from Williamsburg to Dumbo broke and judging from this photo from just before Christmas it'll be a few more months before the performance space (the city's first such "green" space) at 16 Main Street is ready to rock. Should be a nice shot of adrenaline for the otherwise sedate neighborhood.
Galapagos: Goodbye Billyburg, Hello Dumbo [Brownstoner] GMAP