Broken Angel Up For Sale
It’s a sad day in Mudville: Shahn and Arthur are having to give up on their dream of converting the Broken Angel into a bunch of eclectically designed condos. A few days ago, they put the 13,000-square-foot property up for sale with no asking price. Interested parties can contact Shahn at 917-627-6454. Given that the…
It’s a sad day in Mudville: Shahn and Arthur are having to give up on their dream of converting the Broken Angel into a bunch of eclectically designed condos. A few days ago, they put the 13,000-square-foot property up for sale with no asking price. Interested parties can contact Shahn at 917-627-6454. Given that the new NYT listings site currently returns zero responses to a Clinton Hill search, we’re unable to come up with the listing right now!
Judge Gives Angel Duo The Heisman [Brownstoner] GMAP
Broken Angel: DOB Overzealous or Just Doing Its Job? [Brownstoner]
Broken Angel Reno: Approaching the Summit [Brownstoner]
More Details on the Broken Angel Project [Brownstoner]
“Did they close down the methadone clinic, What? Take your meds. Then talk to your therapist about why you hate / are afraid of women.”
No Baby. You see Miss Chaf you come out of no where attacking me so, I returned fire.. BTW Have you seen Shahn? He’s one of the Asshats I just PWNED. About a year ago this clown was talking smack to your boy The What and now he’s no where to be found. I think he’s on the run. ROTFLMMFAO!
“Then talk to your therapist about why you hate / are afraid of women.”
Wow you are into Psychoanalysis huh? No sweetie love women but unfortunately you’re not one of them…
The What
Someday this war is gonna end..
MM – you may not recall Shahn’s arrogant and critical (of DOB, all other developers, etc…) but search (Google – site:brownstoner.com) is your friend – its all there for the reading
Broken angel stood for over 30 years (I first saw it in the 80’s and it had been around long before that. So they must have done something right.
All the people taking potshots at Shahn are saying more about themselves than him. It’s so easy to say I told you so, and even easier to sit back and not do a damn thing. Shahn really tried to do the right thing by Arthur- maybe it was quixotic, certainly it was courageous. and help save the artistic work of a lifetime. We don’t know all the circumstances, but the fact that he couldn’t ultimately salvage Broken Angel is no cause for celebration.
My whole point is that Shahn was a developer who was trying to unite creative expression and profit, something that isn’t done much unfortunately and something I would love to see more of. I think it could be, or could have been possible to have both. It’s sad that it didn’t work and I think it has to do with too much scrutiny by the DOB, yes, but also the current economic realities and probably difficulties with financing.
(ps – the DOB permits giant cranes teetering in the air that actually HAVE killed people. The Broken Angel never physically harmed anyone, but it did inspire many.)
loved this beautiful structure – my children called it the pirate ship in the sky and when arthur woods walked by our house, they would always whisper excitedly, “there’s the captain pirate, mommy!” thank god for that kind of whimsy and creativity in our world and I can only hope and pray that some philanthropist who didn’t invest with madoff will swoop in and rescue the project!
Did they close down the methadone clinic, What? Take your meds. Then talk to your therapist about why you hate / are afraid of women.
How is this different from any Frank Gehry design? Except, you know, for the safety part (“homemade 25-30′ GLASS structure teetering 50′ in the air”)?
P – you over drastically over state it –
1st of all this isnt about “Creative Expression” – what Shahn was trying to do was PROFITABLE creative expression and frankly that was never viable in most cases – throughout history – for a profit – creativity must be constrained by cost reality.
As it applies to the building itself as an expression of creativity – sure it was great – but it was UNSAFE and that is no ones fault but the owners.
We can all bemoan the difficulty that DOB gave the owners (and ignored plenty of other situations) but for once think about it from the DOBs perspective – they had a homemade 25-30′ GLASS structure teetering 50′ in the air. Do you know how loud the outrage would have been toward DOB if that thing had fallen and killed someone (let alone a group of people or children). People would have gone to jail and the headline of the Post would have been something like “Death trap of glass ignored by city officials” along with a parade of DOB officials (and your buddy Arthur being hauled before Grand Juries and potentially to jail).
Facts have certainly proven that the “art” wasnt so easily or cheapily made safe and therefore the DOBs choice to pick safety over art was proven to be the intelligent one.
All this as a long way of saying this was not a referendum on creative expression but on building saftey.
MMHTPH, I’m sure you are a better man than I am, as I am not a man, but I get your point, and take issue, anyway. I can’t speak for Shahn, I’ve never even met the man, but in answer to both you and fsrq, I don’t remember him saying anything of the kind. He positively asserted that it was possible to develop the site for a reasonable amount of money. He was immediately jumped on for even trying, and if he came off as arrogant, perhaps it was just because he was judged insufficient before even allowing him the chance to try.
We don’t know why they weren’t able to succeed. More than likely, the legal fees, endless harassment by DOB, and perhaps unforeseen problems with the buildings and their structural integrity took their toll. Maybe it was bigger than he thought, maybe he had family or other business concerns that were more important. Maybe he lost his funding, maybe other backers pulled out, maybe, maybe, maybe. If he feels like it, maybe Shahn will elaborate.
You guys may not have liked the guy, perhaps because he was getting all of this press, perhaps because he challenged you on the Navy Yard, I don’t know, and don’t care. I still admire him for trying, and I still will mourn the probable loss of a free spririt, and a cocky local entrepeneur’s dream.