Transcript

Re-creation of Public Spaces: Sandra Bloodworth at TEDxCapeMay

[Applause] When I started thinking about the topic recreation and recreation, I was thinking how my husband Fred May and I come to Kate May to recreate ourselves. Very quickly I realized no actually we come to Cape May to recreate to refresh ourselves to refresh mentally and physically. Now, MTA Arts for Transit and Urban Design has been around for 27 years, and I have had the privilege for 24 of those years to be part of a team that recreated a very public place. Now, Kate May, those of us that those that went before us knew something about recreating a place. And there are many of you here that also have done a great deal to recreate this place. So now there's this idealic place for all of us to come to. Well, in those late 70s, while Cape May was recreating itself and redefining itself, 130 miles to the north, New York City was suffering from high crime and urban decline. The subways were really nowhere anyone wanted to be. However, for many, it was the only choice of of public transportation that was affordable. So the MTA started to take steps. They started strategizing on how they could renew this urban this transit system. Now it was many agencies but in particular Long Island Railroad, Metro North and New York City Transit. Now, for the purpose of the story I'm going to tell you today, we're going to focus on New York City transit and the subway. To do that, I'm going to start at the very beginning. The chief engineer, William Barkley Parsons, knew and he convinced the founders that to create in creating this transportation system, the subway, it needed to be a very aesthetically pleasing space. Now to convince them to be sure this happened, he was able to include this line in the very first contract. And I'm going to read it to you. The railway and its equipment as contemplated by the contract constitute a great public work. All parts of the structure where exposed to public sight shall therefore be designed, constructed, and maintained with a view to their beauty as well of their appearance as well as to their efficiency. And the architects they hired, Hines and Lafarge, to to do this, to accomplish this, to create the finishes for this engineering marble, were also the architects of St. John the Divine on the Upper West Side. They knew to get people who were used to traveling above ground to descend below and travel underground that it was going to have to be an attractive place. They used some of the finest terracotta of the time, in particular one of the finest, Groovy Fants of Boston. Here you see Gruby's cobalt blue glaze at Bleecker Street. Now many people considered that this is the first art of the subway. This is opening in 1904 at Columbus Circle. What is known as their very now known as their famous groovy green glazes you see. But you also see that the architects used associative symbols. They took what was above and they brought it below. for example, the the caravl. And then at Aster Place, the Aster family lived above the station and they were known for their fur trading business. And so you see the beaver depicted in in the terracotta plaque. Now, this period of of subway building would extend on into the 20s and carrying pretty much forward the same aesthetic into the late30s when the next line was built to carry people to the World's Fair of 1939. There was a much more modernist aesthetic. Now, in the World War II era, attention and public money was really increasingly on the on the rapidly expanding automobile travel and its enormous infrastructure needs and subways became old-fashioned and unfashionable. deterioration set in and all this deterioration culminated in the 1970s with New York City on the brink of collapse. Subway stations also deteriorated. They were they were crimeridden. They were grimy. Trains broke down constantly and they were defaced with graffiti. Subway wrership plummeted because people were afraid to use the subways. And just like the city of New York, the transit system was on the brink of collapse. But by the early 80s, the economic situation improved and the MTA began cleaning up the system and the leadership began truly strategizing and building a plan. And by then, the renewal program was well underway. And they knew, just like the founders, they knew that art should be an important part of this rebuilding program. And thus, Arts for Transit was founded. And you saw the power of art to encourage writership and and deter graffiti immediately as witnessed at Aster Place. Again, see the the groovy plaque there at Aster Place with Milton Glazer's mural evoking the original terracotta and transforming the place. Very quickly, leadership, writership saw the power of art to truly recreate a place. And it is very clear that the resurgence of the quality of life of New York City began with this renewal. Now, Arts for Transit looked closely at the system when we began creating art artworks and we looked at the terracotta plaques and where neither man nor nature had intervened, they were in remarkable good shape. And so we encouraged artists to use similar durable materials, mosaics, bronze, things that would last hundreds of years. We also encourage the artists to look at these hundreds and hundreds of miles of walls and to incorporate the work they did into the architecture. Today, there's over 240 permanent artworks in the MTA system. I'm going to give you a quick highlights tour of some of those works. At 59th Street in Lexington, Elizabeth Murray's mosaics greet you as you transfer through the station. Her stepping shoes and her morning coffee cups evoke the evening and morning commute. When you think of New York, you often think of Time Square. And below Time Square is Roy Lickenstein's mural. And this this particular artwork in many ways has become the icon of arts for transit. It's rapidly becoming the icon of New York City transit. Also at Times Square, Jane Dixon invites us all to join the party. Her Times Square revelers celebrate every day because every day in Time Square is a celebration for someone. At 53rd and Lex, Al Hell's passing through captures the skyscrapers above in a in an abstract way and brings that energy below ground. Under Bryant Park. The title of this piece, Sam Coun on 42nd Street, gives you the feeling, the view as if you could look under Bryant Park. You see the the roots, the rock outcroppings, and the quotations which reflect the New York Public Library. above Masimichi Urugawa and Ziggy Moss Linger at 96 Street created a work titled Blumendal which is the Dutch name for Blooming Dale which was the original name of this neighborhood on the Upper West Side. They are capturing that moment in in these flowers giving a a tip to the hat to the community's Dutch roots. below the Museum of Natural History. Again, on the Upper West Side, it's as if you have stepped into the museum when you step off of the train. At 59th Street, Solowit recreates at this place one of his wall drawings, Whirls and Twirls, MTA, and durable ceramic. Saul captures the energy of the station and of the people as they move through this space. 34th Street where the an annual Barnaman Bailey circus is above below Eric Fishell evokes the circus and it's called Circus of Earthly Delights and you're surrounded by circus animals and under the big top you have fire breathers and then he has a commuter who travels through the big top and breaks out on the other side at 14th Street. Tom Modernness's tubby toy-like figures bring whimsy and joy. And he also always has to remind us of that urban myth of the alligator coming out of the sewer, in this case in the subway. Show you quickly before and then how a space is recreated at Bedford Lehman with Andrea Dezo's community garden. Also in the Bronx, Barbara Gagudas had her sculptural seating is installed in the windscreen. It's called Bronx Riverviews and opens up both the river and views below to the recreation area there in Brooklyn. John D. Dominico architect collaborated with Allan and Ellen Wexler to create overlook. It's as if you're in a national park and you're looking out except here you're looking out over the urban environment. Now, when you arrive in Coney Island, you see the amusements, you see the waves of the ocean. Well, Veto Akanchi invites you with HDR Architects to experience the subway in the same form. Fido also took that dark, dreary platform and opened it up to all the wonders that were around. He created an eye on the platform where you can look out and you can see the surroundings and you can see the ocean. At Stillwell Avenue, Robert Wilson, the performance off artist, created a 370 foot wall that evokes the heyday of of Coney Island using historic postcards and images. Likewise, John de Dominico also evoked the heyday of Coney Island with the architecture referencing those early days. He included also the historic terracotta of the original portal. And our most recent, one of our most recent, Leo Villa Riel's hive at Bleecker Street. It marks the location where never before could you go from downtown to uptown at or vice versa at Bleecker. And now you can and now you can experience this wonderful beacon lighting the way. And it's not not just art that recreates a place. It's all the elements. We worked with Antenna to design on several of these industrial elements such as our Metrocard vending machines which were curated last year in Tamoma's Talk to Me Show Museum of Modern Art and also our trains designed by Antenna. And now we're working with them on our help point which is being installed. It has re recently been taken into the permanent collection of MoMA and you can see it on display now. Quick glimpse at those new things that we're also creating. Uh part of recreating is sometimes involves creating. So the Second Avenue subway. I'm going to show you the art quickly. Chuck Close will be creating larger than life portraits at 86 Street. At 96th Street, Sarah C. who is the United States entry to the Venice Vonalei this year will be creating artworks in three locations throughout the station. And Jean Shin had reminds us of the original elevated Second Avenue line where when the elevated was removed and the sky came you could see from below. Zenobia Bailey has created bold colorful mandelas in for the number seven on the west side of Manhattan. Now, nowhere did a place need creating recreating more than lower Manhattan after 911. Mike and Doug Starns at the South Ferry Station created a fence of laser cut aluminum reflecting the battery park above as they did in their handmade photography that was recreated in glass. Again, bringing that which is above in the park below into the station. at Grimshaw and Jamie Carpenter are working on the new Fulton Transit Center to bring light from above onto the cable net and to dance on the floor below. Now you may ask what what did all this do for the MTA? What is the benefit? Well, we all know that wrership is important to be for people to take the train and sustainability issues. Well, today we have 7 and a half million subway riders on New York City Transit every workday and another half million on our commuter lines. When we showcased our app, Arts for Transit app, this past spring, Randy Kennedy, the art critic for the New York Times, wrote, "The most underrated art museum in New York City is the subway system." Did Did you hear that? The most underrated art museum in New York City is the subway system. Who would have ever thought that in those early days that anyone, much less the the art critic for the New York Times, would say such a thing? Well, they did. I'm going to ask you to follow our journey because it continues. and connect with us on our website, follow us on Tumblr, like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and be sure to download our app so that you have this incredible collection at your fingertips. Thank you.