The Band Shell Returns?

Bring back the Tompkins Square Park band shell!

That's what the lead article in this weeks Villager argues, and we've got to say we wholeheartedly agree. Forty years after the original band shell was put up and nearly fifteen years after it was taken down in response to the Tompkins Square riots, there is a growing desire to see a designated performance space return to the park. And why not?

The original band shell was initially very successful. Acts like the Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix and Jefferson Airplane, not to mention the poet Allen Ginsberg, all played there. But those days didn't last:

By the late 1980s, it had become a homeless shelter, with 40 to 50 people sleeping in it, as well as Alphabet City’s largest urinal. In addition to the homeless, it was increasingly used by neighborhood activists and squatters as a rallying point. Following a major riot in 1988 over imposing a curfew on the park and another big one in 1991 that started at the band shell — which some accuse police of instigating — a few months after the last riot, the park was closed for a year for a renovation. One of the first things done was to demolish the band shell.

Since then, and this might be surprise to you, a lot has changed in the neighborhood. The yuppies and hipsters have come in and pushed out a lot of the old neighborhood such that the issues that led to the riots have been "dealt with one way or another." The park has once again become a heavily trafficked area which houses countless events, the newest and most notable being the Howl festival. Those events now need to rent stages to put on performances. A new band shell would be a nice addition, and make it easier for events like Howl to grow and prosper. Plus, if they put in a nice fence, the homeless won't sleep in it.

All that we ask is that if a new shell does eventually go up that nobody take seriously parks conservancy member Ellen LeCompte's suggestion that a new band shell have "a really fabulous design by an architect like Frank Gehry." Fabulous design, sure. Gehry, please no. Gehry's design for the Pritzker Pavilion band shell in Chicago is awful! The back doesn't even look finished! And anyway, an open design competition would be much more inline with the neighborhoods character.

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By Garth Johnston in News on February 4, 2006 1:28 PM

Comments [rss]

MT

An open design competition is a great idea! There is so much creative energy on the Lower East Side that someone local could no doubt come up with a beautiful design that will go perfectly with the funky eclectic nature of the neighborhood.

P.S. Frank Gehry does amazing work. Has anyone noticed the design for the IAC headquarters going up on West Street? It's a sensitive tribute to New York's maritime past within steps of the historic piers of the west side (did you know the pier the Titanic was supposed to dock at - and the Carpathia did - is within sight of the new IAC building?) . When he takes context into account, he can do some stunning work that doesn't come off as too over-the-top.

Toby

Anyone who thinks Frank Gehry is a great architect has to be either blind, stupid, experienced head trauma, or some combination of both.

tyger

i've been to chicago recently and the Pritzker Pavilion is actually very pretty and seems to have great acoustics. And the idea that you could sit in the lawn in front is just great. The "back" you see there isn't the actual back, they're gates. The stage looks just fine. I would love to see something like in New York City.

pugsley

Tompkins Square doesn't need the bandshell back. The bandshell in east river park is great - and better designed than anything gehry could do. The article seems to be nothing but nostalgia for the fugs and whatnot. the east river bandshell is creating it's own nostalgia. out with the old. in with the new.