Results tagged “tatemodern”

The folks behind the video presenting an alternate plan for the Domino Sugar Factory site have launched a website that lays their idea out a little more clearly. The plan, as presented on dominosugar.org, is for the site to turn into a "global cultural center", regenerating the industrial site like the Tate Modern in London, which they say is "directly relevant and well documented." The website estimates that a cultural attraction at the Domino site would generate between $60-80 million a year, excluding monies generated in the surrounding area.

In 2004, we believed that the Domino Sugar Factory would make for a great museum, à la the Tate Modern. Today the NY Sun reports that a group of Brooklyn artists are calling on the Community Preservation Corporation Resources development company "to change its plans for the Domino Sugar Factory in Williamsburg, pushing for the creation of a cultural complex similar to London's Tate Modern art museum."

Yesterday, the holiday windows for Louis Vuitton were unveiled and no perfect-for-fashionistas monogrammed bags were on the display. Instead, huge lamps peering out onto the street are in the windows, in a work designed by Danish artist Olafur Eliasson. Eliasson, who frequently uses lights and lamps (he designed the Weather Project that was a sensation at the Tate Modern in 2004), explained the holiday windows work, Eye See You, in the LVMH magazine:

"Essentially, what I have created is a lamp shaped like the pupil of an eye looking out of the window, but which, at the same time, is a mirror. When you stand in front of the window, you see a reflection of yourself looking into this eye. (…) The only sense that is transgressing the glass is your sense of sight and your desire. When it is dark the lamp will illuminate anyone looking into the window. If people look through the window at the Eye See You lamp, they are illuminated – and that is a nice metaphor, because the products that Louis Vuitton offers to some degree promise to put the consumer in the spotlight."

Eliasson's fee and proceeds from some Eye See You lamps (which will be sold after the holidays) will go to his charitable organization, 121 Ethiopia. And the store at 1 East 57th Street is not the only location that will have the Eye See You lamps - they will be going to all stores globally.

Let's take a look back at a week that raised this Zen koan: if Kevin Federline got into a wrestling ring with a wrestler, who would you root for?

At a performance at Stomp last night, a live, in-theater commercial was performed. The world's "first theatrical advertisement" is a promotion from Visit London, where different actors perform for three minutes to, as the website says, draw "on the specific cultural similarities between the visited city and London and will star a known local personality in a cameo role." You know, like Fifth Avenue and Oxford Street, the Guggenheim and Tate Modern - but who knew that Paraminder Nagra, of ER and Bend it Like Beckham and who was last night's cameo, was a NYC local? Visit London's Ken Kelling told ABC 7, "It's about general messages, about connections between cities and visiting them, if it were a soft drinks or a wash powder than it probably won't work in the same way." Hmm, but from reports, it doesn't seem like people paid the ad much attention - probaby because they'd only pay attention to some clanging on garbage cans. Stomp, whose creators are from London, didn't ask for money for the ad (they told the Times it was a PSA), and it seems like it was a pretty pricey proposition, given the cast of actors and traveling to a couple U.S. cities to try out (though the publicity is priceless).

The Domino Sugar Plant in Williamsburg has been bought. The NY Times reports that developers have not disclosed what the plant will be, but notes that one of the partners, Isaac Katan, is a "Brooklyn developer who has helped gentrify Fourth Avenue in Park Slope", while the other partner, C.P.C. Resources, has experience in rehabilitation of older apartments. The article also notes that when the plant stopped sugar production (but remained open) last August, City Planning department had wanted to keep the plant for manufacturing, but things might have changed. Gothamist knows this much: The views from the plant would be really spectacular, whether residential or a commercial property...it would be cool to put a museum there, the way the Tate Modern, DIA Beacon and Mass MoCA are in old plants. But that doesn't do much to ensure blue collar jobs, so we'll be curious to see how planning officials and developers address the issue.

The Friends of the Highline have selected four design teams to compete for the coveted project of turning the Highline, the elevated train tracks on the West Side, into a public park. Among the finalists involved are Pritzker Prize-winning architect Zaha Hadid's firm, artist Olafur Eliasson of Weather Project fame at the Tate Modern, and a number of other top architectural firms. Curbed has details on the teams, per the Friends of the Highline press release. The designs submitted by the four teams will be on display at the Center for Architecture, beginning July 15 (which is also the night of an opening panel discussion). Gothamist is very excited by this, but we're still fond of the abandoned nature of the Highline, rusting train trestle and wildflowers growing haphazardly. But better for the Highline to be a park rather than be demolished.