The farewell party for the famous "Toy Tower" at the Avenue B and 6th Street community garden took place yesterday. Vanishing New York estimates about 100 well-wishers were in attendance to eulogize the found object art tower, which rose to a height of 65 feet over the course of two decades. The eclectic structure is the work of the colorful East Village character Eddie Boros, who passed away one year ago this month.
Adrian Benepe, the city’s parks commissioner, told the Times that "parts of the tower were rotting and inspectors had become concerned that a piece of it could fall or that somebody might be injured while trying to scale the structure." Workers will begin dismantling the Toy Tower piece by piece from a cherry picker this week. Benepe added that some of the pieces would be handed over to community gardeners as mementos. It's unclear what will become of the six garden plots in the tower's footprint; one option under consideration is to use the space for a rotating series of sculpture exhibits.
