Long Island City Thursday morning linkage; CB2 miffed at PS1

oi personally like the wall. it’s seems brutalist to me… its meant to be stark looking and cold, in contrast to the museum building itself. i don’t think its meant to be “softened” with plants and trees, that would go against the whole concept. clearly its not there to keep people out, because there’s a huge opening in the front where anyone can walk in!

As a local resident, (I live two blocks away from PS1) the wall doesn’t bother me. MOMA in Manhattan has a scuplture garden walled off and nobody is complaining about it. It actually keeps some of the noise from the music at the Saturday Warm ups down to a minimum, otherwise it would be really loud in the neighborhood. And I love the fact that LICers get in for free and that there is a special speed line for us to get in.

I was a regular contributor to PS1 of $250 per year for about 10 years so I can speak knowledgeably about this topic. PS1 is not a good neighbor.

PS1, is not being generous when it offers free admission to LIC residents. like the Metropolitan Museum, it is only allowed to ask for a suggestion donation. The reason for this is that PS1 gets a line item allocation in the NYC budget. In addition, PS1 only provides a speed line to LIC residents because they were getting so many complaints about the noise. (Personally, I have no problem with the noise and anything that exposes people to the Museum is a good thing.). The Wall was built without any community involvement, not even to the point of asking opinions. The architects used for the project were from Los Angeles. So, of course, they couldn’t understand that people actually live in this neighborhood. In addition, few, if any people who work at PS1 live, or have lived, in LIC. The founder, Alana Heiss, who was a true visionary had general disdain for the neighborhood and saw it only as a relatively easy place to get to from her Manhattan home.

I love the wall.

The fact that CB2 get their panties in a wad about architecture that actually has some thought given to design shows its success.

Enough of the bland condos.

The wall is fine and architecturally interesting – which cannot be said for most buildings in LIC (new or old). And keep in mind that when the wall was built not many people even lived in the area (obviously people did live around it, but nothing like it is today). So it was pretty understandable to view LIC as just an easy area to get to from Manhattan that was affordable and allowed them to have more creative flexibility in building the institution (e.g. building that wall).

The Community Board involves itself in all sorts of minutae. This extends from liquor licenses to traffic signals, garbage, and even heights, sizes and materials used in architecture. I am surprised by the responses on this blog. For a group that I would imagine is socially responsible, I don’t understand the capitalistic/libertarian attitude that you can do whatever you want on private property. If that were the case we would have a complete free-for-all. There would be no zoning leading to the MTA to make as much noise as it wants, your neighbors constructing bars next door to your backyard garden, skyscraper being built wherever developers choose, etc.

#6 is right on the mark with with all his/her comments.I’ve lived in the neighborhood for twenty years,and it has always been an open secret that P.S.1 had no interest of any kind
in this area or it’s artists.In fact ,until recently european artists dominated the shows and
studios which always puzzled us ,since they (P.S.1) got their building,land and $$$ from The City of New York.The wall is the ultimate rejection of this community, and that style of
architecture went out of fashion 20 years before the wall went up.

WTB absolutely charges residents for entrance during their special DJ nights.

I posted that I liked the wall and I am not MOMA/PS1 staff…I just have good taste.

Good for them. I am glad PS1 could afford not to be bullied by tasteless locals.

Not a PS 1 staffperson. Live around the corner. Love the wall.