Abstract
In 1973, a church and a bank joined forces to reimagine an entire block of Midtown Manhattan. The church was St. Peter’s, and the bank was First National City Corporation, or Citicorp. The Citicorp Center, now owned jointly by St. Peter’s and the developer Boston Properties, remains an important nexus in Midtown. The following case study considers both the limitations of the site’s privately owned public spaces and how the Nevelson Chapel, a permanent public art installation located within St. Peter’s Church, operates as a counter-hegemonic form of privately owned public space—the sacred public space.
Highlights
The commodification of art has further intensified since Armstrong, Director of the Whitney Museum of American Art, made this observation in 1980. This extends to the integration of public art into privately owned public spaces
The following case study positions the Nevelson Chapel as a sacred public space and examines how it functions differently than the other privately owned public spaces sharing its site at Citicorp Center,1 which have been more susceptible than the chapel to commodification over time
It traces the origins of the chapel commission, analyzes how Nevelson’s design for the chapel shaped its use as a sacred public space, and examines how the site’s other privately owned spaces have evolved over time
Summary
“I thought everyone knew that the purpose of art is to inspire the creation of a beautiful city.” —Louise Nevelson (Lisle 1990, p. 174). The following case study positions the Nevelson Chapel as a sacred public space and examines how it functions differently than the other privately owned public spaces sharing its site at Citicorp Center, which have been more susceptible than the chapel to commodification over time. The study begins with an overview of the history of zoning in New York City and its influence on the development of public space It traces the origins of the chapel commission, analyzes how Nevelson’s design for the chapel shaped its use as a sacred public space, and examines how the site’s other privately owned spaces have evolved over time. Century, achieving a level of prominence generally denied to female artists (Figure 1) Her family was Jewish, Nevelson’s spirituality was expansive, and she was concerned with creating spaces that would foster a sense of experiential belonging.
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