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YOUR WEEKLY COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER SERVING CHELSEA, HUDSON YARDS & HELL’S KITCHEN

LPC Ponders Powerhouse to the People BY YANNIC RACK The battle between preservationists and Con Edison is heating up in Hell’s Kitchen, as both parties fight over the future of a historic power station that once fueled the city’s first subway line. Jumping at their last chance to landmark the former Interborough Rapid Transit Powerhouse on 11th Ave., presContinued on page 7

Handbasket Full of Hell’s Kitchen Concerns at CB4 BY WINNIE McCROY The Hotel Trades Council building on W. 44th St. was the unusual, but not unprecedented, location for Nov. 4’s Community Board 4 (CB4) full board meeting — where residents of Clinton Towers (790 11th Ave., btw. W. 54th & W. 55th Sts.) came out to oppose the notion of a restaurant opening in a space that should be serving the needs of locals. “I have lived in Hell’s Kitchen my whole life, Continued on page 6

THE BIG ‘LEAGUE’

Cosplayers dressed as characters from the 128-strong “League of Legends” stable gathered at the inaugural Tribeca Games event last week. See page 21.

Up With Fall on the High Line Jenny Rubin, whose color-saturated photos give iconic Manhattan locations a fairy tale sheen, spent a recent afternoon on the High Line. “It’s my favorite place to get away in New York City, without fully getting away,” she says. This shot was taken with a Fuji X20, edited in iPhoto and then “enhanced with the Snapseed app, to give it that wistful, storybook feel, with even more beautiful colors.” See more of Rubin’s work at instagram.com/jruby70.

Costly Bus Transfer Could Drive Through a Neighborhood BY ZACH WILLIAMS Sometime around the year 2030 — at the cost of around $10 billion — a new Port Authority Bus Terminal could bisect Hell’s Kitchen. The next year will determine how this project would divide or unite the surrounding neighborhood. There is a consensus, in principle, to replace the 65-year-old

bus terminal on Eighth Ave. (btw. W. 40th & W. 42nd Sts.). By Sept. 2016, the Port Authority plans to decide the winner of an upcoming design competition — but there are already signs of local opposition to the idea of replacing it with a sprawling complex.

Continued on page 2 VOLUME VOLUME 07, ISSUE 07, 38 ISSUE | NOVEMBER 22 | JULY 19 16 - 25, 22, 2015

Bus Terminal Plans Take Express Route to Opposition

Photos by Zach Williams

A design competition will determine the look and location of a future bus terminal, likely to be to the immediate west of the current facility on Eighth Ave. (btw. W. 40th & W. 42nd Sts.).

Continued from page 1 An Oct. 22 resolution, approved by the Port Authority’s Board of Commissioners, began the process of building a new complex on the west-

ern side of the current terminal. The resolution included provisions to study the costs of constructing the complex, as well as how it would integrate with mass transit and other traffic across the Hudson River. Three out of five design concepts proposed in March

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The preferred future location of the Port Authority Bus Terminal (seen here at W. 40th St. & 10th Ave.). If approved, the terminal would stretch in a zigzag shape from Eighth to 11th Aves.

remain in contention, according to the Port Authority. They mostly differ on whether one to four high-rise buildings would emerge on Eighth or Ninth Aves. (concepts one, three and five: panynj.gov/bus-terminals/pdf/busboard-3-19-15u-no-annotations.pdf). Community opposition has already emerged, with particular concern about whether the complex would create high overpasses towering above surrounding blocks. But Port Authority officials left themselves plenty of time for cold feet before committing to where the world’s busiest bus hub will actually go. Port Authority Executive Director Patrick Foye said at an Oct. 22 press conference that the cost and starting date of the design competition remain to be determined. Ditto for any official price range or location, though the site west of the current facility is preferred. “It’s important to note no decision’s been made. The design competition may come up with alternative [sites]. There is a great deal work that has to be done by the Port Authority or outside consultants,” he said in a video available on the authority’s website (panynj.gov/corporate-information/board-committee-meeting-videos. html). He added that the process moving forward would also include outreach to city officials, commuters and Community Board Four (CB4). But the board beat him to it, with a Nov. 12 letter to Foye stating it had “deep concerns” about the preferred concepts behind the design competition.

While expressing support for a new facility, the board put its criticism in stark terms. “CB4 is appalled at the idea of condemning two blocks in the heart of Hell’s Kitchen-south, on Ninth Avenue, our main retail corridor, in order to free up investment properties and make space for ramps and pedestrian passageways,” the letter states. Underground passageways already exist between Dyer and Eighth Aves., the letter adds, while invoking the name of Robert Moses — who demolished city neighborhoods decades ago in order to build new infrastructure. Aboveground facilities between Ninth and Eleventh Aves. (btw. W. 39th & W. 40th Sts.) could spark a fight with the local community, according to the letter. “This would require the eviction of many affordable housing tenants, a church and food pantry, a nursery school, a farm, the only affordable food supermarket and a number of other retail stores essential to the character of our neighborhood,” states the letter. “Robert Moses’s technique of razing our neighborhood is no longer acceptable. You can and must do better than that.” An idea also emerged at a Nov. 12 meeting of the CB4 Clinton/Hell’s Kitchen Land Use Committee to research potential landmarks in that area as a means to limit the intrusion of a future bus terminal into the surrounding neighborhood. “Creativity

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BY LINCOLN ANDERSON Hundreds of shell-shocked French expatriates and French Americans rallied in Washington Square Park Saturday afternoon to mourn and come together after Friday evening’s ISIS-related terrorist attacks in Paris that left more than 130 dead and 350 injured. Shortly after 2 p.m., Mayor Bill de Blasio joined them, making his way through the crowd to leave a bunch of white roses at a memorial under the arch. The tall mayor’s head towered above the sea of people gathered in the park, as the sun streamed through the arch. Amid the crowd, tricolor flags fluttered in the wind on the brisk and windy day. “Vive la France!” de Blasio said, as the crowd cheered softly. He then joined them as they launched into the “La Marseillaise,” the French national anthem, again, rather softly. “Contre nous de la tyrannie / L’étenard sanglant est levé...Marchons, marchons!…” (Against us tyranny’s bloody standard is raised...march, march!…) “We can’t change our values,” the mayor told them, adding, “You will persevere.” On signs held aloft and painted on some people’s cheeks was the Eiffel Tower in a circle — in the shape of a peace sign — a symbol of hope in the wake of the bloody rampage. During a press conference, de Blasio — with Council Speaker Melissa MarkViverito by his side — urged France to not waiver from its ideals. “Stay strong and send a message to the terrorists that they cannot win,” he urged. Since 9/11, the mayor said, the New York Police Department has diligently combated terrorism here, and will continue to do so. “Fourteen years in this city, we have been able to stop numerous terrorist attacks,” he said. John Miller, the deputy commissioner of intelligence and counter-terrorism, said the NYPD has a unit of 400 officers whose sole full-time duty is counter-terrorism. “We know that in this country we’re the number one terrorist target,” de Blasio said. The mayor added that 9/11 disrupted a primary election day — including a mayoral primary — but that the election was held soon afterward, just two weeks later.

Photo by Tequila Minsky

The Washington Square Arch was lit in the colors of the French flag on Saturday evening.

“We wanted to show that we could recover, and recover quickly,” he said. “My advice to Paris is to be resolute and to return it to the great city it is.” Trailed by news photographers, the mayor then visited police posed in the nearby N/R subway station, a photo-op to illustrate the city’s readiness. Later in the evening, de Blasio returned to Washington Square to light the arch in the colors of the French flag. Earlier, a small tricolor flag had been hung from the top of the arch. In a statement, police said, “There is no known indication that the attack has any nexus to New York City.” But police said they would adjust their deployments and post heavily armed Hercules units at key locations as a visible deterrent. Those gathered in the park for the vigil were mainly the young — for this time it was they who were targeted in the worst outbreak of violence in France since World War II. Sadly, it was the second time this year that the French had gathered in Washington Square to mourn. In early January, Muslim gunmen killed 11 people at the Paris office of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. One of the terrorists reportedly yelled that they had “avenged the Prophet Mohammed.” Two days later, in a related incident, a gunman killed four Jewish hostages at a Paris kosher supermarket. Friends Laura-Jane Gautier, 26 and .com

shington Square After Night of Horror Delphine Turoy, 25, were in New York visiting from Paris. “It’s terrible,” said Gautier, a television journalist. “There are no words — so much hate and so much pain.” Turoy, an artist, said, “Closed borders. The media is saying, ‘It’s the war.’ But we don’t know what is the war.” Turoy lives on Rue de Charonne, where the gunmen strafed the sidewalk cafe of La Belle Équipe cafe, killing 19 and wounding nine. A friend of Gautier’s was in Le Bataclan, the famed concert hall, where several heavily armed men burst in during a show by the American band Eagles of Death Metal and slew at least 89 people. “I have a friend who was in the concert hall,” Gautier said. “But he managed to escape somehow. He was covered with blood. To escape, he walked on people.” That friend was receiving psychological counseling in a “crisis room” set up to help the traumatized victims recover, she said. In a feeling akin to what New Yorkers experienced in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 — namely, the fear of more

terrorist attacks — Gautier admitted she was feeling jittery about returning. But they planned to go back. “Strangely, I want to be there,” she said. Carla Beye, 28, recently arrived in New York for a two-year stint with Lacoste as a web project manager. Her apartment in Paris is on Rue RichardLenoir, right near Le Bataclan. “So, I imagine it was me, my family, my friends,” she said of the attack’s victims. She said she read on Facebook that a cousin’s friend was fatally shot by one of the terrorists as she sat in her car. “And I don’t want to come back to Photo by Tequila Minsky France right now,” Beye said. Anais Bambili, left, who had just learned her best friend’s boyfriend died in She added she would like to see a the Paris attacks, was consoled by her friend Sophie Gousset at Saturday’s voter referendum on whether France vigil in Washington Square Park. should be bombing the Islamic State. Asked if she thought France ought to get a woman was wracked with sobs as she tal. I just got a call — he just died.” out of Syria, she said, “Maybe, yes.” However, as of Monday, it was report- held a cell phone to her ear. Bambili, who is studying English and Managing to compose herself, Anais living in Brooklyn, was being consoled by ed that her homeland had already massively retaliated with increased bombing her friend Sophie Gousset. Also in her B:8.75”Bambili, 24, said, “A boyfriend of my best strikes against the militant group. T:8.75”friend was eating on Rue de Charonne. Nearby, next to the arch’s eastern leg, He was wounded. He went to the hospiContinued on page 9

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Clinton Towers Residents: Restaurant Won’t Serve Our Needs Continued from page 1 and in this building for many years, and they are trying to give us this new bar and restaurant that we don’t want,” said Towers resident David Novoa. “We got a great letter about this from you [CB4], and we are very appreciative, but we’d also like to ask them to do acoustic engineering to soundproof this dome. And then if they do that, they’ll also need to get a structural engineer in there to check the building, because it will alter its stability.” Another Towers resident, Violetta Dibujos, echoed these sentiments, saying that there was a certified pre-K in their building, and that it wasn’t a good place for a restaurant and bar. “We already have Terminal 5 across the street, which still causes problems from time to time, so we would like the board to take serious consideration of this,” said Dibujos. “It’s like the Boxers situation with PS 111, where they wanted to put their venue on school premises. This is the same; having a bar and restaurant where there are small children. This is a safe place for pre-education, to get kids ready for regular school. We appreciate your consideration, and so will the other tenants of the building.” The attempt for a commercial establishment to be built by Kurt Kalm was the topic of Item 1, a letter to the State Liquor Authority, as well as Item 29, a letter to Housing Preservation and Development regarding the commercial space lease. Business License and Permits (BLP) Committee Co-Chair Frank Holozubiec explained that this was the second time the board had looked at the proposal to open an establishment in Clinton Towers, a Mitchell-Lama building. “The application last year was going to have a huge outdoor space with 300

seats, and a committee did a lot of research, and there were serious zoning issues relating to both the indoor and outdoor space,” he said. “They sent a letter to the DHP [Housing Preservation and Development], after which the proposal was withdrawn. They came back to the Business License and Permits Committee last month seeking only to use the indoor space to open their restaurant. At a recent BLP meeting, about 40 residents of the housing development spoke against it, and no one but the owners spoke in favor of it.” After learning that the recent hearing brought out such community opposition, and determining that the space was originally intended for “convenient shopping for residents,” CB4 members voted against supporting the project.

PUBLIC HEARING ON FY17 BUDGET The meeting opened with a public hearing and presentation on the board’s Fiscal Year 2017 (FY17) Capital and Expense Budget Requests. A short presentation by Burt Lazarin (the BLP Co-Chair, who also sits on the Chelsea Land Use Committee) explained that although the budget information process has been available throughout the year on their website, “Legally, CB4 has to comment both on the expense budget and the day-to-day operations of the city for the fiscal year, running July 1 through June 30, and the long-term infrastructure investments of the capital budget.” Lazarin noted that the process looks at FY17, which does not begin until July 1, 2016. “It’s a new process that’s been going on for a while, and the format was created by the agencies, not by the Community Board, but we did a very good job,” he said, thanking members of the Task Force. “I know how hard it is to prioritize in the budget. It’s like choosing

Photo by Yannic Rack

Clinton Towers residents showed up in force to make the case that their building doesn’t need a new ground floor business that serves alcohol.

between your children,” joked CB4 Chair Christine Berthet. CB4 member Ambur Nicosia asked whether next year’s process would be similar, and CB4 District Manager Jesse Bodine noted that although scheduling may be different, the problematic platform for filing the budget and operations will remain the same, adding, “Usually we have a statement of district needs and then requests, and they replaced that with a first and then a final draft.” The FY17 Capital and Expense Budget Requests passed.

QUALITY OF LIFE CONCERNS Some Hell’s Kitchen residents attended the meeting in an effort to get action on several quality of life issues that have been making their everyday routines difficult. They say that the NYPD has not been responsive to the drug dealers and homeless squatters that occupy the niche

in front of their building. “We are located on 43rd between Eighth and Ninth Avenues, and most people don’t even know there’s an apartment between the sex shops and the bars there,” said Paulette Osborne. “We have a big problem with drug dealers, and homeless men who are also drug dealers. I’ve never been to a CB4 meeting before, and I’m not sure if this is the right venue, but I would really like to know why the street has suddenly become unclean and unsafe. I moved to the neighborhood in 1990, and I’ve lived through a lot, but I feel that it’s regressing, and I don’t want to see that in our neighborhood.” Osborne and her neighbor Megan, who said she’s lived there for two years, explained that a homeless man with bandaged legs in a wheelchair has decided to live in the vestibule in front of their home, even inflating an air mattress at night to sleep. “He leaves piss and blood everywhere, and blocks the doorway so that we can’t even get out to walk our dog before 8 a.m.,” said Megan. “It’s terrible!” Resident Douglas Leland echoed this sentiment, saying, “Religious groups have come to speak to them, but they are still laying around and pissing on the sidewalk. I say it’s time for the Community Board to walk the walk and talk the talk!” In his District Manager report, Bodine reported that they had formed a Quality of Life Homelessness Task Force, focusing on high-risk areas like W. 57th St. and Ninth Ave., and W. 26th St. and Ninth Ave.

NEW CB4 LEADERSHIP NOMINATED Nominating Committee Chair Ambur Nicosia forwarded the new slate of nominees for CB4 leadership. They are as

Continued on page 11

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Powerhouse Preservation Picks Up Steam Continued from page 1 ervation groups and local residents recently made passionate pleas to the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC). “Let’s landmark it already,” said Brian Webber, to laughter and applause from many who packed the commission’s meeting room for a special hearing on Nov. 5. “LPC exists to save buildings such as this one. So please do it.” “This is an important building,” said Alyssa Bishop, who founded the Hudson River Powerhouse Group in 2007 to push for the station’s landmarking. “There’s development directly across the street to the south, there’s development to the north, there’s a massive restoration to the east. It’s only a matter of time before this building becomes more valuable than it is right now,” she added. Over two dozen residents and organizations gave similar testimony at the hearing, one of a handful that were set up to specifically address the commission’s backlog of 95 buildings throughout the city. Stretching for a whole block between W. 58th and W. 59th Sts., the Beaux-Arts style powerhouse is one of the more ancient additions to the list. It has been in landmarking limbo for over 35 years — the first time it was considered for designation at a public hearing of the commission was in 1979. Since then, the commission has considered the building in 1990 and 2009, but both times decided to delay designation because of opposition from Con Ed, which has owned and operated the station since the 1950s. “The commission is not doing what they’ve been mandated to do,” said Arlene Simon, founder and president of Landmark West!, a preservation group based on the Upper West Side. “They are not potted plants, even though they think they’re potted plants,” she said of the commissioners. Two representatives from Con Ed .com

Photo by Yannic Rack

The former IRT Powerhouse, on 11th Ave., was first considered for landmark status in 1979. Now preservationists are fighting for their last chance to protect the building.

were also at the hearing to testify against the building’s designation. The 59th St. plant is currently used as part of the company’s steam system, serving around 1,800 customers in Manhattan — including some of the city’s most recognizable landmarks, like the Empire State Building and Grand Central Terminal, according to a spokesperson. “Our 59th Street steam plant is a living and breathing monument to adaptive reuse,” said Gus Sanoulis, Con Ed’s Vice President for Steam Operations, at the hearing. He said Con Ed had just recently invested over $150 million to upgrade the station, and argued that the restrictions that come with landmarks designation are not consistent with operating an active power plant. “We need the flexibility to make changes to the plant’s interior and exterior that enables the cleanest, most efficient, and reliable production of energy,” he said. “Power generating plants are not like other typical landmarked buildings,” added Edward Conway, the

Continued on page 15 November 19 -25, 2015

Rhymes With Crazy THE WEST SIDE’S COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER

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Phone Lost, Kindness Found, Faith Restored BY LENORE SKENAZY Remember that old expression “Finders keepers, losers weepers?” Does it even exist anymore? Last week I lost my phone on the Q58 bus, but before I even realized it was missing, I sat down at my computer and found e-mails from my family. “Call a lady named Grace. She has your phone.” She did indeed. She’d found it on the seat next to her, taken it with her to work, and reached the “favorites” on my contact list. Soon I was in a Mexicana Car Service car heading to her at her workplace in Maspeth, Queens: United Basket. This turned out to be a cool 100-year old factory filled with every possible basket (big surprise) and an even cooler young woman, Grace Chen, who cheerfully handed over the Android, adamantly refused a reward, and hurried back to her job. A couple of months ago someone stole my wallet on the subway and another wonderful young woman — a waitress in a Colombian restaurant — found it on the street, bereft of cash but otherwise intact. She contacted me and also refused a reward. Could it be that this is the way of the world — or at least New York? Finders aren’t keepers? I started asking around. “I got a message that said, ‘I found your phone. Please call me,’ ” recalls Natalie Yates, co-founder of the digital agency Blue Iceberg Interactive. “I did. It was a taxi driver — in Westchester. He’d just gotten off his shift, found the phone, and he said that once his wife got home, she could take care of the kids and he could drive back into Manhattan with his truck to bring me my phone.”

Drive it in? After his shift? “I can survive without my phone for a night!” Natalie told him. To which he replied with a laugh, “A lot of people can’t.’ ” Instead, they arranged for him to drop it off the next day, whereupon he told Natalie that he always returns things, including, one time, $10,000 that had been left in his cab. For that good deed, he got a $20 tip. Natalie gave him $30. For her return efforts, performer Laurie Gamache got some lovely wine. “I used to live in a little basement studio on West 96th Street,” said Laurie, who now teaches theater arts at the School of the Blessed Sacrament, as well as running the Theatre West 97th program at the Franciscan Community Center on the Upper West Side. “I was getting ready to go on the road with ‘A Chorus Line’ and so I was cleaning out the place.” In a crack in the plaster of her fireplace, she found a class ring. The year on the ring was 1980something, and this was still in the ’80s. There was a name engraved, too. Laurie put it in a box in her desk drawer, intending to try to find the owner. But then it slipped her mind. For decades. “By the time I got back — years later — I forgot all about it,” she explained. But when she was preparing for a move, she cleaned out her desk and opened a little box she found. Oh yes! The ring! How to find its owner? Well, in the intervening years a

device had been invented to do just that: the Internet. So instead of thumbing through phone books, Laurie instantly found the owner online — an upstate judge — and sent it back to her. The judge’s husband runs a winery, so the exchange concluded with a drinkable reward, nicely aged. Just like the ring. Dana Rubin, the chief executive officer at Rubin&Co, an executive communications and content creation company, came home once to a ransacked apartment. What pained her most was the loss of a bag of jewelry, including sentimental pieces given to her by her parents. “I was devastated,” she recalls. About a year later, she called an organization to come pick up some furniture she was donating. As the workers lifted up her mattress, there was the jewelry bag. She had put it there for safekeeping — which, apparently, worked. “I’d been sleeping on it all year,” she said. In a world of good people and eureka moments, there seems to be only one sure-fire way find a lost and precious item, at least according to my sister-inlaw: Go online and shop for a replacement. Press “Purchase.” Look up. There it is. Lenore Skenazy is host of the reality show “World’s Worst Mom” on the Discovery Life Channel. She is also a public speaker who authored the book, and founded the blog, Free-Range Kids (freerangekids.com).

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November 19 -25, 2015

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POLICE BLOTTER GRAND LARCENY: Unwanted service in black cab

GRAND LARCENY: Bad time to lose a watch

Multiple charges were made to a debit card that a 38-year-old woman left in a sketchy cab on Sun., Nov. 1. The woman told police that she hailed a black cab on E. 58th St. at about 1 a.m. that morning. She did not have enough cash to pay the $20 fare to W. 17th St., btw. Fifth & Sixth Aves. Her credit union debit card did not work. A police report added that she feared for her safety after the driver told her he moonlights as a drug dealer. She subsequently exited the cab, though it is unclear whether or not she actually paid for the ride. The credit union’s fraud prevention service later notified her about suspicious charges to the card.

A resident of the 300 block of W. 22nd St. (btw. Seventh & Eighth Aves.) told police that a guest stole an $8,000 Rolex watch on Fri., Nov. 13. The man arrived home at about 12 a.m. and allowed a female stranger to come in to charge a phone. He quickly fell asleep with the woman still in the apartment. He awoke the next morning and could not find the watch. He searched his apartment and went to police after failing to locate the wristwatch, police say.

GRAND LARCENY: Possible bias against West Side

An MTA employee told police that someone might have stolen his agency-issued flashlight and reflective vest after he left for vacation on Sun., Nov. 1. The 55-year-old man discovered the property was missing shortly after returning from the weeklong sojourn to his home. His employer instructed him to report the loss to police. A police report states that the man must have lost the property.

Police say that a man wearing an “East Side Story” jacket stole a $2,600 camera from a Chelsea art gallery. A visitor to Milk Studios (450 W. 15th St., btw. Ninth & 10th Aves.) left the Canon 5D Mark 3 camera in a bag placed within an open stairwell on Sun., Nov. 15. Sometime around 8 p.m., the unknown man snatched the bag and left. No suspect has been located, police said.

LOST PROPERTY: The cost of hands-free locomotion A Chelsea woman has only herself to blame for the loss of her wallet, as she walked home on Sat., Nov. 14. She told police that she placed it in her armpit after she finished shopping. No one bumped her as she walked from Eighth Ave. to her home on the 500 block of W. 23rd St. (btw. 10th & 11th Aves.), according to a police report. She lost her Colorado drivers license — but no charges have been made on the credit and debit cards in the wallets, police said.

LOST PROPERTY: Safety vest no protest against absent-mindedness

GRAND LARCENY: Karmic comeuppance at Buddakan A restaurant manager solved the mystery of who stole a wallet from his Ninth Ave. restaurant on Sat., Nov. 14. Video footage shows that a 28-yearold employee of Buddakan — a restaurant at 75 Ninth Ave., btw. W. 15th & W. 16th Sts. — stole the wallet from a co-worker’s clothes in an employee changing room at about 10 a.m. A police report adds that the perpetrator later made charges on a credit card from the wallet that also contained $50 cash. The report stated that no arrest was made.

—ZACH WILLIAMS

Area Terrorists Struck is ‘Like East Village’ Continued from page 5 20s, Gousset said two of her friends were shot during the night of terror. “It’s like the only place we hang out — and Place Voltaire,” Bambili explained of the area where the terrorists wreaked their carnage. “There are a lot of cafes — it’s not very expensive — and bars, concerts.” Marion Merigot, a theater producer living in New York with her family, said the 11th arrondissement, on the Right Bank, which was ground zero for the coordinated attacks, is like the East Village. “It’s families, young people, bobos [bourgeois bohemians], hipsters, everybody,” she said. Asked if she knew anyone who was injured, she said, “Not personally, but a friend of a friend was killed.” “I hope they respond firmly,” she added. Her precocious daughter, Sasha, 12, who attends the Lycée Français, was similarly resolute. .com

“I think it’s the biggest one yet,” she reflected seriously of the attack. “And it’s not that far after the Charlie Hebdo attack, and it’s meant to scare us. But we’re not afraid.” Meanwhile, her smiling son, Noe, 8, sat nearby on her husband Nicholas’s shoulders holding up a red-white-andblue “Paris” sign. Two Lycée Français grads, French Americans Hannah Overlaw and Pauline Balsamo, both 27, said the attack had brought “a sense of solidarity” to New York’s French community. When 9/11 happened, they were “pretty young,” Balsamo admitted. This time, though, this is affecting her more deeply. As for the vigil’s crowd estimate, she said 1,000 people had posted on Facebook that they would be attending. While the terrorists hoped to strike fear into the hearts of young people, especially, it won’t work, they predicted. “You have to go out,” Balsamo stated matter of faculty. Standing holding a French flag on the south side of the Washington Square

fountain, Matilde Brault, 23, and Pierre, 21, who only gave his first name, both agreed that the attack was over the coalition’s bombing of the Islamic State. The attackers had said so, survivors reported. Asked if they felt there would now be backlash against French Muslims, Pierre, who is studying at Columbia, didn’t think so. “Charlie Hebdo was perceived as a Muslim issue,” he said. “This was seen as an ISIL issue — and I feel good about that.” Yet, some peace activists worried that there would, in fact, be a negative backlash — against civil liberties, in general. Reverend Billy, the local performance-artist anti-consumerist preacher, for one, expressed his concern in a Facebook post shortly after the attacks. “I have a riot of confusion in my soul,” he wrote. “Ours is a cultural attack on a culture of consumption; has always been an effort to expose France-style colonialism, how it manifests in the sweatshops of big retail, and...the military defense of profiteers. How American! And now when it is

Photo by Lincoln Anderson

The Merigot family stood united against terrorism in Washington Square on Saturday.

met with this cruelty, all the nationalist fears are unleashed… . This is a time of horror and sorrow for some, for whom we pray. There is also a foreboding feeling for all of us… . ” November 19 -25, 2015

November 19 -25, 2015

.com

CB4 Nominates New Leadership Continued from page 6 follows: Delores Rubin (currently 1st Vice Chair) for Chair; Burt Lazarin and Ernest Moderelli IV (currently 2nd Vice Chair) for 1st Vice Chair; Lowell Kern (currently Secretary) for 2nd Vice Chair; and Michael Noble and Lily Fan for Secretary. “The Nominating Committee conducted interviews for dedicated and qualified individuals, and next month at the December full board meeting, we will hold the election,” said Nicosia. “The staff will distribute paper ballots, there will be a vote. They will be collected and tallied at that meeting. The CB4 bylaws say that if there are multiple people for the same position, each can speak for three minutes. It’s not required, but I encourage you to take this opportunity so that board members can understand why you are running for these positions.”

NEWS FROM ELECTED OFFICIALS Several elected officials or their representatives shared news of legislation and community programs they had supported. Among them was Assemblymember Richard Gottfried, who recently traveled to Puerto Rico to see how the US could help with their debts and financial issues. He explained that one issue that had not gotten any coverage was healthcare. “Back in October, I was part of a delegation, mainly of people from the Health Department, that went to Puerto Rico,” said Gottfried. “We have been in consultation about their Medicaid program for several months now, and we met to see what New York could do about this. The answer is the way the federal government treats Puerto Rico in dealing with the Medicare and Medicaid programs is one sour example of over a century of crude colonialism with which we’ve been treating Puerto Rico.” Gottfried explained that although every state gets matching funds for health programs, with New York getting the lowest matching rate at 50 percent, this was “wildly generous” compared to what Puerto Rico gets. Compounding this is the fact that their health insurance plans are required to pay the taxes of the Affordable Care Act, but gets no subsidies under it. In addition, 68 percent of their population is insured on Medicare or Medicaid. Doctors there get only a small percentage of the pay of US doctors, and because they must go to the mainland for training, most don’t return. Gottfried is hop.com

ing that, by convincing Washington of the high cost of having a mass of Puerto Ricans move to the mainland to receive full healthcare, they will allow for some waivers. “Part of our effort to rescue Puerto Rico from this downward spiral involves rescuing their healthcare system,” said Gottfried. “When I got back, everyone wanted to know how I enjoyed it. The only good part was that I was never in the sun. The bad part was the it was one of the most annoying and depressing three days I’ve ever spent, to see how this country treats Puerto Rico.” Congressman Jerrold Nadler’s special assistant, Robert Atterbury, read a statement about what he called the “Republican’s Select Committee to Attack Women’s Health,” and promised to uphold a woman’s right to safe and legal abortion. State Senator Brad Hoylman’s office reported that he is working with Borough President Gale Brewer regarding the trend toward privatization in public housing, saying they wanted NYCHA to be required to go through the ULURP process. His office also emphasized the Senator’s opposition to drilling for natural liquefied gas 19 miles off New York’s coastline, saying, “It’s much worse than all the other fuels we’re losing, in terms of the heat it traps.” On Nov. 12, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that he would veto the Port Ambrose project — described that day by the Sane Energy Project as a “contested marine project that has threatened a prime offshore wind lease area…off the shore of New York and Long Island.” A statement issued by the Project acknowledged the “hundreds of advocates and dozens of elected officials who opposed this project and brought their considerable influence to bear.” Hoylman’s rep also praised Governor Andrew Cuomo’s executive order enacting pro-transgender GENDA legislation, but added, “The Assembly passes it every year, but the Senate won’t put it to the floor for a vote. It’s great that Cuomo enacted it, but we still need to pass the bill in case another governor comes in and decides he doesn’t want it.” City Councilmember Corey Johnson’s office invited all to attend his Nov. 18 Town Hall and Resource Fair. It has been rescheduled for Jan. 13 at the LGBT Community Center (208 W. 13 St., btw. Seventh & Eighth Aves.). The Fair begins at 5:30 p.m., with the Hall taking place at 7 p.m.

Photo by Winnie McCroy

Burt Lazarin leads comments on CB4’s Fiscal Year 2017 Capital and Expense Budget Requests.

Ed Sullivan from Public Advocate Letitia James’ office reported that she had won a court case that now allows for the monitoring of foster kids, making sure “no more kids are shuttled from family to family.” James secured funds from State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli that have been unclaimed since 1985, and returned them to the city where they belong. And she is also working on legislation to aid the mayor’s Vision Zero plan to make traffic safer. At the end of the meeting, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer arrived to speak on senior housing, payphone

advertising, mental health roundtables, and protecting construction workers. “Construction workers are dying more than even in the past, and so we are working with unions in the industry,” said Brewer, who noted that her office scheduled a Nov. 10 working group “to talk about what we can do to make them safer.” The next full board meeting of CB4 is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on Wed., Dec 2, in the Fulton Center Auditorium (119 Ninth Ave., btw. W. 17th & W. 18th Sts.). For info on CB4 committee meetings and concerns, visit nyc.gov/mcb4.

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The Soft Glow o Streets and Sea Images courtesy Ellen Bradshaw

“South Street Snowstorm, Under the Viaduct” (2007 / 22x28”).

“Fulton Market Morning” (1998 / 14x18”).

“Night, Peck Slip” (2007 / 20x30”).

November 19 -25, 2015

BY DUSICA SUE MALESEVIC Painter Ellen Bradshaw has done what some may consider an impossible feat: make the FDR look beautiful and appealing. In “South Street Snowstorm, Under the Viaduct,” the FDR actually has a soft glow, reflecting the warm yellows, oranges and hints of red used to depict the snow and lights. The near-empty scene, with only a few cars and one visible person, spurs Robert Frost-like images to swirl in one’s head. Bradshaw, a Southbridge resident for 27 years, has used her talented eye to create scenes of the South Street Seaport, the West Village, the High Line and other parts of Lower Manhattan. Her oil paintings show Downtown’s past and chronicle its present. For her current exhibition, “Visions from the South Street Seaport” (on view through Dec. 31 at artisanal food and craft store Farm Candy), Bradshaw features oil paintings of the Seaport that span 20 years. “I wanted to show kind of the history of the old Seaport and also the old fish market, which has been gone for years now,” Bradshaw said in a phone interview. “I did a whole show of the fish market, so some of those paintings will be in there.” Indeed, before the Fulton Fish Market shuttered in 2005, Bradshaw was up early to capture the fishmongers and their surroundings. “The last year that the fish market itself was open,” she recalled, “I went down at probably three in the morning with my husband, who knew some of the fish guys, because they didn’t really like their photographs taken.” Out of that exploration came “A Farewell Tribute to the Fulton Fish Market,” shown at Pleiades Gallery in 2006. Bradshaw has been a member of Pleiades Gallery (530 W. 25th St.) since 1999, and has been its president since 2000. In “Fulton Market Morning,” the myriad shades of blue suggest day before the sun has broken through, while men move boxes or stand around. Again, the scene is sparsely

populated, but evokes a real sense of the market. Also to be shown as part of the exhibition are paintings that document bygone and current restaurants in the Seaport. Bradshaw said she depicted haunts like Sloppy Louie’s, no longer part of the neighborhood, and The Paris Café, open continuously since 1873 (except for 51 weeks after Hurricane Sandy). Bradshaw had frequented Farm Candy and met the owner, Pamela Stone. “I just wandered in there and struck up a conversation,” she said. “Her food is wonderful. I’ve bought several of her items. I told her what I did, and she had the wall space to do a show.” Bradshaw’s ties to the Seaport began in the ’80s. Originally from Penfield, a small suburb of Rochester in upstate New York, Bradshaw said, “Ever since I was little, I always knew I wanted to live here.” After attending Syracuse University for two years because her parents didn’t want her to move to New York City, she transferred to the Pratt Institute and studied fine arts and illustration. She graduated from Pratt in 1984, and immediately became associated with the Seaport. “My first job was down here after school. I got a job managing a hand-painted clothing store in the Seaport,” she recalled. “It was called Foofaraw.” This is also how she met her husband, Joe Bradshaw. He often went to the bar across from the store called McDuffee’s (both are no longer part of the neighborhood). “It was just a great place,” she recalled. “The stores down there and the restaurants — everything was so original and really quaint back in those days before the mall-type shops took over.” They met in 1986 and were married two years later. Joe grew up in the Smith Houses in the Lower East Side and then moved to Southbridge Towers. .com

of Her Snow, aport Mornings

Images courtesy Ellen Bradshaw

“Stormy Sky, Seaport Ships” (1996 / 18x18”).

“Lou’s Fish Market” (2005 / 12x24”).

Bradshaw has seen the neighborhood go through many changes. “When I first came down here, it was a little bit more deserted feeling,” she said. “There was hardly a really good place to buy food, like a supermarket. So it is totally transformed into much more of a residential feel.” Hurricane Sandy has also played a huge role in how the neighborhood is now. “Sandy hit and the whole place was demolished,” Bradshaw said. “Three years after Sandy, it’s starting to really revive.” When Bradshaw starts a new series of paintings, she picks a theme and then dives in for a year. She takes her camera with her wherever she goes, taking several photographs. She brings those back to her studio in the West Village. “I take some ideas from one photo, some from another photo, and create my own vision of what the feeling would look like,” she explained. “I take pieces from different photographs and put them together to make a painting.” Her last show centered on the High Line. “What I loved about it was the wild nature up there and then you look over the rails and there is city below,” she said. “I just loved the High Line — I didn’t expect to, but I did.” Her next gallery show will be “Up on the Roof,” which is slated for April

.com

2016 at Pleiades. It is a change of pace for Bradshaw, who usually paints street level. This series will focus on views of the city from rooftops and balconies in Lower Manhattan and Midtown. Bradshaw enjoys painting scenes in or about Lower Manhattan and the West Village. “I like the more intimate everydayness of the city,” she said. “Usually, if I put people in my paintings, it’s just either lone figures or people walking the streets maybe battling the elements. I don’t usually do crowd scenes or the more popular areas of the city.” Meanwhile, Bradshaw says she misses the Fulton Fish Market — but not the smells. “It was such a really cool part of this neighborhood,” she said. “It was fascinating. When I went down there and saw what went on, it was like being on a movie set. It was almost choreographed the way they went about their work. They did this every night, and then in the morning they would just sweep it all up and clean it all up. It was a real integral part of this neighborhood.” “Visions from the South Street Seaport” is on view through Dec. 31 at Farm Candy (21 Fulton St., btw. Water & South Sts.). Hours: Mon.–Sat., 11 a.m.–7 p.m. & Sun., 12–6 p.m. Artist info at ellenbradshaw.com.

“A Summer’s Day Retreat” (2013 / 20x24”), part of the High Line series.

“Sloppy Louie’s” (2006 / 8x10”).

November 19 -25, 2015

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Landmark Status Sought for Hell’s Kitchen Former Mission Continued from page 7 plant manager at the station. “Operations and equipment size are much different — sometimes equipment can only be replaced by removing a wall.” But their opponents point out that Con Ed has operated under restrictions for years, while the building remained on the landmarks calendar — and the Con Ed reps even emphasized themselves that the company has previously worked with the landmarks commission, such as when it replaced several windows with ventilation louvers in order to comply with state safety regulations. “Clearly, over the 36 years that they have asked for a delay in designation, they have been able to work under the restrictions of the landmarks commission,” said Anne Weisberg, who represented her local condominium board at the hearing. “So my feeling is, if we take the power plant off [the LPC calendar], then they will have no restrictions and we will lose any ability to keep the character of the plant.” Preservationists similarly say that the risk of leaving the building’s future up to Con Ed is too risky. “Con Edison doesn’t want it to be landmarked, because could you imagine how much money they could get?” said Simon, of Landmark West! “They’re prepared to tear this building down. There are 13 buildings going up along 59th Street and this will be one more.” Some details of the building, like cornices and roof tiles, have already been removed over time, and Con Ed has also taken down all of the station’s six original smokestacks, or chimneys, which were “designed to echo those of ocean liners on the nearby Hudson River,” according to a 1997 New York Times article (one newer chimney remains at the southeast corner of the building). When it was built in 1904, the building was the largest power station in the world, feeding a total of eight substations to power the signal and lighting systems of the Interborough Rapid Transit (IRT) subway — the city’s first underground transit system. The powerhouse is “the

Photo by Yannic Rack

Now a part of the nearby High School for Environmental Studies, this row house on W. 56th St. was originally built for the Mission of the Immaculate Virgin, a Catholic charity.

most monumental building associated with the subway system in New York City,” notes the LPC’s hearing statement from 2009. It was designed by Stanford White of the prominent architectural firm McKim, Mead & White, which is responsible for a host of other New York City institutions, including the former Pennsylvania Station, the Brooklyn Museum, and the main campus of Columbia University. Even White’s great-grandson, Samuel White, himself an architect and author of three books on the firm, offered his testimony on the building.

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“Three public hearings have established that the building meets all criteria for designation. It is significant for historical, cultural, technological, and architectural reasons,” he wrote in a recent letter to the commission that was read at the hearing. “The record is robust and the time for action is now.” In the spring, the commission will either vote to expedite landmarking of the building (in which case it would be designated within the year), drop it from the calendar by issuing a no-action letter, or vote not to designate it. The powerhouse wasn’t the only potential landmark in the area that was discussed at the hearing — the Mission of the Immaculate Virgin West, a three-story building on W. 56th St., was also on the table. Built in 1903 for the Mission of the Immaculate Virgin, a catholic charity, the Beaux-Arts style building has housed part of the nearby High School for Environmental Studies since the mid1990s. Although Community Board 4 (CB4) supports its designation, it barely received any attention at the hearing, and one audience member even argued that it should be dropped from the calendar, having “no special character or historic significance” at all. The testimony stood in stark contrast to the letters and statements submitted on behalf of landmarking the IRT Powerhouse — not just from preservationists, but also CB4 and local officials, including Councilmember Helen Rosenthal and Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer. But the most earnest appeals at the hearing came from local residents, who feel the powerhouse stands out in a neighborhood that is being rapidly transformed by new construction. “There’s tremendous development all around the power plant…there are all these glassy new buildings. It creates an anchor in the neighborhood to all that development that’s going on,” said Weisberg, who lives one block away from the site on West End Ave. “The power plant is literally the only testament in our neighborhood to its past.”‘

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Improved and Maybe Moved: Port Authority, 2030 Continued from page 2 sometimes is born out of restraint” was the mantra of the discussion committee members had that night about how to balance the need for a new terminal with a desire to have it weave itself into the fabric of the local community. Several committee members said in interviews that early intervention in the design process could keep an unacceptable design from moving forward. They see an opening in the fact that Port Authority officials now only have a plan to make a plan. “If you define what will not work for the community and New Yorkers at-large, you will get people who will come up with ideas that can be not only functional, but also aesthetically and historically relevant to what our neighborhood is,” said committee member Delores Rubin. The existing bus terminal will remain open through the construction of a new facility, which will take about 15 years, according to Port Authority estimates. It remains an open question whether a new terminal will accommodate both commuter and long-distance buses, depending on whether the authority decides in the future to host the latter at another site either in Manhattan or in New Jersey. In the meantime, CB4 is urging the Port Authority to allocate money to install GPS tracking on buses to better manage them as they enter and exit the ter-

Photo by Zach Williams

At a Nov. 12 meeting, members of CB4 expressed “deep concerns” that a new Port Authority Bus Terminal could divide Hell’s Kitchen.

minal, dedicate more lanes for buses in the Lincoln Tunnel, and identify a site for long-distance buses across the Hudson. As authorities fielded questions at the Oct. 22 press conference about location, size, cost and scope,

a critical concept arose: the degree to which this project, likely to affect blocks west of the current facility, is “scalable” — what John Degnan, chair of the Board of Commissioners, said is “otherwise known as a ‘compromise.’ ”

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ARTS&ENTERTAINMENT Painting For The Experience

Frank Stella at the Whitney Museum of American Art BY STEPHANIE BUHMANN Fewer than three weeks into its run at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Frank Stella’s retrospective has already been widely reviewed by the media. With over 60 works — some of them massive — filling its entire fifth floor, it is the perfect project to highlight the museum’s new lofty premises. Although often too closely installed, the many paintings, wall reliefs, maquettes, free standing sculptures and a few drawings provide insight into Stella’s versatile, nearly six decade-spanning oeuvre. As one of the most influential American artists working today, he certainly deserves such attention. And yet, what is interesting about the extensive coverage that this exhibition heralds is its common tenor: it is still Stella’s early work that remains the most universally revered and better understood. Even Stella himself has noted in the recent past that his so-called “striped” paintings might be the best he has ever painted. In fact, it was his Black Paintings that put him on the map. Works such as “Die Fahne hoch!” (1959) are straightforward compositions, which assemble even stripes of house paint into parallel geometric movements. They are often described as emotionally detached, and considered a historic bridge between the romantically charged Abstract Expressionist works of Jackson Pollock and Franz Kline and the Minimalism of Donald Judd or Carl Andre. “What you see is what you see,” Stella once remarked about these works — but that is too simple a description. It is true that they focus on the surface and do not veil a hidden mystique, but they are also elegant contemplations of rhythm. In that, the austere aestheticism of their vocabulary pulses with life within. In the early 1960s, Stella applied the concept of the Black Paintings to compositions based on aluminum radiator paint, which Pollock before him had used to strong effect as well. In works like “Union Pacific” (1960), the reflective silver surface makes for subtle plays .com

Photo by Ronald Amstut courtesy Whitney Museum of American Art

Installation view, with “The Blanket (IRS-8, 1.875X)” at far left and “The Whiteness of the Whale (IRS-8, 1.875X)” at far right.

with light. Depending on the viewer’s position, it either shimmers or appears somewhat muted. The paint handling enhances this effect: Stella changed the angle of his brush as he turned corners, allowing the light to reflect differently and to animate the surface. Both the Black Paintings and the Aluminum Paintings keep the viewer at a distance, encouraging them to be studied from afar. They manifest as statements rather than transformative experiences and this quality is characteristic for all of Stella’s work. The paintings and sculptures are created and meant for their own sake, and especially for the experience of making them. They are not intended to become catalysts for something emotional or spiritual. Born in 1936 to first-generation Sicilian immigrants, Stella grew up in a suburb of Boston. In 1954, he entered Princeton University, where he studied with the painter Stephen Greene, among others, and created gestural works with a muted palette that, above all, celebrated the spirit of Abstract Expressionism. After graduat-

“Harran II” (1967. Polymer and fluorescent polymer paint on canvas. 120 x 240 in. / 304.8 x 609.6 cm).

ing in 1958, Stella settled on the Lower East Side of New York, where he soon acquainted himself with some of the major artists of the scene. At this point he became especially taken by Jasper Johns’ flag paintings. In this context, Stella managed to rise quickly. In 1959, he joined Leo Castelli

Gallery, which also represented Johns, and exhibited in “Sixteen Americans” at the Museum of Modern Art (19591960). He became a bona fide shooting star to the extent that the Museum of Modern Art organized a survey of his

Continued on page 20 November 19 -25, 2015

Frank Stella Rejects Echoes of Past Decades

Photo by Ronald Amstut courtesy Whitney Museum of American Art

Installation view, L to R: “Marrakech,” “Palmito Ranch,” “Avicenna” and “Jasper’s Dilemma.”

Photo by Ronald Amstut courtesy Whitney Museum of American Art

Installation view. L to R: “Creede I” and “Creede II,” “Plant City” and “Empress of India.”

Continued from page 19 work in 1970 when he was not even 35 years old. Despite this early success, he managed to stay clear of wanting to please and meet others’ expectations. In fact, his work has so continuously and drastically changed over the decades, that he was sure to lose many of his early admirers along the way. In the mid-1960s, the striped paintings led to the Irregular Polygon series, which broke away from the strict organization of his previous work. In “Conway I” (1966), for example, thick stretcher bars push the composition off the wall. Both its vibrant palette and physicality provoke a sense of confrontation. Stella made

November 19 -25, 2015

11 Polygons, as well as identical canvases for each, employing different color combinations every time. In these works, a thin line of raw canvas delineates each color field, albeit without mechanical precision. Bleeding color makes for irregular edges when viewed up close. Despite their overt graphic quality, the Irregular Polygons convey a sense of playfulness that foreshadows Stella’s sculptural works of the 1990s and 2000s. The Protractor series came next, inspired by and named after the drafting tool used to draw and measure curves. When viewing works like “Harran II” (1967), Stella’s minimal palette of the Black and Aluminum Paintings seem a faint memory, even a foreign concept. Now, radiant and fluorescent fields of color dominate and establish a strong dynamism.

They are organized in eight-inch bands that form rhythmic sequences of echoing arcs. Arranged sideby-side within square borders, they find unison in full and half circles. Though Stella’s Polish Village series of 1970 — in which he collaged paper, felt and wood onto canvas — marked a turning point toward the more three-dimensional, his first truly sculptural works appeared in 1982. Stella has often remarked how his sculptures remain rooted in painting, but that the complicated forms he pursued demanded an independent physicality. They were, so Stella built paintings that he could then color and decorate. When viewed frontally, “The Blanket (IRS-8, 1.875X)” (1988), might evoke the shape of a vertebra. It is the particular colorization of different sections that defines them, but also visually flattens the protruding three-dimensional form when viewed from afar. In fact, it is a hybrid, a painting with sculptural tendencies. Though one cannot study it in the round, which makes it less sculpture than painting, its carefully painted sides in fluorescent rainbow stripes leave no doubt that this work is not solely to be considered from the front. As much as Stella has changed over the decades, one aspect remains the same: he has both openly admired other artists’ work and channeled it into his own. Pollock, Kline, Johns and John Chamberlain are perhaps the most evident. In recent years, Stella has openly dedicated whole bodies of work to literary and musical sources of inspiration. While the sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti and the writings of the American 20th-century harpsichord virtuoso Ralph Kirkpatrick, who made them widely known, inspired his Scarlatti K series, his most extensive series — Moby-Dick — ponders Herman Melville in depth. Then there are the tributes to a singular artist, like Kazimir Malevich in “Circus of Pure Feeling for Malevich” (2009), or to specific works of art, like Théodore Gericault’s masterpiece of (almost) the same title, in “Raft of the Medusa (Part I)” (1990). At the Whitney, the chronological organization becomes looser as the exhibition unfolds, mixing works from different eras in close proximity. This unfortunately feels like a forced reunion, as if to remind us that despite all their drastic changes and differences, these works belong and can hum together. However, a strictly chronological curation might have been more effective, because the beauty of Stella’s oeuvre is its dissonance. Each body of work might have emerged organically from the previous, but it quickly strove for independence. The fact that Stella has not spent his life echoing his most successful work from many decades ago, makes him inspiring. It will also ensure him credibility going forward, as his work will continue to impact subsequent generations of artists for entirely different reasons. “Frank Stella: A Retrospective” is on view through Feb. 7, 2016 at the Whitney Museum of American Art (99 Gansevoort St., btw. 10th Ave. & Washington St.). Hours: 10:30 a.m.–6 p.m. on Mon., Wed., Thurs. & Sun ad 10:30 a.m.–10 p.m. Fri. & Sat. Admission: $22 ($18 for students/seniors, free for members and those under 18). Visit whitney.org. .com

Gaming Gets Its Day, and Due ‘Legends’ is in its own league BY CHARLES BATTERSBY Tribeca Enterprises is known for the Tribeca Film Festival, but they recently launched a new project that examines another art form: video games. On Nov. 13, “Tribeca Games Presents The Craft and Creative of League of Legends” dedicated an entire day to a single massively popular game. The developers of “League of Legends” came to New York to show fans how they use art, music, and narrative to create their game. “League of Legends,” or just “League” as its fans call it, is an online game where teams of players battle for control of strategic points on a map. Each player chooses a “Champion” that they control, and “League” is known for its huge roster of colorful characters. Playable Champions include gaming archetypes like warriors, wizards and robots, and the increasingly outlandish 128-strong stable includes demonic cookie bakers, anthropomorphic bear policemen and nightclub DJs who fight with music. The quirky characters, and strategic, team-based gameplay, have caused “League” to surge in popularity since its 2009 launch. Patty Newburger, Executive Vice President of Event Strategy and Operations at Tribeca Enterprises, explained how “League” was chosen as the focus of this inaugural event . “Tribeca Games grew out of an inspiration from Jane Rosenthal, who is our founder, but also a well-known film producer. When you do a film, there are costumes, there’s a script, and there is music. When you look at the game

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Cosplayers dressed as characters from the 128-strong “League of 1Legends” stable, MX_COMMED_LeslieLohman.pdf 10/21/2015 2:09:50 PM at Tribeca Games’ daylong exploration of the massively popular game.

‘League of Legends,’ they are also telling a story.” Newburger pointed out how the game uses the same sort of musical composition, costume design and character development that one would expect from a movie and that “Jane believed that there was a real synergy. So we created Tribeca Games to continue storytelling... We are delving into the game, and how they tell their story.” Panels were held

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On the

Domestic Front

Scenes of Everyday Queer Life Curated by James M. Saslow runs through December 6, 2015

CMY

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“League” Design Director Greg Street (seen here at the Nov. 13 event), makes the case for video game as communal experience.

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Saul Bolasni, Untitled (Portrait of man with book), Collection of Leslie-Lohman Museum.

26 Wooster St, NYC 10013 212-431-2609 LeslieLohman.org Tuesday - Sunday 12 - 6 pm Thursday 12 - 8 pm November 19 -25, 2015

November 19 -25, 2015

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Tribeca Games Brings ‘League of Legends’ to New York

“League of Legends” can be downloaded and played for free on Windows and Macintosh computers.

Continued from page 21 throughout the day, where members of “League” developer, Riot Games, spoke about the process of designing the game. Riot Games has cultivated a global fanbase, and the fans had the chance to meet the developers at Tribeca Games, which was held at Spring Studios. It was a relatively quiet setting compared to video game conventions like the Penny Arcade Expo, which can have over 100,000 attendees. “One of the great things about today is that the fans and players have a time to interact with the creators,” said Newburger. “Normally they’re going to a tournament where they’re playing the game, or watching the game be played. Here is a time to really talk to the people that put the game together.” “League” Design Director Greg Street said. “We really enjoy these smaller venues that can be more intimate, and you can have a one-on-one interaction with attendees, instead of a stadium situation where you’re speaking down like you’re a rock star or something.” And the team at Riot Games are rock stars in the gaming business, with up to 67 million players logging into “League” each month. “League” has such a huge following that tens of millions of viewers will watch other people play championship matches, and these competitions can fill venues like Madison Square Garden. Although fans could simply watch from home, Street points out that “Much of

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‘League’ is about the community. That it is infectious, in a good way, to be sitting in a crowded amphitheater, cheering for your team with all your friends, when a big play happens.” Even though Riot Games has grown into an influential force in gaming, they had humble roots as an independent game developer. They shared their experience with the next generation of would-be game developers at Tribeca Games. “A lot of the panels have been a behind the scenes look at how the artists create the characters in the game, or how game designers think about the rules of the game,” said Street. “We have a lot of students here that are interested in getting into that field, who want to know what it’s really like.” “It’s a weird industry to get into,” according to Street. “It’s not like you go to medical school, you get your medical license, you become a doctor...You don’t necessarily need a degree from a game design school to make games.” Aside from the panels, fans could mingle with each other in a lounge that featured curated exhibits of artwork made by fellow fans of the game, along with a display of “cosplay” — fans dressed in homemade recreations of the outfits worn by in-game characters. Tribeca Games (tribecafilm.com/tribecagames) will have more gaming content when the Tribeca Film Festival returns in 2016. “League of Legends” can be downloaded and played for free on Windows and Macintosh computers. Visit leagueoflegends.com.

November 19 -25, 2015

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