For New York City art worlders of a certain age, the brass ring of their youth was to reach for a 2,000 square foot downtown loft. Now that they have attained maturity, that ambition has grown tenfold, to more like 20,000+ square feet. But for even the wealthiest 1%, that’s a difficult proposition in the five boroughs.
And so the abandoned municipal, industrial, and educational buildings of the Hudson Valley beckon—to the likes of Marina Abramoviç, or the clerics of DIA:Beacon, or contemporary collectors Steven Johnson and Walter Sudol, or Studio 54 fixture Francine Hunter McGivern, or, most recently, Chelsea gallerist Jack Shainman. Call it the Hudson River School of Art Storage.
Shainman debuted his vast new 30,000 square foot space, The School, yesterday in Kinderhook with an installation by Nick Cave. The event drew, without exaggeration, at least 1,000 attendees.
The crowd was a surprisingly comfortable mix: Grizzled Soho vetarans commiserated about the demise of Pearl Paint. Williamsburg and Long Island City hipsters clad in pristine Carhartts guzzled the free beer and locally-sourced hoagies, while wondering where in tarnation they had landed. Expatriate New Yorkers, who decamped to Columbia County long before any major collectors had heard of it, felt validated at last in their decision to move upriver. Lifelong residents who learned long division in these classrooms gazed in gently rueful amazement at the building’s dramatic-yet-respectful transformation by architect Antonio Jimenez Torrecillas. (Rule of thumb: The more pockets in a pair of pants, the more likely the person lives locally.)
The generosity of Shainman’s spread, the beauty of the rooms, the free Cave posters, the disco tent, and the absence of any velvet ropes or clipboard Nazis, gave the event an ease and uplift not common to the typically sour, tense atmosphere of so many City openings.
Only “downtown” Kinderhook itself seemed unprepared for its placement on the high art map. A half-dozen storefronts are empty near the intersection of Albany & Broad, waiting to be filled by the restaurateurs and baristas and mid-century modern furniture dealers who make the trek up Broadway, which eventually becomes the old Post Road–today, Route 9.
The Carolina House seemed like the only local business ready to take advantage of the influx, with black Beemers, Audis and Mercedeses replacing the customary muddied Jeeps and minivans in the parking lot.
The “space” (that once-annoying term now universally used to describe everything from literary salons to hair salons) is strikingly successful. A pitch-perfect glow illuminates a seemingly endless maze of galleries, the next larger than the last. It must have been a H
Herculean labor for Cave to occupy the entire cavernous building, and his decorative-yet-political work is strong. But the structure itself was the star of the day.
It was not clear how often The School would be open, or how regularly the exhibitions would change, but Shainman earned a ton of local goodwill with his début. A photo sampler follows below; click each image to enlarge it.
If young, emerging talent of all types can't find a foothold in this city, then it will be a city closer to Hong Kong or Abu Dhabi than to the rich fertile place it has historically been. Those places might have museums, but they don't have culture. Ugh. If New York goes there – more than it already has – I'm leaving. But where will I go? Join the expat hipsters upstate in Hudson?
That would represent the first time ever that Byrne has been behind the cultural curve: His former bandmates in the Tom Tom Club played a benefit at the Basilica Industria in Hudson to assist the cement plant fight—way back in 2004.
[h/t: Chris Bishop]
[n.b: Hudson is also featured, somewhat more flatteringly, in the November issue of Architectural Digest. The feature is not yet online.]
Televised image of Cross and attorney Tipograph in court today (CBS6)
Buried amid the news breaking this afternoon that Quintin Cross has surrendered to authorities—six weeks to the day since his disappearance—is an interesting tidbit: Cross is being represented by New York City defense attorney Susan Tipograph.
Tipograph’s legal resumé includes clients deemed by some to be political prisoners, for example a member of the Weather Underground. Operating in some of the same territory as the celebrated William Kunstler, her causes are more likely to be covered by publications such as The Village Voice and The Nation than in the pages of The Register-Star.
Tipograph was also the law partner and former officemate of the radical attorney Lynne Stewart, who was disbarred and sentenced to over two years in prison for her controversial representation of Egyptian cleric Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman. Stewart’s initial prison term for conspiracy and assisting terrorists was extended to 10 years in 2005, after it was further alleged that she had perjured herself at trial. (Stewarts’ supporters believe that she was a victim of post-9/11 hysteria, while others agree with the courts that she stepped over a bright line between merely representing an unpopular client and actual collaboration in crimes.)
So how would Cross wind up represented by Tipograph, who isn’t exactly known for handling small-time burglary cases?* In the middle of the last decade, Tipograph was a presence locally at Time and Space Ltd. on Columbia Street, in connection with various panels and documentary films. I recall meeting her there several times, and this blogger writes that she learned about TSL from Tipograph:
I’d heard tell, via the fabulous lefty lawyer Susan Tipograph, of an interesting performance/film/art/activist center in Hudson, NY...
This leads to the conjecture that Cross conceivably may have connected with Tipograph through someone involved with TSL. Among other connections there, Cross was photographed blowing kazoos on the steps of City Hall with TSL directors Linda Mussmann and Claudia Bruce less than two weeks before it was burglarized. Was Cross in touch with TSL or its directors during the six weeks he was missing? Or, as his recent Facebook postings** about social justice might suggest, did he just happen to find Tipograph on his own?
* ... Though she did recently represent a woman charged with scamming an elderly man with dementia out of his money.
** Cross’s Facebook page has been very active again since last Friday, including posts about “snitches and bitches” and what appears to have been a preview of his surrender: “touch down monday what u want swine lol,” along with other slang references to law enforcement such as “ham and bacon.”
In 2008, CBS News in New York City reported on the Lantern Group, a non-profit housing developer controlled by Eric Galloway. Lantern is listed as a partner in a proposed City of Hudson combined police, court and housing project, along with the new Galloway-back Galvan Initiatives Foundation. (Galvan's record of complaints and violations was reported upon in detail here earlier this week.)
The video of this CBS report has vanished into the internet ether, but a transcript can still be found (with enough Googling) online. It is reproduced below. (Acronym irony alert: The HPD referenced in the transcript is not the Hudson Police Department, whose Chief and union have opposed the combined facility plan, but rather NYC's Housing Preservation Department...)
The Lantern Group Took Millions From NYC To Provide Affordable Housing For Less Fortunate, But Has Failed
Housing Preservation & Development Department Shuns Interview
Reporting: Don Dahler
NEW YORK (CBS) — Many of New York City's less fortunate have been forced to live in filth.
A CBS 2 HD exclusive investigation has found that a non-profit group that promises to provide housing to the City's most vulnerable was doing anything but that.
"The Lantern Group" took millions of dollars from the city to provide clean, safe and affordable housing for the mentally ill, recovering drug addicts and others in need.
Instead, they've living in deplorable conditions, and you're paying for it.
On East 118th Street, Maria Montalvo lives with HIV in an apartment that is filthy and in disrepair. The Lantern Group built Schafer Hall seven years ago, and recently took over its management, or, as Maria says, its mismanagement.
"On the fourth, fifth floor they found a man who was dead for four days," Montalvo said.
The Lantern Group was charging Maria over twice the federally-limited rent. Manhattan Legal Services sued.
"When you go inside and you see how they actually maintain these buildings you realize they're not there to necessarily help this vulnerable population, they're there to make a profit," said Ime Nsa Imeh of Manhattan Legal Services.
On West 94th Street, in a building named St. Louis Hall, managed for the past two years by The Lantern Group, 73-year-old Rolande Cutner, who suffers from multiple sclerosis, shares her tiny room with dozens of stuffed animals.
"Because I live alone so I want to make sure I'm not alone," Cutner said.
Unfortunately, she and other residents also share their rooms with rats, mice, roaches, bedbugs and, as this building inspection shows, dangerously toxic black mold.
Rolande says it wasn't always so -- just since The Lantern Group took over.
"They let the building really deteriorate," she said.
Attorney Michael Hiller, who is representing the tenants, said he is horrified by the conditions.
"From everything I've seen so far, The Lantern Group is a slumlord," Hiller said.
The Lantern Group's mysterious president, T. Eric Galloway, wouldn't talk to CBS 2 HD. But we did find his 6,000 square-foot mansion in Hudson, N.Y., one of many properties he's managed to buy on a $100,000 salary.
CBS 2 HD asked the city's Housing Preservation and Development Department for comment. The HPD is the agency that oversees this kind of subsidized housing. It's the same agency that just handed a $15 million, interest-free loan to The Lantern Group to develop the St. Louis into housing for the mentally ill.
The HPD declined CBS 2 HD's request for an interview, saying we were being unfair to The Lantern Group.
In an e-mail, an HPD spokesman said, "Clearly, a story that raises allegations about The Lantern Group requires an opportunity for them to respond."
Even when we explained to HPD that over the past seven months we repeatedly requested an interview with anyone from The Lantern Group and were turned down, the Housing Department still refused an interview.
So here's a suggestion for HPD commissioner Shaun Donovan. Come on camera to explain this. Or better yet, take a tour of The St. Louis with me, and we'll see who's being unfair to the people you should be looking out for. Not the ones you evidently are.
Recently, unnamed persons at the new Galvan Initiatives Foundation—which is forging ahead without approval yet as a nonprofit by the IRS—took shots at David Marston, who was elected by a very large margin to represent Hudson’s 1st Ward on the Common Council. Galvan called recent statements by the new Alderman “innaccurate,” “misleading” and “demonstrably untrue.”
But a detailed look at New York City public records, below, appears to back up Marston’s position.
Image: TomSwope.com
The fledgling fund’s testy reply to Marston is oddly anonymous. It thus could be the work of one or both of its co-founders Eric Galloway and Henry Van Ameringen, or special advisor Rick Scalera, or director Tom Swope, or some hydra-headed, Shiva-armed combination thereof— which one prefers not to visualize... Anyway, it’s Swope who has gone out on a limb to defend Galvan’s tantrum on Carole Osterink’s Gossips of Rivertown blog, saying that “the violations [Marston] finds on the website are misleading.”
Galvan was reacting to a Register-Star article stating that Marston wanted to “bid out contracts” on a proposed hybrid police station, court and low-income (or maybe homeless) housing facility to be sited at the corner of 4th and State.
Alderman Marston
Marston, according to the Register, cited “a questionable history with other Lantern buildings” as driving his rationale. (The Lantern Organization, formerly the Lantern Group, is a nonprofit controlled by Galloway in NYC, which has proposed several projects in Hudson that never got off the ground, including an outsized homeless facility smack-dab in the center of Hudson’s business district.)
The paper further claimed that Marston alleged 11 Galloway buildings in New York City “average 26 department or building violations per building.” That’s what prompted unnamed Galvan reps to fulminate that this is “demonstrably untrue” and that Lantern has never “failed any inspections.” But Galvan’s overheated response is long on bluster and short on demonstrable hard evidence, citing a total of zero specific, outside sources. Instead, Galvan trumpets only their own sweeping assertion that they’ve researched “all public records.” (Really? All? Like Sarah Palin answered the question about which newspapers she reads—“All of 'em”?) The faceless Foundation then triumphantly declares that it has has conclusively ratified their own argument. (Take that!)
But Galvan did not stop there. The Foundation then launched into a broad attack on Marston’s credibility, describing his position as “inaccurate and misleading,” insinuating that he and two other elected Aldermen must have some other nefarious secret “agenda,” such as being insufficiently sympathetic to the disadvantaged, a quality Swope himself has not been known to evince in the past. (More on that some other time.)
Now, Marston is known to his constituents as a bright, diligent and responsible neighbor; that’s why he was elected so handily. So it is hard for most to imagine, as Galvan would have us believe, that he’d make up such an assertion from whole cloth. (Of course, there is also the separate matter of whether he was accurately quoted by the Register.)
So how to resolve this stark discrepancy? At Gossips, Marston suggested a simple way this could be done:
I encourage anyone to go to the NYC Dept of Buildings online [...] and explore the Lantern violations themselves. GalVan can marshall lazy deceptions about my ‘prejudices’ against the people supportive housing helps, or they can listen to those very people, and speak to the hundreds of complaints they have lodged against Lantern through the NYC DOB.
Not a bad idea: Rely on an independent, outside source to settle the matter.
The evidence would seem to be squarely on Marston’s side. To the best of this site’s knowledge, each of the following 11 buildings which appear in the New York City Department of Buildings public information system is either owned by and/or managed by the Lantern Organization or associated groups. Spot checks trace these buildings’ addresses back to Lantern, and in any case all of their pictures appear on Lantern’s website.
If you average the number of complaints on file per building, it computes to 26.18—which rounds down to 26, just as Marston reportedly said. If you average the violations, you get 26.91—which rounds up to 27. Below is a building-by-building report:
• 1384 Fulton Avenuea/k/a Amber Hall, in the Bronx (BIN# 2115578): 21 complaints and 13 violations are on record, 8 of them currently “open” or “active.”
Just this morning (April 3rd), a complaint was lodged that “all the doors to the stairwells are locked, only security has the keys. If you go in the stairs you cannot go out. No secondary means of egress in case of emergency.” In the meantime, another complaint lodged says that one of the building’s elevators has been out of order for a week. These complaints have been assigned to the Building Department’s Emergency Response Team and Elevator Division. (Another complaint about one of the building’s elevators was lodged on January 5th, and is still active.) Past problems include other items like a $500 fine related to the building’s boiler
• 111 East 118th Streeta/k/a Schafer Hall in Manhattan (BIN # 1087381): 6 complaints and 30 violations are on record, 2 of them currently “open” or “active.”
Lantern lists this as a building they manage on their website. For example, this building has an active boiler violation dating back to late 2009, and another from 2011 for failing to file a boiler inspection report. (Boilers, elevators and missing reports are a recurring theme of these records.) In 2010, a violation notice was served after a caller reported that both elevators “in a six story b[ui]ld[i]ng are out of service” with disabled tenants.”
• 333 Kosciusko Streeta/k/a Clover Hall, an “immediate care facility” in Brooklyn (BIN# 3332251): 13 complaints and 13 violations are on record, none currently “open” or “active.”
In December of 2010, a complaint similar to the one above at Schafer Hall alleged that the building’s elevator was “not working properly” and that there were “disabled people (HIV)” who “need this elevator.” A violation was served in June of 2011 after an inspection in May.
• 440 West 163rd Streeta/k/a Audubon Hall in Manhattan (BIN# 1087429): 15 complaints and 7 violations are on record, none currently “open” or “active.”
Like several buildings above, this one has multiple complaints on file about an elevator being out of service. However, by the time an inspector came out—typically several months later—the elevator apparently was back in service. Complainants noted that there were disabled people in the building (“everyone has AID[S] and many are in wheelchairs.”)
• 194 Brown Placea/k/a Leeward Hall in the Bronx (BIN# 2114428): 22 complaints and 16 violations are on record, 1 currently “open” or “active.”
As with other Lantern-managed properties, a lot of the complaints and violations on record have to do with uninspected boilers or problems with the the elevators. For example, a $500 penalty was levied in 2005 related to the boiler. (Once fines are paid, the Buildings Department lists such violations as “dismissed,” which to most readers sounds like there was no merit to the complaint, when it actually means that it was resolved by a fine.) Other complaints can stay active for long periods of time, without a resolution. For example, in May of 2011 a caller alleged that “there is an unlicensed super altering the boiler.” The Buildings Department sent out an inspector twice on August 2011, but s/he was “unable to gain access” to the building. There is no indication that the inspector went back on a later date, or that the caller’s complaint was ever resolved.
• 1856 Washington Avenueat 176th Street a/k/a Silverleaf Hall in the Bronx (BIN# 2112853): 9 complaints and 24 violations are on record, 4 currently “open” or “active.”
As is so often the case, this building has four open tickets for elevator problems dating from March 2011 and Febraury 2012.
• 2612 Broadwaya/k/a Huntersmoon Hall in Manhattan (BIN# 1056409): 25 complaints and 47 violations are on record, 2 currently “open” or “active.”
Surprise: The active items (going all the way back to August of last year) are for an elevator problem. A notice that a $2,500 fine would be levied for “failure to maintain [the] building in [a] code-compliant manner” was served on the management on September 26th, 2011, apparently due to failure to service a fire extinguisher and “remove water from [a] pit.” A hearing date is schedule for Thursday the 5th, with the City still awaiting proof of correction and payment of the fine.
• 863 Melrose Avenuea/k/a Jasper Hall in the Bronx (BIN# 2116638): 11 complaints and 37 violations are on record, 2 currently “open” or “active.”
A stop work order was served on the building in 2008 because no overhead protection had been put over the “entry walkway” to prevent residents from being injured by construction. As an example of how landlords technically can comply by responding to City officials, while leaving tenants at risk, the complaint was received on April 26th, but only resolved (without a fine) on June 2nd.
• 730 Beck Street/745 Fox Streeta/k/a Cedars/Fox Hall in the Bronx (BIN# 2005517): 8 complaints and 6 violations are on record, 2 currently “open” or “active.”
There is an active violation listed for, you guessed it, a problem with the elevator reported in February of this year
• 319 West 94th Streeta/k/a St. Louis Hall in Manhattan (BIN# 1034178): 146 complaints and 93 violations are on record, 22 currently “open” or “active.”
This appears to be by far the Lantern-managed building with the most extensive record of problems. Renovations appear to be in progress. The most recent active violation on record dates from just a month ago (March 6th). According to the City’s records, work is “taking place outside [the] scope of plans,” with construction “contrary/beyond approved plans/permits.” In January of this year, a neighbor complained of construction debris “falling all over,” but the Buildings Department sided with management. In late November of last year, another still-active problem was cited about exposed “high beam bulbs” on the construction site bothering neighbors.
• 260 West 99th Streeta/k/a Bilander Hall in Manhattan (BIN# 1056413): 12 complaints and 10 violations are on record, 2 currently “open” or “active.”
A wheelchair lift elevator is the subject here of an ongoing investigation, begun last month, for possible defective or exposed electrical writing. A “professional certification compliance audit” is also underway. In January 2010, the City investigated the building for construction “taking place at the location, throughout the building” with “no permits posted.” An inspector cited a “failure to maintain and clear and [sic] unobstructed corridor and passageway,” with a violation issued.
ENDNOTE: In fairness, it should be said that not all of the complaints on file are borne out by the Building Department’s investigators, and some of them may date back to previous owners or managers. (That’s why the above narrative of specific problems focus only on relatively recent ones.) In New York City, more perhaps than most places, you are going to get some unusual tenants who make a career of phoning in complaints to the building department. For example, a caller claimed that there were illegal offices on the 1st floor and cellar, but an investigation found that the certificate of occupancy allowed for them.
By the same token, NYC is notorious for, shall we say, the cozy relationships which often exist among bureaucrats, inspectors, superintendants and building management. In many cases, the long lag times between when complaints get filed and an inspector shows up gives management a lot of opportunity to clear things up before things ever get to a serious enforcement action, though the timeframe is probably a lot longer than tenants would like.
All that said, it appears from the record that many complaints and violations required some action by the City, and some resulted in fines or other corrective action.
The last time I was in New York City, I had several vivid experiences which transformed me into an expert on the Big Apple.
First, I saw a young immigrant standing on a busy street corner, trying to hand out flyers for a nearby sample sale. Hundreds of passers-by were callously ignoring him. From this I concluded that New York City no longer welcomes immigrants.
Then I saw several panhandlers, plus a homeless man sleeping on flattened cardboard boxes. From this I divined that there are no more apartments, jobs or compassion to be found in New York City.
Next, I witnessed a taxi having a fender-bender with a delivery van. The drivers were screaming and making obscene gestures at each other. It looked like they might even fight! From this I made a firm vow never to drive or ride in a vehicle anywhere in the City.
While observing this fracas, a bus pulled up before me. My face was blasted with diesel exhaust from a large vent on its side. From this I determined that everyone in NYC will die young from lung cancer.
So instead I ducked into the subway. Immediately I noticed a lot of spray-painted graffiti on the advertisements. Also, people had scratched their names into the glass of the subway doors. From this I recognized with terror that I was surrounded by vandals.
Seeking respite from the streets, I visited a famous art gallery. There were no other patrons of the arts inside. The chilly receptionist did not even look up to acknowledge my presence. From this I perceived that the NYC art scene is dead.
Later, passing by a well-reviewed downtown restaurant, I saw a rat emerge from its dumpster, which emitted a foul reek of rotting food. From this I learned that one should never dine at a well-reviewed downtown restaurant.
I decided to leave immediately, and walked rapidly back to the train station. Along the way, a fire engine passed at high speed, a deafening siren clearing its path.
From this I realized that the whole City was on fire. I hastily bought a ticket for the next train out, and fled.
But my brief visit was not entirely wasted. I am now considered a local authority on New York City, and my friends love to to be regaled with stories of my hair-raising experiences there.
Ralph Blumenthal refers to New York City apartment building residents as “cliff-dwellers” in his must-see piece (click on the wild interactive feature) on Rob Schleifer, a guy who has obsessively turned his tiny apartment into an ersatz backwoods cabin. It turns out this phrase has a long history, dating back to the late 19th Century.