Soho was originally the site of a grant of farmland given to free slaves by the Dutch West India Company during the colonial period. It turned out to be the first free Black settlement in Manhattan. Serious development in the area did not begin until Collect Pond was finished being drained in about 1813. After the pond was drained, Broadway was paved and more people began to settle in the area around Broadway and Canal Street. (Wikipedia)
In the mid-19th century, after this influx of settlement, commercial establishments such as Lord and Taylor began to open, as well as theatres and hotels, and along with this came the beginning of the famous SoHo cast-iron development. With the rise of the commercial district, brothels began to open up, and the area became one of the city's red-light districts, especially on the side streets off of Broadway. The establishment of the brothels drove out the area's middle class, allowing small manufacturers to pour in such as cabinet and china makers. (Wikipedia)
This process contributed to the decline of the area in the second half of the 19th century, especially with the Panic of 1873 and the Civil War. Large textile firms moved into the area towards the end of the century, but this did not change the course of the area as the firms moved to the South and the commercial center of the city moved uptown. After World War II, the area was an industrial wasteland with the big textile and small manufacturing firms replaced with such things as gas stations, auto repair shops, warehouses, and sweatshops. It was not until the 1960s when artists began to be interested in the empty manufacturing lofts that Soho's character began to change again. (Wikipedia)
The Lower Manhattan Expressway was slated to destroy most of the cast-iron architecture of the area, but civic and community leaders as well as the artists that lived there helped to defeat the proposal, leaving artists with the upper floors of abandoned Manhattan lofts to reside in. (Wikipedia)
And this is how SoHo gained its status as a center for art...
... but how does this apply to Subway Map Floating on a NY Sidewalk?
As stated in my first post, Subway Map Floating on a NY Sidewalk was installed in 1986 at 110 Greene St, in front of the SoHo Building. Since I would like this post to sum up the impact of this work on the community, I would like to talk about how Soho was affected by this piece of art.
While searching for information for this post, I came across a blog similar to this one. It states that "most busy New Yorkers rushed by... children, teenagers and tourists were fascinated." (Urban Media Archaeology) When I went to photograph the piece a few weeks ago, there were tourists milling about the area, but many of them failed to notice the Subway Map. Most of them kept on walking, oblivious to what was under their feet. I disagree with the statement by Urban Media Archaeology about how the work is easily noticed, but I did see one person take a picture of the work with their phone. Maybe I'm just bad at telling a tourist from a New Yorker, but I did notice that most people walking along Greene St. didn't bother to look under their feet, which is why I also believe that this excellent piece of public art deserves a little more recognition, and maybe a "renovation" of sorts that would allow the LED stations to come on during the daytime to make it really stand out from the sidewalk.
Unfortunately, as this would be considered a "minor" work of public art (unlike some huge pieces such as the 2005 Gates in Central Park) , not much information is available about the actual impact of the work on the neighboring area. However, I did find out that the entire block was dug up in order to make way for it in 1986. I doubted the authenticity of this claim in my first post because the work is "only" 87 feet long, which would be roughly 1/5 the total length of this particular block [I actually measured the distance on Greene St. (where the work is located) between Prince and Spring St. with Google Maps, and the length of this block came out to be approximately 520 feet long.]
In short, I conclude that this work of art had a major impact on this particular block, as well as a mention in a few NYC tourist guidebooks, but its total impact was relatively limited in scope. It definitely did not bring in a quarter of a billion dollars in tourism revenue like the Gates in Central Park did in 2005, but the work still stands as a nice SoHo "Easter egg" of sorts. It is not totally under the radar, however, as it had gained moderate amounts of attention by the art world and the SoHo community.
In the next post I will examine some other works of art located in the immediate area of Subway Map Floating on a NY Sidewalk.
See you next week!
Works Cited
JONATHAN. "Subway Map Floating on a NY Sidewalk." Web log post. Urban Media Archaeology. N.p., 12 Nov. 2011. Web. 04 Aug. 2014.
"SoHo, Manhattan." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 08 Mar. 2014. Web. 04 Aug. 2014.
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