Louise Nevelson Plaza

Louise Nevelson, whose sculptural work has been associated with Abstract Expressionism and who was known as the "Grande Dame of Contemporary Sculpture", was one of the first female artists in the U.S. to gain recognition for public art.[1][2] During the 1970s, she received commissions from the federal government, numerous corporations, universities, as well as religious institutions, including the Chapel of the Good Shepherd, a 1977 sculptural environment installation at St. Peter's Lutheran Church in Midtown Manhattan.[3]

Following Louise Nevelson's gift of her sculpture Night Presence IV to New York City in 1972, installed on the corner of Park Avenue and 92nd Street, she was asked to design a traffic triangle that would include "sculpture, seating, and plantings" across the street from the building of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.[4] The space of the plaza had been previously occupied by German-American Insurance Company Building, designed by architects Hill & Stout in 1907 and completed in 1908.[5] It was among several buildings in Lower Manhattan demolished during the 1970s to make the streets wider and to improve traffic flow to the nearby World Trade Center complex.[5]

Louise Nevelson, Mayor Ed Koch and David Rockefeller at the opening of the plaza, 14 September 1978 (Archives of American Art)

Funding was provided by the Mildred Andrews Fund and construction by a group of local New York corporations. Nevelson inspected the site from the upper floors of an office building adjacent to the space and decided she would place "seven black welded steel sculptures on columns, ranging from 20 to 40 feet high, so that they would 'appear to float like flags' above the plaza".[4] In 1977, the site, then known as Legion Memorial Square, was initially dedicated by Mayor Abraham Beame who "hailed Nevelson's sculpture as an antidote to a spate of recent violence in the city".[4]

In 1978, it was renamed Louise Nevelson Plaza in a dedication ceremony presided over by Mayor Ed Koch and business magnate David Rockefeller, becoming the city's first public space to be named after an artist.[4] As art historian Harriet F. Senie notes, the "marriage of high art, local politics, and finance to promote a desirable civic image had become established practice".[4] The sculptures are part of what Nevelson called "Seventh Decade Garden", which was "a series of environmental sculptures evoking botanical shapes".[2]

Writing for Time, art critic Robert Hughes called the works "big, imposing and mannered".[6] According to scholar Richard Lacayo, the largest one of the seven sculptures installed in the plaza, 70 feet tall, "unfurls majestically against the heavy stone of the Florentine-style Federal Reserve Bank across the street".[3] In December 1978, Nevelson dedicated another public sculpture in the Lower Manhattan; titled Sky Gate, New York it was installed in the mezzanine lobby of 1 World Trade Center on the opposite site of Financial District.[7]

Louise Nevelson Plaza in 2021, showing the Federal Reserve Police booth on the right-hand side

While the physical condition of the plaza suffered poor maintenance, it remained largely intact for several decades. In the aftermath of September 11 attacks in 2001, a security booth of the Federal Reserve Police was erected on the plaza to screen incoming trucks, marking the first alteration of Nevelson's original design.[1] By 2007, all sculptures had faded, one had been removed after being hit by a truck, and structural engineers had discovered that the street's sub-surface had to be repaired, prompting the city to rehabilitate the plaza.[2] That year, a redesign project was initiated by Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, working together with the New York City Department of Transportation and the New York City Department of Design and Construction.[1]

The site reopened to the public in August 2010.[2] Differing significantly from Nevelson's original design, the plaza featured a new ground covering, an elevated platform added on the north-west side, as well as new benches and plantings, among other changes.[1] As part of the redesign process, most of Nevelson's sculptures have also been restored and their placement on the plaza has been rearranged. While criticized by some art historians for altering the original concept, the renovation was well received by the artist's granddaughter Maria, who argued that Nevelson was "not someone who held on to the past" and was "all about the 'now'".[2][Note 1]