Good morning. It’s Thursday. Today we’ll look at a photo and video exhibition that has transformed a transit hub. We’ll also get details on the church on the Upper West Side that wants to tear down its landmark building.
Brandon Stanton, the photographer behind the best-selling book “Humans of New York” and the viral social media project linked to it, thought of Grand Central Terminal as more than a transit hub. He thought of it as an art gallery and set out to turn it into one. The result, “Dear New York,” is what he described as “a love letter” to New York and New Yorkers. Those who don’t love advertisements may love “Dear New York” more than Madison Avenue account executives — or their clients. Stanton arranged for the 150 digital screens in Grand Central that usually show ads to run “a very choreographed piece of video art” until “Dear New York” closes on Oct. 19. It is, by all accounts, the first time in memory that Grand Central has been ad-free. (Or almost ad-free. On a walk-through, Stanton pointed out one screen that was still playing an advertisement. He said it would be gone in a day or two.) But with no ads above the tracks for trains to Branchville, Bronxville or Pleasantville — and with photographs projected on the columns beneath the sky ceiling on the main concourse and filling the walls above the steps to the 4, 5 and 6 subway platforms — Grand Central is different. “It’s not like I etched anything into stone” or that the building “is being irrevocably changed,” he said. “It’s taking on a new form for two weeks. But I would say, by removing all of the advertising, in a way, we’ve taken it back more to its original intent, which was to be a place of civic gathering and civic purpose.” He said he had paid to cover the revenue lost by removing the ads. “I’ve spent most of the money that I’ve saved from the past 15 years of doing ‘Humans of New York’ on ‘Dear New York,’” he said. How much? He said only, “I no longer have any stocks.” Outfront, the advertising concessionaire for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs Grand Central, said that as a matter of policy it did not share cost details. The M.T.A. said he had also paid to use the space in Grand Central but would not say how much it had charged him. Stanton enlisted the scenic designer David Korins (“Hamilton” and “Dear Evan Hansen”), who called the installation “the largest public work the city has seen since ‘The Gates,’” the installation in Central Park by the artists Christo and Jean-Claude in 2005. Andrea Trabucco-Campos, a partner at the design firm Pentagram, laid out the subway installation. There is also a more conventional exhibit in Vanderbilt Hall, with images from around the city taken by 10 professional photographers. Three walls surrounding their display stands are filled with photographs taken by students in public schools in the city. This week, Stanton’s new book, also called “Dear New York,” was published. He said he was giving the proceeds from the book to charities in New York. Some people have seen themselves in the exhibition. Liza Mackeen-Shapiro, who works for a literary agency, found the photograph that Stanton had taken of her as she sat on a bench in Prospect Park. She said it was “kind of surreal” to “see your own face in the subway where you commute every day.” WEATHER Expect sunshine and temperatures near 60 with some wind. The evening will be clear with temperatures dropping below 50. ALTERNATE-SIDE PARKING In effect until Oct. 13 (Columbus Day; also called Indigenous Peoples’ Day). The latest New York news
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The church on the Upper West Side that wants to demolish its 140-year-old building in a real estate deal has a plan for the $34 million it hopes to end up with. The church, West Park Presbyterian, plans to set up a “social justice fund” with $25 million to $30 million. Interest from the fund, about $900,000 a year, would be distributed as grants to other Presbyterian churches in New York that provide services like soup kitchens and nutritional programs, housing assistance for immigrants and before- and after-school programs. The rest of the money, possibly as much as $4 million, would go toward paying down West Park’s debts and rebuilding its congregation. The church would have space in the new apartment building on the site, at Amsterdam Avenue and West 86th Street. The deal depends on persuading the city to lift the church’s landmark designation. The church took the first step in the process to do that last month when it filed a hardship application with the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission, claiming, as it has for the last several years, that it cannot afford to keep up the building. The second step will take place this evening, when the Preservation Committee of Community Board 7 holds a hearing on the application. The committee will hear from elected officials, along with Landmark West!, a local preservation group that says approving the hardship application could set a dangerous precedent for dwindling congregations in historic churches. There will also be a presentation from the Center at West-Park, the arts group that had been a tenant in the building and sees as part of its mission preventing the demolition of the church. The church evicted the center during the summer after the center lost a legal challenge involving its lease. The center moved to another church a couple of blocks down West 86th Street. The West Park building has been surrounded by a sidewalk shed for years, and the church says that its tiny congregation cannot afford the structural repairs that are needed. “I think there’s no hardship,” said Gale Brewer, the City Council member who represents the neighborhood, who said she goes into the West Park building regularly. “It’s not falling down. I haven’t been hit by a brick.” The church and the arts center are at odds about how much repair work is necessary and how much money the center has on hand. “Of course the church appreciates the artistic value and wishes them well,” a spokeswoman for the church said. “But their lease expired at a crumbling church, and the church could no longer afford to subsidize their operation.” Debby Hirshman, the executive director of the center, said that it had offered to pay substantially more rent and to carry out renovations to the roof, the gutters and the facade that would have cleared the way for a sidewalk shed around the church to be removed — an offer the church did not take up. Roger Leaf, the chairman of the West Park Administrative Commission, a church panel set up to sell the building, said last month that if the city did not remove the building’s landmark designation, the church would still move to sell the building. But he said that selling a landmark building “certainly won’t be anything approaching the proceeds the church will get” if the building can be demolished. The preservation committee has scheduled another session for Oct. 29 and will forward a resolution on the hardship application to the full community board, which in turn will send a recommendation to the landmarks commission, which has the final say. METROPOLITAN DIARY Locked out
Dear Diary: I was walking down Nostrand Avenue in Brooklyn when I saw a hatchback double-parked in a bus lane, causing traffic to build up behind it. A man was standing beside the car and banging on the window. “Come on, baby, let me in!” he said. “Come on, let’s go, just push the button.” He continued to shout into the car as I got closer. “Just climb up here and press on that button,” he said. “You got it baby.” I looked over his shoulder and saw what I believe was a papillon sitting in the passenger seat and smiling at him. — Brendan Thomas Donohue Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Tell us your New York story here and read more Metropolitan Diary here. Glad we could get together here. See you tomorrow. — J.B. P.S. Here’s today’s Mini Crossword and Spelling Bee. You can find all our puzzles here. Davaughnia Wilson, Lauren Hard and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at nytoday@nytimes.com. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox.
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