{"id":943,"date":"2006-04-10T09:27:08","date_gmt":"2006-04-10T17:27:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2006\/04\/a_new_use_for_2_columbus_circle.html"},"modified":"2006-04-10T09:27:08","modified_gmt":"2006-04-10T17:27:08","slug":"a_new_use_for_2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/archives\/2006\/04\/a_new_use_for_2.html","title":{"rendered":"A New Use For 2 Columbus Circle"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The facade of the unlandmarked 2 Columbus Circle Lollipop Building <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2006\/04\/08\/nyregion\/08columbus.html\/partner\/rssnyt\">now features a giant billboard for the Da Vinci Code<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>When the Museum of Arts and Design bought 2 Columbus Circle last year, its director, Holly Hotchner, defended the decision to reconstruct it, saying, &#8220;I think nearly everyone would agree 2 Columbus Circle is a tremendous eyesore.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Now it is a tremendous ad.<\/p>\n<p>Billboards for &#8220;The Da Vinci Code,&#8221; the film version, cover construction scaffolding at the 10-story building, the former Gallery of Modern Art, which has been stripped of most of its original marble facade.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There are advertisements like this throughout the city and in other countries,&#8221; said Alan Yamahata, the vice president for development of the museum, at West 53rd Street. He cited the landmark Apple Bank for Savings at Broadway and 73rd Street for one. &#8220;We&#8217;re a not-for-profit, and this was a creative way to generate capital.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Construction costs are estimated at $40 million. Mr. Yamahata said he did not know how long advertising would cover the scaffolding or how much revenue it would generate.<\/p>\n<p>There is some question whether the billboards are legal. A sign is allowed on scaffolding, said Ilyse Fink, a spokeswoman for the city&#8217;s Department of Buildings. &#8220;But it must comply with zoning, and a permit should be obtained. There&#8217;s no sign permit in our database that I could find for 2 Columbus Circle.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Those who fought unsuccessfully for landmark status for the 42-year-old gallery, built by Huntington Hartford, were not happy yesterday.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This institution supposedly dedicated to culture and stewardship destroyed the most important work of art in its collection,&#8221; said Kate Wood, the executive director of the Landmark West group. &#8220;Then they went and replaced it with a gigantic billboard, which they didn&#8217;t even bother getting legal permits for.&#8221;<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The facade of the unlandmarked 2 Columbus Circle Lollipop Building now features a giant billboard for the Da Vinci Code: When the Museum of Arts and Design bought 2 Columbus Circle last year, its director, Holly Hotchner, defended the decision to reconstruct it, saying, &#8220;I think nearly everyone would agree 2 Columbus Circle is a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,40,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-architecture_infrastructure","category-insert_muted_trumpets_sad_wahwah_here","category-manhattan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/943\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}