BY LINCOLN ANDERSON | “The Cube” has landed!
Astor Place’s iconic spinnable sculpture has finally returned home from exile in New Jersey, where it underwent a painstaking refurbishment.
Formally titled “The Alamo,” the bronze block, 8 feet long on each side, was created in 1967 by Bernard “Tony” Rosenthal. It was removed for an overhaul in connection with the city’s Astor Place / Cooper Square renovation project, which was recently completed and which has vastly increased the area’s pedestrian space.
The iconic artwork’s return was delayed several times over the past few months as final touches were being done. In fact, news that “The Cube” was back at its old location Tuesday came as a surprise even to the Village Alliance business improvement district, which has been intimately involved in the Astor Place / Cooper Square renovation project, and even celebrated the new plazas with an “Astor Alive!” festival in September.
“It was a surprise,” said Will Lewis, the BID’s marketing and events manager. “We got a call from our security guards at 12:30 — ‘ “The Cube” ’s here!’ ”
The alliance quickly got the word out.
“We put it on Twitter right away,” Lewis said.
Soon a crowd of about 300 people had gathered to watch the reinstallation, which lasted about two hours. Five riggers from New Jersey worked to lower “The Cube” from a flatbed truck onto a pole secured to a base anchored in the sidewalk. But first, they made sure to grease the pole, so the sculpture will turn.
“It is amazing how much lubrication it’s got on it,” Lewis said. “They were just slapping it on the pole.”
Then the lubed “Cube” was lowered, and it went perfectly.
“It was so smooth,” Lewis said. “It went in without a clunk, controlled by crane. It was really graceful, almost like the Times Square ball at New Year’s.”
As the bronze behemoth settled onto the base, the crowd broke into applause.
“It’s back in position,” Lewis said, “and it spins. They had a good test spin. They’ve still got barricading around it. They want to do a bit of work on its base.”
The Department of Design and Construction, which oversaw the plazas-expansion project, will lead a press event within the next week to announce “The Cube” ’s reinstallation.
Lewis, who recently move to New York from England, had actually never seen the sculpture before, but has now come to appreciate the full extent of “Cube”-mania.
“There was one person,” he said, “I don’t know how she did this — she came dressed as a Cube. It was a perfect likeness.”
In England, “there’s a lot of public art,” Lewis said. “But there’s nothing that has that connection in people’s hearts. It’s interesting to see what it means to people — the passion.”
The sculpture has been coated with a protective layer that will make it easier to remove graffiti, which has been a problem over the years. The artwork has also been “bombed” by chalkers in the past and was once draped with a custom-made crocheted covering.
The recent Astor Alive! festival featured a “Cube”-making workshop, and the finale, a colorful parade, was festooned with mini-versions of the inscrutable monolith.
