Midtown Manhattan Wouldn’t Be the
Same
‘Times
Square, 1984,’ at the Skyscraper Museum
“One of the most beautiful entries, by Lee Dunnette,
envisioned a restored Times Tower with a spectral, hooped tube driving through
the body and shooting beyond the roof, a ghostly hologram vanishing into the
night.”
The column by Mr. Giovannini is a concise and entertaining review of the Times Square redevelopment in the mid 1980s, and the parallel shifting of architectural design thought in the same time period. The online version includes a slide show of images from the time.
Paul Goldberg of the Times wrote a contemporary (1984) review of the original competition, which announces an understandably begrudging acceptance of the stylistic chaos, His note on my proposal: "The jury also selected Lee Alan Dunnette's proposal for a re-creation of
the original tower with a cylindrical light shaft shooting through it."
The Skyscraper Museum, working with limited resources, had produced a remarkable review of those interesting "Times". If you are in New York you should stop in. You can check out the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Ground Zero, and the "Bull" at Bowling Green while you are at it.
For those that are reading this for technical information... I began with a 30" x 40" dark blue illustration board. The various "windows" were masked, and the background was spray painted black. Then I transfered the various line drawings onto each window with white transfer (graphite) paper. Then, having masked the black areas, I worked each window with pastel and colored pencil until I had a dramatic effect. I of course did preliminary sketches to give a flavor of the final art. Those sketches can be found at the end of the post on Conceptual Sketches.
Note: I have not been posting due to a major personal change in my life. I should be back to more regular post in a month or two. Thanks for your patience.
