The Skyscraper Museum is devoted to the study of high-rise building, past, present, and future. The Museum explores tall buildings as objects of design, products of technology, sites of construction, investments in real estate, and places of work and residence. This site will look better in a browser that supports web standards, but it is accessible to any browser or Internet device.
EXHIBITION CREDITS
Looking back at the people and events who thirty years ago had a hand either in shaping - or opposing - the redevelopment of Times Square, the Museum found many veterans of the era eager to share their memories and rummage through archives and closets. While the artifacts - especially models - were largely trashed, the individuals involved are in fine shape. We thank in particular Peter Bunche, Henry N. Cobb, Bruce Fowle, Con Howe, Cooper Robertson & Partners, George Klein, Frank Lupo, Fred Papert, Lee Harris Pomeroy, John Portman & Associates, Susan Radmer, the architects who worked on the skyscrapers with Johnson and Burgee, Alan Ritchie, Raj Ahuja, Scott Johnson, Rebecca Robertson, Brian Shea, Robin Stout, Herbert Sturz, Carl Weisbrod, and the late Frederick Schwartz, who embraced this project right before his untimely passing in April and is represented in two drawings.
Special thanks go to Lynne Sagalyn, who shared both her exhaustive knowledge and well-organized research files collected for her indispensible book Times Square Roulette: Remaking the City Icon.
The story of the Times Tower Site Competition of 1984, organized by the Municipal Art Society and the NEA, was the initial inspiration for the exhibition. While no record of the full list of the 565 reported entries survives, various published articles named and illustrated the winners and other amusing drawings. The breakthrough that enabled us to locate around two dozen original boards or to make facsimiles was the October 1984 issue of Oculus lent to us by Frank Lupo, one of the competition's two principal winners. Once again proving the awesome power of Google Search, Museum staff tracked down the 30-year old boards and arranged for them to be delivered from far-flung points in Florida, Virginia, Massachusetts, and many places between.
For their assistance in sending us their boards or images, as well as recollections of the events, we thank: Rick Bell, Paul Bentel and Carol Rusche, Lance Jay Brown, Doris Cole and Harold Goyette, Judith DiMaio, Lee Dunnette, Jaime Gonzales-Goldstein, Gilbert Gorski, Richard Haas, Michael Joyce, John Kormeling, Tony Leung, Michele Lewis and Jan Gould, Rodolfo Machado, Tobias Mostel and Aileen Winter, Taeg Nishimoto, Tim Prentice, George Ranalli, William F. Schacht, William Sloan, Steve Springer, Jim Stickley, David Suter, and Peter Waldman.
In addition, thanks go to the archivists and others who helped find artifacts and handle loans, especially Tracey Hummer, Paige Adair, Erin Butler, Maryann Chach, Ryan Donaldson, Jacqui McMurray, and William Whitaker.
Finally, The Skyscraper Museum thanks its hard-working staff and interns: Caleigh Forbes, Rick Fudge, Katie George, Georgi Kyorlenski, Nick Miller, Jorge Orpinel, Julia Telzak, Josh Vogel, Elizabeth Volchok & Ryan Waddoups.
Carol Willis
Director & Curator
The Skyscraper Museum
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TIMES SQUARE, 1984 is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
TIMES SQUARE, 1984 is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.
