Beloved Public Art Piece in Battery Park City Will Be Demolished
Battery Park City’s first public art piece, “Upper Room,” has been closed and is slated to be demolished soon. The sculptural court at the intersection of Albany Street and the Hudson River esplanade debuted in 1986 and has long been a favorite venue for birthday parties, chess games, and impromptu potluck suppers.
The Upper Room was the vision of sculptor Ned Smyth. He created it as part of Battery Park City’s renowned public art program, a central element of the overall design of the neighborhood. Mr. Smyth recalls that the art panel advising the BPCA “selected my proposal because they thought would be more than an object. It might become a destination where people would hang out. It was meant to be more of an environment, rather than a single sculpture.”
Perched on an elevated platform, 70 feet from east to west and 40 feet along the esplanade, Upper Room was indeed an environment unto itself. Surrounded by 20 columns of cast concrete inlaid with mosaics of pink stones, the salmon-hued fantasia evoked Roman, Greek, Egyptian, and Byzantine architectural motifs, while exuding the ambience of an ancient ruin. Along with tables and benches, it featured a miniature pyramidal temple at its center, sprouting a stone palm frond.
Soon after its unveiling, Upper Room was described by The New York Times as “one of the city’s most popular works of public art. A magnet for Wall Street brown-baggers, it is also a favorite resting place for strollers along the esplanade, one of the choicest waterfront walks in the city.”
Mr. Smyth, who lived for many years in Tribeca, would regularly stroll to Battery Park City to view his handiwork and the reactions it inspired. “There were small kids, pretending and performing,” he recalls. “Once a woman who lived nearby came out and told me, ‘I hate this sculpture.’ I asked why and she said, ‘because the Hell’s Angels, whose clubhouse is on the Lower East Side, come here every weekend and play loud music and I can’t stand it.’ And I said, ‘really? The Hell’s Angels like it? That’s so cool.’”
Local resident Rosalie Joseph recalls, “when my nieces were young, they always wanted me to take them this make-believe palace where they could pretend to be a princess and a queen. During all my years here, before September 11, 2001, and since, I’ve probably hosted dozens of spontaneous group dinners there. I would just call friends and say, ‘everyone bring something to the stone tables.’ And we would share the space with families celebrating birthdays and anniversaries.”
Ms. Joseph says that with the onset of the Covid pandemic in 2020, Upper Room became even more important, even in the coldest months. “When we couldn’t gather indoors, that became the communal table and an outdoor dining room where friends stayed connected with each other, and the community.”
In 2019, when the BPCA appraised its public art collection for insurance purposes, Upper Room was valued at $1.5 million. Recently, however, planners for the Authority’s North/West Resiliency project designated the western end of Albany Street as the location for a large underground tide gate, which would have to be buried directly beneath Upper Room.
Mr. Smyth says, “they called me in and said, ‘we’ve got to put in flood gates and these have to go right where the steps come down.’ I asked why they can’t move it to another area. To me, it is shocking that they are going to get rid of it.” When the BPCA announced a public farewell ceremony for Upper Room last week, Mr. Smyth declined to attend. “I’m not satisfied with information they’ve provided about this, because they’re not telling people it will be torn down,” he says.
The BPCA responds that Upper Room was built in a way that makes relocation impossible without extensive damage, and its large size severely limits other sites that could hold it. The Authority says this is the only piece in its collection that will need to be demolished.
A spokesman for the agency says, “Upper Room unfortunately must be removed for flood mitigation work necessary to protect lives and property in Battery Park City and beyond, about which we’ve been in discussions with the artist and community for more than a year. We thank Mr. Smyth for such a meaningful contribution to the public art of Battery Park City, and will continue to keep the community updated as we proceed with this vital construction work.”
Abby Ehrlich, who retired in June after decades of service at the BPCA, most recently as the director of community partnerships and public art, said, “Ned Smyth’s Upper Room is the foundation on which all the public art that has followed and flourished in Battery Park City for 40 years was built. It was commissioned by BPCA through a committee of New York City visionaries, such as Agnes Gund, Amanda Burden, and others, who had championed an open, full-throttle embrace of the essential role in healthy communities and society of art and artists. Upper Room literally opens to the heavens and the Hudson River, connecting people with earth, water and air, with a sense of quiet grandeur. This is why anyone of any age who experiences Upper Room feels its grace and power, and is reminded of our own.”
I am very sorry that such an important work of art is scheduled to be destroyed. There must be another way!!! I lived near The Upper Room for many years and saw kids playing on it. I saw it used as a background for fashion photography. I saw it as a place where families and friends gathered and shared a meal. It spurred the imagination — it could be anything. Children could see that and a lot of their elders could see that, too. If there is really no place for it in Battery Park City then perhaps it could be donated to a place that would treasure it and care for it. Too expensive to do that? No way. There’s a lot of money in New York City. There are a lot of individuals and corporations that could save it — and put their name on in perpetuity it for having done so.