Midtown Tower Revamp Threatens Art Installation, Report Says

MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — An art installation created in the 1950s by famed sculptor Isamu Noguchi may be destroyed when developers remodel the lobby of 666 Fifth Avenue as part of a renovation of the Midtown office tower, according to reports.

Brookfield Properties — which secured a 99-year lease for the Fifth Avenue skyscraper in 2018 — doesn't have plans to preserve Noguchi's installation adorning the tower's lobby ceiling, the New York Times first reported. A spokesperson for the firm told the Times that the current iteration of the installation, which has been modified since its 1957 creation, "in no way reflects Noguchi’s original vision."

A 1998 renovation converted the space containing Noguchi's artwork — which, in the artist's words, reflects "a landscape of clouds" — from an open-air passage to an enclosed lobby, the Times reported. The renovation also did away with marble floors and walls that enchanced the effect of the artwork, according to the report.

Preservationists are attempting to convice developers to preserve the Noguchi artwork in the lobby, the Times reported. The director of the Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum told the Times that the museum is "working to ensure that the work remains in situ."

Brookfield secured a lease for the Fifth Avenue tower from Kushner Companies in 2018 with the intention to redevelop the 41-story office building. When Kushner Companies bought 666 Fifth Ave. in 2007 the building was expected to become the centerpiece of the firm's New York City real estate holdings. The New Jersey-based firm even moved its own offices into the tower, but could never secure financing to redevelop the tower.

Read the full New York Times article here.