If You Build It: Press Highlights

PRESS HIGHLIGHTS : SUMMER 2014

Image courtesy of David Adjaye Associates.

http://nyti.ms/1rZtJIR

ART & DESIGN

Unlikely Tenants Filling a NeighborhoodVacancy

JULY 10, 2014

Art in Review

By HOLLAND COTTER

In 2009, when a bad economy left commercial spaces vacant across New

York City, an itinerant nonprofit art group called No Longer Empty started

filling some of them — a storefront on West 23rd Street, the closed-up

Tower Records on lower Broadway — with art. This summer, the

organization adds a twist to its mission by working on premises that have

yet to be occupied, an in-progress 13-story affordable-housing complex

called the Sugar Hill Building located on West 155th Street in Washington

Heights.

Sponsored by Broadway Housing Communities and designed by

David Adjaye, the development won’t open until the fall. But for the next

month, it has exhibitions installed on two floors, and in a ground-level

space that will eventually be the Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art and

Storytelling.

In the early 20th century, Sugar Hill was deluxe turf: Duke Ellington,

Thurgood Marshall and W. E. B. Du Bois lived here, and a bronze figure of

Du Bois, depicted as a slender, stoop-sitting version of Rodin’s “Thinker”

by Radcliffe Bailey, opens an exhibition of 22 artists on the ninth floor.

Organized by Manon Slome, No Longer Empty’s president and curator,

the show has celebratory images: neighborhood portraits by Bayeté Ross

Smith; a gleaming steel riff on cursive graffiti by Carlos Mare (who used

the tag Mare 139) and a red velvet runway hung with crowns by Shani

Peters.

But there’s also acknowledgment of intractable problems: racial

profiling in Dread Scott’s 2012 video piece called “Stop” and homelessness

in an installation by Kameelah Janan Rasheed, to which visitors are

invited to contribute. In a nervously flashing neon sign by Hank Willis

Thomas, lines from corporate advertising — “It’s Everywhere You Want To

Be” and “The Life You Were Meant to Live” — look more threatening than

reassuring, as does the Sugar Hill Building itself, with its dark stone

cladding, small windows and fortresslike bulk.

However forbidding the exterior, the views from the apartments are

great. Looking east you can see all the way to Yankee Stadium, a

perspective acknowledged in Freddy Rodríguez’s painted homages to

Dominican baseball players. And with 25 of the 124 new apartments

designated to go to homeless families, the building is sure to make hearts

glad, as does much of the art that’s here now. One piece, Raúl Ayala’s

handsome mural of African-American female writers — Gwendolyn

Bennett, Ethel Caution-Davis, Mary Church Terrell — will stay on

permanent view. (It’s painted on a terrace wall on the third floor where

various local art organizations — Harlem Arts Alliance, Dominican York

Proyecto Gtafica — also have shows.)

And at least a few No Longer Empty pieces will leave an afterglow. For

a project called “Sugar Hill Smiles,” Nari Ward set up shop on

surrounding streets and asked random passers-by to smile into mirror-

bottomed tin cans. When people complied — hundreds did — he sealed the

cans on the spot while the smiles were still fresh. In a win-win deal, the

smiles are on sale for $10 each, with proceeds going to a Broadway

Housing Communities educational program.

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NY CULTURE

No Longer Empty's 'If You Build It' Opens atHarlem's Sugar HillGroup Holds Exhibits In Places That Rarely See Contemporary Art

June 25, 2014 1:11 p.m. ET

Over the past week, Harlem's David Adjaye-designed Sugar Hill Apartments teemed with workersreadying the building for August occupancy, as well as artists carting in piano keys, sheets ofstainless steel and golden inner tubes.

"And they're all competing for the same elevator," said Ellen Baxter, executive director ofBroadway Housing Communities, the nonprofit behind the Sugar Hill Project, a complex that willinclude more than 100 residences for low-income and homeless families.

Manon Slome, right, the president of No Longer Empty, oversees the installation of 'If You Build It' atSugar Hill Apartments. Andrew Lamberson for The Wall Street Journal

By JESSICA DAWSON

WSJ Photos

How Sweet it is at Harlem's 'Sugar

Metropolis'

The artists were there for "If You Build It," an ambitious group exhibition opening Thursday. Ahead

of the complex's opening, Broadway Housing Communities invited No Longer Empty, an arts

organization that specializes in staging exhibitions in places that rarely see contemporary art, to

install a show linked to the neighborhood. At Sugar Hill, it has taken over several floors with site-

specific installations and other works.

Late last week, its president and chief curator,

Manon Slome, took a reporter on a tour through the

gray-walled rooms of the building's ninth floor, where

No Longer Empty has full access to soon-to-be

offices, apartments, public areas and a balcony.

She gestured to a plywood-covered radiator.

"It's a Judd," she joked. Though the box did resemble a minimalist sculpture by Donald Judd, it

would be painted over in time for the show's opening.

'New York Sugar Metropolis' by Irish sculptors Brendan Jamison and Mark Revel Andrew Lambersonfor The Wall Street Journal

"Usually we come into older buildings that we have to finish," Ms. Slome said. "When you're

working in a pre-existing structure, you know exactly what you're dealing with. In this case, there

have been delays in construction, which is challenging."

In its five-year history, the organization has produced group shows at fallow or soon-to-be

renovated buildings around the city, including a former bank in Queens and a former home for the

indigent in the Bronx. At Sugar Hill, Ms. Slome selected and commissioned work relevant to the

neighborhood and, on the building's third floor, invited community groups to exhibit.

Scherezade Garcia's pile of gold inner tubes. Andrew Lamberson for The Wall Street Journal

Because of Sugar Hill's significance to the Harlem Renaissance, some of the show's biggest

names are contemporary African-American artists, including Radcliffe Bailey and Hank Willis

Thomas. Mr. Bailey's almost-life-size bronze statue of W.E.B. Du Bois depicts the author and civil-

rights activist posed, chin in hand, like Rodin's "The Thinker." The statue presides spookily over a

hallway of glass-walled offices.

The show includes politically driven conceptual work, including Dread Scott's "Wanted," a project

critiquing stop-and-frisk policing. Working with young black male volunteers, Mr. Scott

commissioned a forensic sketch artist to create wanted posters like the ones police issue.

"They're not helpful in tracking down that person," Mr. Scott, 49, said, referring to police-speak like

"UNK," for "unknown," a common descriptor. "All they say is, there's this danger in the community.

Be afraid. Watch out for some black man."

Malik Davis and artist Nari Ward Andrew Lamberson for The Wall Street Journal

In addition to the Sugar Hill exhibit, the "Wanted" posters will hang in neighborhood barbershops

and delis.

Though Harlem is historically African-American, "If You Build It" also nods to its changing

demographics, particularly the influx of Puerto Rican and Dominican communities in recent

decades.

Scherezade Garcia, 46, who came to New York from the Dominican Republic as an 18-year-old,

attached oversize versions of baggage locator tags—complete with faux bar codes and the

destination-airport initials "JFK"—to a pile of gold-painted inner tubes that she arranged inside an

office and on the building's balcony. The sculptures mimicked sleek contemporary art, yet their

materials spoke to the desperate measures some immigrants take to get to the U.S.

No Longer Empty Curator Manon Slome, left, and artist Bayete Ross Smith, look at Smith's installation

at Sugar Hill Apartments. Andrew Lamberson for The Wall Street Journal

Although most of the artists ignored the domestic setting of the project, Kameelah Janan Rasheed,

28, assigned a two-bedroom apartment, used it to recreate the place she lived until her family

became homeless when she was 12. Her thrift-store furniture and curtains, alongside countless

photographs (some hers, some found) were a marked contrast with the building's sleek new

kitchens and still-wrapped Friedrich air conditioners.

"It was amazing to hear that people who were formerly homeless could move into the space," Ms.

Rasheed said. "A lot of times, with low-income housing, you have to have a history of having lived

somewhere else, so people who are homeless never get a chance."

Sonia Louise Davis with 'new renaissance sessions,' the installation she created for the show. AndrewLamberson for The Wall Street Journal

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Nari Ward Is Harvesting Smiles in HarlemSarah Cascone Jun 09,2014

Nari Ward, Sugar Hill Smiles (2014 ) Photo: Sarah Cascone.

If you find yourself on the streets of Harlem’s Sugar Hill (a historic neighborhood spanning roughly 145th St to 155th St, from Edge-combe Avenue west to Amsterdam) this afternoon, you may run into artist Nari W ard, who’ll be out canvassing local residents, urging them to share a friendly grin as part of his project Sug a r H ill Smile s.

Today is Ward’s third day on the job, setting up shop outside grocery stores and subway entrances with a customized cart, inspired by the higgler carts favored by Jamaican street vendors. Ward’s inventory is a crate full of empty cans, each emblazoned with a Sugar Hill Smiles label, into which he asks passersby to smile.

At the bottom of each can, Ward has inserted a mirror. As people peer in, they catch a glimpse of their tentative smiles, and, almost invariably, break into anunrestrained toothy grin (at least, that was artnet News’s experience while contributing). It’s an extremely short, often bemused inter-action. Afterward, Ward uses a hand-turned crank, mounted on the front of the cart, to mechanically seal each can, saving the smile for posterity.Though the project seems playful, it is imbued with deeper meaning. Ward was inspired by Sugar Hill Golden Ale, a beer brewed by the Harle m Bre win g C ompany that has appropriated the neighborhood’s name to sell a product that has no connection

to the community. To Ward’s mind, the brew-ery clearly hopes to capitalize on associations with the Harlem Renaissance and the area’s glamorous, well-heeled past, without con-tributing to its future.In contrast, Ward is enlisting Sugar Hill resi-dents to personally participate in a project designed to give back to the neighborhood. Each can will be sold for $10, with the pro-ceeds benefiting local early education initia-tives. The piece also allows the community to reclaim the African American stereotype of the smiling minstrel character. For the most part, the public is responding positively. Though some are indifferent, or even skepti-cal, those who take the time to listen are happy to participate.The project is part of “If Yo u B uild It,” an exhibition curated by No L onger E mpty, which is celebrating its fifth year curating site-specific, socially engaged exhibitions in New York City. For this show, the group has partnered with Broadway Housin g Commu-nities to inaugurate their newest site, Sugar Hil l Development, designed by architect

David A d jaye. Ward is just one of 20 artists who will show their work,which addresses social and political issues germane to Sugar Hill, in empty apartment units that will soon be the neighborhood’s newest affordable housing.

Now that this morning’s rain has cleared up, artnet News expects Ward and his team will be back in action as they attempt to collect some 2,000 smiles. By the end of the exhibi-tion, he hopes his display will be empty, with all of the canned smiles sold to happy visitors.

“If You Build It” will be on view at Sugar Hill Development at 155th St and St. Nicholas Avenue, June 26–August 10.

Nari Ward, Sugar Hill Smiles (2014 ). Photo: courtesy No Longer Empty.

If you find yourself on the streets of Harlem’s Sugar Hill (a historic neighborhood spanning roughly 145th St to 155th St, from Edge-combe Avenue west to Amsterdam) this afternoon, you may run into artist Nari W ard, who’ll be out canvassing local residents, urging them to share a friendly grin as part of his project Sug a r H ill Smile s.

Today is Ward’s third day on the job, setting up shop outside grocery stores and subway entrances with a customized cart, inspired by the higgler carts favored by Jamaican street vendors. Ward’s inventory is a crate full of empty cans, each emblazoned with a Sugar Hill Smiles label, into which he asks passersby to smile.

At the bottom of each can, Ward has inserted a mirror. As people peer in, they catch a glimpse of their tentative smiles, and, almost invariably, break into anunrestrained toothy grin (at least, that was artnet News’s experience while contributing). It’s an extremely short, often bemused inter-action. Afterward, Ward uses a hand-turned crank, mounted on the front of the cart, to mechanically seal each can, saving the smile for posterity.Though the project seems playful, it is imbued with deeper meaning. Ward was inspired by Sugar Hill Golden Ale, a beer brewed by the Harle m Bre win g C ompany that has appropriated the neighborhood’s name to sell a product that has no connection

to the community. To Ward’s mind, the brew-ery clearly hopes to capitalize on associations with the Harlem Renaissance and the area’s glamorous, well-heeled past, without con-tributing to its future.In contrast, Ward is enlisting Sugar Hill resi-dents to personally participate in a project designed to give back to the neighborhood. Each can will be sold for $10, with the pro-ceeds benefiting local early education initia-tives. The piece also allows the community to reclaim the African American stereotype of the smiling minstrel character. For the most part, the public is responding positively. Though some are indifferent, or even skepti-cal, those who take the time to listen are happy to participate.The project is part of “If Yo u B uild It,” an exhibition curated by No L onger E mpty, which is celebrating its fifth year curating site-specific, socially engaged exhibitions in New York City. For this show, the group has partnered with Broadway Housin g Commu-nities to inaugurate their newest site, Sugar Hil l Development, designed by architect

David A d jaye. Ward is just one of 20 artists who will show their work,which addresses social and political issues germane to Sugar Hill, in empty apartment units that will soon be the neighborhood’s newest affordable housing.

Now that this morning’s rain has cleared up, artnet News expects Ward and his team will be back in action as they attempt to collect some 2,000 smiles. By the end of the exhibi-tion, he hopes his display will be empty, with all of the canned smiles sold to happy visitors.

“If You Build It” will be on view at Sugar Hill Development at 155th St and St. Nicholas Avenue, June 26–August 10.

http://news.artnet.com/art-world/nari-ward-is-harvesting-smiles-in-harlem-36625

This is New York City’s summer of sug-ar—first Kara Walker’s Subtlety, or the Mar-velous Sugar Baby at Brooklyn’s Domino Sugar Refinery, and now the entirely differ-ent, appealing “If You Build It” exhibit honor-ing Harlem’s Sugar Hill neighborhood in all its complexity. Once the storied home of Afri-can-American giants—Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Joe Louis, Thurgood Marshall and many more—as well as George Gershwin and Babe Ruth (the neighborhood is directly across the Harlem River from Yankee Stadi-um), Sugar Hill declined precipitately after World War II. Many of its handsome build-ings were demolished, and others stripped naked of their limestone embellishments as they were cut up into tiny living quarters.

Vacant lots marred even good blocks. The corner of St. Nicholas Avenue and 155th Street was one of the emptiest of all—high up on Coogan’s Bluff but forlorn, with a toxic history. Thus, when nonprofit developer Broadway Housing Communities decided to celebrate the construction of their David-Ad-jaye-designed apartment building for low-in-come families, they couldn’t have found a more appropriate arts organization than No Longer Empty, which specializes in site-spe-cific art. With a mission of building resilience in communities through art while widening its audience, No Longer Empty has brought together the work of established artists like Radcliffe Bailey and Hank Willis Thomas along with brilliant unknowns and young-

sters. The result is disconcertingly exuberant but well-worth seeing.It would be hard to exag-gerate the power of Radcliffe Bailey’s sculp-tures. Often recycling old materials, such as the piano keys above, he grapples with the traumatic vividness of the African- American imagination, calling on the extraordinary mu-sical heritage of jazz and the blues, recogniz-ing that the legacy of slavery is never far from the surface. His bronze statue of W.E.B. DuBois, called Pensive, sits alone in a corri-dor, perhaps appropriately for the man who articulated “double consciousness,” reflect-ing on the duality of African-American identi-ty by which many only see themselves through the eyes of others. A one-time resi-dent of Sugar Hill, DuBois was a restless traveller, moving to Ghana in 1961 to write an Encyclopedia Africana. He died two years later and is buried in Accra.But “If You Build It” also has plenty of room for fun. There’s Scherezade Garcia’s hilari-ously stacked inner tubes and life savers that have been dipped in gold paint to mimic an altar to immigrants and their hopes. Calling the piece “Cathedral/Catedral” she has attached prayer cards (milagros) in multiple languages to reflect not only the diversity of American immigration but the supplications before the altar. Cleverly sited on a wrap-around terrace facing the now strongly Latin neighborhood of Washington Heights, Cathe-dral/Catedral encourages New Yorkers to laugh, but also to ponder the nature of their ever-changing city.It’s possible, though, that few artists have as much fun as the collaborators of the Sugar Hill Culture Club. Wendell Headley, who calls himself a fashion outsider, has found an extraordinary partner in photographer Felicia M. Gordon. In a series of artworks and photo-graphs entitled “New York, Naturally,” they sweetly examine the city’s natural habitat and its inhabitants. Probably no inhabitant, how-ever, is likely to be more enchanting than Headley himself.Calling on the Latin tradition of murals drawn “In Loving Memory,” Raúl Ayala has drawn great black female writers of the early 20th century, including Gwendolyn Bennet and Ethel Caution Davis. New Yorkers who admire

the murals chalked but eventually destroyed on sidewalks will be grateful to see these on a protected wall.Then there’s the amazing work of the young artists, presented by ArtsConnection’s “Teens Curate Teens” program as “Rose from the Concrete.” A jaded visitor to curat-ed shows might at this point sigh, but that would be a mistake. These pieces are impressive in any terms. (Nice touch by the way in the title, charmingly punning Sugar Hill’s alternative name as the Heritage Rose district).We said good-bye to “If You Build It” outside, pondering what is probably the exhibit’s most photographed artwork, “New York Sugar Metropolis” by Irish sculptors Bren-dan Jamison and Mark Revel. The two Irish-men have accomplished something many Harlemites have longed for and deserved: returning some glitter to this renowned Afri-can-American neighborhood.

If You Build It opens June 26, 2014, and closes on August 10, 2014.

Hours: Thursdays & Fridays, 3-7 PM; Satur-days & Sundays, 1-6 PM Where: 155th Street & St Nicholas AvenueGetting there: the C train to 155th Street

Arts Collaborative Brings Sweetness and Light to Sugar HillJulia Vitullo – MartinJun 26, 2014

The principals of the Sugar Hill Culture Club: Imani Razat, Wendell Headley, and founder Felicia Gordon.

Renowned global architect David Adjaye designed the Sugar Hill apartments for Broadway Housing Communities.

Radcliffe Bailey’s “Windward Coast” is made of piano keys, a plaster bust, and glitter.







Radcliffe Bailey’s statue of W.E.B. DuBois helps remind visitors of Sugar Hill’s past.

Scherezade Garcia’s “Cathedral/Catedral” stands on the southern boundary of Washington Heights.

Artist Wendell Headley standing in front of a photo of himself by Felicia Gordon.







Adonys Jimenez’s green-tinged, multi-media “Empty Benches.”

New York Sugar Metropolis by Irish sculptors Brendan Jamison and Mark Revel.







http://untappedcities.com/2014/06/26/arts-collaborative-brings-sweetness-and-light-to-sugar-hill/

Creators of the “Shoe Bridge,” Rehana Akthar and Tabitha Funes are students at the High School of

Economics and Finance.

“Flag Wheel” by Ewa Nowogorski, a student at Fiorello LaGuardia High School.

Creative Director Soleo in front of Raúl Ayala’s murals of great black writers.







No Instruction for Assembly, Activation IV, Kameelah Janan Rasheed, courtesy of No Longer Empty

“If You Build It” celbrates Harlem Art and CommunityJessica LynneJul. 03, 2014

There is no cool like Harlem cool and perhaps, no place cooler than the famed West Harlem neighborhood, Sugar Hill. On the heels of the opening of architect David Adjaye’s newly con-structed Sugar Hill Building, the neighbor-hood is abuzz with an infectious energy.To celebrate the opening and the distinct creative legacy of Sugar Hill, Broadway Hous-ing Communities has partnered with New York City art organization No Longer Empty to pro-duce a site specific exhibition entitled If You Build It.An investigation of the ways in which notions of home and community are conceived, built and sustained, If You Build It is a two floor, multi- room experience inside Adjaye’s build-ing. 22 artists - local, emerging, and interna-

tional-i ncluding Hank Willis Thomas, Shani

Peters, William Villalongo and Bayete Ross Smith, present art that responds to the cultural, political, and historical legacy of Sugar Hill while also invoking wider reflec-tions on space and place.Such is evident in the work of emerging artist Kameelah Janan Rasheed who, with her installation No Instruction for Assembly, Activation IV, uses an apartment to reimag-ine the place she lived with her family until becoming homeless at age 12. Flush with family photographs, books, and old records, Rasheed’s installation remarkably explores the relationship between memory, archives and physicality. Nari Ward’s performance installation Sugar Hill Smiles simultane-ously confronts the problematic nature of entities that capitalize on the Harlem brand

without making an actual investment Harlem while also offering a colorful, small scale solution to this phenomenon. For his piece, Ward collected smiles from Sugar Hill residents in cans that have now been labeled and sealed and will sell the smile cans throughout the neighborhood for $10 with all profits benefiting Broadway Housing Communities.

The exhibition also features the work of sev-eral curatorial collaborators, such as Dominican York Proyecto GRAFICA, Art Con-nection and Art in Flux. Collaborators Feli-cia Gordon and Imani Razat of The Sugar Hill Culture Club use their exhibition New York, Naturally, to explore the relationship between the city’s natural habitat and its inhabitants. Razat’s digital mixed media images and Gordon’s photography, pay homage to iconic NYC inhabitants, the insects of the city and fashion designer Wendell Headley respectively.

“Sugar Hill Culture Club is a loosely knit group of creatives, primarily but not exclu-sively based in Harlem. So obviously we

were ecstatic when No Longer Empty came to the neighborhood and expressed interest in our work. The building site is five blocks away from my home and contains some of the most relevant work I've seen in years in a context that's appealing to us for many reasons. The idea that our work is briefly inhabiting a space where future tenants of Sugar Hill will live is pretty powerful. A win all around, really a no-brainer,” culture club founder Felicia Gordon tells me via email.

Indeed, this is a show that perfectly and explicitly embodies the spirit of Sugar Hill’s iconic nature.

Responding via email, Razat has no doubts about the impact of the show. “As far as the exhibition at large, I overheard someone saying, ‘The tremendous amount of talent in this building is overwhelming.’ Well, that talent and creativity has always been here. I grew up in Harlem so I know. The exhibition is a celebration, really, of how much our community has to offer. It's a privilege to be a part of that.”

If You Build It runs until August 10, 2014. It is open to the public Thursdays and Fridays from 3 pm - 7pm and Saturdays and Sun-days 12 pm - 6 pm.







Wendell Headley - New York Naturally, Felicia Gordon, image courtesy of Sugar Hill Culture Club











Installation Shot, New York Naturally, image courtesy of Sugar Hill Culture Club











http://www.articurate.net/journal/if_you_build_it_celebrates_harlem_art_and_community/

No Longer Empty's If You Build It: art with community built-inAudra LambertJun 25, 2014

Audra Lambert

A good crowd on opening night can make it hard to literally get your foot in the door, but also generally serves as a vote of confidence for a new exhibit.In the case of No Longer Empty's opening night of art exhibition If You Build It, make that overwhelming confidence. The outpouring of support was evident in the line out the door on opening night of If You Build It, a site-specific group art exhibit locat-ed at the Sugar Hill building in West Harlem.Celebrating their fifth year of programming, No Longer Empty partnered with community agencies to display the artworks on view across the third and ninth floors of the Sugar

Hill Building, a new a�ordable housing devel-opment located at 155th Street and Saint Nicholas Avenue in West Harlem, New York City. Artists and spectators alike flooded the building, peeking into future apart-ments-turned-gallery space for a glimpse of the multi-level exhibition's o�erings. 22 artists are on view as part of the show includ-ing Radcli�e Bailey, Carlos Mare, Dread Scott and Hank Willis Thomas, representing a wide range of cultural backgrounds and artistic practices. Works were specifically created for the site and related to the idea of building both in a literal sense (architecture, design) and

figurative sense (society and the local commu-nity.) Themes relating to the Sugar Hill neigh-borhood, specifically, also played a part in shaping the artwork on view.

The selection of participating artists and works on view were wide-ranging but man-aged to comfortably complement and inter-sect throughout the space. While electricity blackouts on the third floor dimmed the expe-rience (while also encouraging an interactive element among spectators!), the ninth floor was a harmonious symphony of mostly large-scale art that communicated cultural history and encouraged spectators to question many widely held beliefs on architecture and communities. A frequent recurrence was the dissembling of a whole into its component parts, and how those parts then fit into the general structure. This concept revealed itself in works by Dread Scott, Radcli�e Bailey, Scherezade Garcia, and Aziz+ Cucher. Works by all of these artists showed singular members either as part of or sepa-rated from the community as a whole, allow-ing the viewer to live a singular, fragmented experience often quite di�erent from their own personal life experience. Dread's piece Stop consisted of videos depicting young black males speaking about their experiences being stopped for questioning by authorities, showed how members of disparate communi-ties (one group from the US, one from the UK) found themselves experiencing similar situa-tions. Aziz + Cucher's digital animations in Time of the Empress (Trio) confront the indi-vidual vs. whole concept from a solidly archi-tectural standpoint, allowing a tripartite of buildings being constructed and deconstruct-ed to mark the passage of time in a civilization as it rises and declines. Another architectural construction, Jamison, Brendan & Mark Revels' ground floor miniature scale city of sugar cubes, Sugar Metropolis, o�ers viewers the chance to explore ideas of future cities: how they are constructed and how they have evolved from our present- day edifices. Per-haps the most evocative work in the exhibition, Radcli�e Bailey's half-room installation work Windward Coast depicts a man's head rising from a sea of broken piano keys piled haphaz-ardly together, perhaps in reference to slaves shipwrecked during the Middle Passage on

their way to the new world. Sugar Hill's pres-ence as a center focal point during the Harlem Renaissance is touched on in many works, such as Bailey's Pensive sculpture of Afri-can-American leader W.E.B. du Bois, as well as the idea of immigration in general, such as in Scherezade Garcia's inflated rubber tire tubes spray painted in gold pays homage to lives of immigrants as they arrive at their new destination, symbolized by airport logos attached to the tubes themselves.

If You Build It aspires to build on a stable of emerging and established artists' work as it coalesces ideas around community building and structure. It succeeds on every level (liter-ally and figuratively) as an exhibit capturing the human condition while aptly representing the physical need to build and construct, both our own individual identities and those spaces in which our communities physically evolve and materialize.

The show is on view through August 10, 2014, open to visitors Thursdays and Fridays from 3 pm-7pm and Saturdays and Sundays 1 pm- 6 pm. On view Wednesdays by appointment and closed July 4-6 for the holidays.

Every life has events of consequence. Those happenings impact and direct the future flow of consciousness. Sometimes, the ramifications remain beneath the surface. In other circumstances, the thread is easy to recognize. If you are an artist, such as Freddy Rodríguez , it manifests in your work.Rodríguez was born in the Dominican Republic in 1945. He came from a family of artists. His granduncle was Yoryi Morel, one of the founders of Dominican modernism. Creating art as a child, Rodríguez made masks for carnival from paper and starch. While attending a private elementary school, Rodríguez began drawing maps, where he won competitions for his efforts. By 14, he was regularly acknowledged in his geography class for his "best" achieve-ments. One such example was his "octopus in an ocean." Even then, Rodríguez didn't

want art to "imitate reality." Rather, he aspired to have the viewing be magical. He told me, "I make art to have people experi-ence something new."Yet there was nothing magical about living under the rule of a dictator, and the histo-ry of Rodríguez's country of birth perme-ates his oeuvre.The Dominican Republic was discovered by Columbus, which led the way to waves of European imperialism that would follow. In the first decade of the 1500s, slaves were imported. By 1522, the first slave uprising in the Americas occurred. The island was subject to various power brokers. The Catholic Church sought influence among the populace. The United States occupied the country for eight years commencing in 1916. In 1930, strongman Rafael Trujillo took the reins of power. Known globally for his brutality, his mark on the island was

obliterated in 1961 when he was ambushed and killed. In the immediate post-Trujillo years, Rodríguez was part of an "impro-vised" political student movement for free-dom in the Dominican Republic. "The kind of freedom that is denied in a dictatorship," he said. Word got to him-- through chan-nels from those in government--that he "needed to leave." As he related, "Friends were tortured and killed. Things were very bad."

Rodríguez came to the United States in 1963 at the age of 18. Though totally alone, he completed his high school degree. A teacher gave him free passes to the Museum of Modern Art. It was an experi-ence that he was unused to--as there were no museums in his country. He frequented the Museum of Natural History, calling it "a revelation." He sketched at the Metro-politan Museum of Art and went to galler-ies "religiously."

The loss of Rodríguez's mother in 1964, while he was in the United States, was compounded by the fact that he was "very close to her." He said, "I never saw her again and that changed my life." As a new legal resident of the country facing the

draft in 1966, Rodríguez headed back to the Dominican Republic. He then lived briefly in Puerto Rico, where he worked for a steamship company before returning to New York City.

Discussing his early years with me, Rodrí-guez's narrative was laced with the reali-ties of the challenges he faced as a person of color. "I lived here because I had no choice-- but I was not treated well in the 1960s. When I came to this country, a label was put on me--and it wasn't positive."

When Rodríguez resettled in Manhattan, he enrolled at the Fashion Institute of Technology and the New School for Social Research. "At that time," Rodríguez said,"you didn't need money to be an artist." In 1969, he reconnected with artist pal Ed Taylor, who was making textiles. Rodríguez saw that it would be "great training." He said, "It was very rigorous. There were perimeters. It taught me how to work with limitations. Color theory was vital." At the New School, Rodríguez studied with Carmen Cicero , who at the time was doing geometric painting. Beyond the technicali-ties of art-making, they conversed about art history, literature, and the works of

other artists. It was in Cicero's class that Rodríguez executed his first hard-edged painting, using the process of laying down tape.

While describing the trajectory of his work, Rodríguez segued into a commentary on the gallery scene and the "business of art." He said, "The art market is so segregated it is unbelievable. How can a Dominican enter that world?" He continued, "A lot of critics are ignorant of culture and content. Carmen Herrera was doing geometric painting in the 1940s. Criticism is from the European per-spective. It's also who you are and who you know." Yet Rodríguez maintained that despite the obstacles, he was his only com-petition. "I compete with myself, and hope that the next one [painting] is better," he stated.

As an artist who prides himself on continual exploration, Rodríguez also pointed to the galleries and critics who had a problem with the fluidity with which he changed tech-niques and stylistic approaches. "I don't like to repeat myself," he emphasized. His output is prodigious, and his method of creating is rapid. As an aside to potential detractors he noted, "A person is constantly

growing and changing, which is influenced by their life...unless they're one-dimension-al."

Rodríguez's attraction to abstract art began with his appreciation of the discipline and primary colors of Piet Mondrian, he con-nected with the emotional qualities inherent in the canvases. Rodríguez saw Frank Stella as a "kindred spirit, an artist constantly challenging himself to do new things."

With a touch of irony, Rodríguez pointed out how "those in the art world were somewhat surprised by his works that dealt purely with abstraction. They don't associate abstraction with Caribbean art." He observed wryly, "We can't think in the abstract?"This very point was addressed in the exhibit, Our America: The Latino Presence in Amer-ican Art, at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. A multi-themed presentation, Rodríguez is represented with the group of artists, "Defying Categories" He has three works from 1974 included. Each acrylic on canvas is a narrow vertical, measuring 96" x 32". They exemplify Rodríguez's use of geometry and color to animate the picture plane.

Despite barriers, Rodríguez racked up numerous solo exhibits, nationally and globally, and has been the recipient of many fellowships and awards. He received a Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant, was a Gregory Millard Fellow in Painting, and served as a New York State Council for the Arts Artist in Residence at El Museo del Barrio an expe-rience he reflected on with great satisfac-tion. Rodríguez has work owned by the Bronx Museum, the Queens Museum, el Museo del Barrio, the Newark Museum, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the Museo de Las Casas Reales in Santo Domingo. Corporations such as American Express and Smith Barney have included him in their collections. Recently, he was selected to be in the pilot phase of the CALL program (Creating a Living Legacy), which helps artists to properly document and archive their work and career.

Rodríguez was chosen to design the presti-gious memorial to Flight 587. Speaking about his approach to the project, he said, "I used my knowledge of art and my minimal-ist background. My memorial is filled with all kinds of symbols and metaphors. It also deals with the immigrant experience, reli-gious life, and the occurrence of death. There is a gate. People go back and forth--like the gates of paradise. The open-ings in the memorial, the cut-outs, they

allow light to come through. It is for remem-brance. The souls of the dead are captured by the light. For those who are visiting, the memorial functions on many levels. In its simplicity, there is spirituality."After speaking with Rodríguez extensively in the living room of his home in Queens, New York (not far from where assemblage master Joseph Cornell (http://www.gug-genheim.org/new-york/collections/collec-tion-online/artists/1068) lived), we went to his studio. Housed in a separate structure on his property, it held racks of paintings, works in progress, a table Rodríguez uses to work horizontally when pouring paint, and sculptures propped against the walls. There was plenty to look at, and Rodríguez spoke enthusiastically about each piece.

"You have to be so alert for the kind of work I do," Rodríguez said. "All my work has some kind of a conceptual meaning behind it. I do think a lot." When we first connected, Rodríguez immediately discussed his affini-ty and admiration for the renowned Argen-tine writer Julio Cortázar (http://www.thep-a r i s r e v i e w . o r g / i n t e r -views/2955/the-art-of-fiction-no-83-julio-cortazar)--who was also a political activist. Words as imagery and as contextual materi-al are integral to much of Rodríguez's output. This is evident in his collage on canvas series, where phrases are juxta-

posed with symbolic icons on a backdrop of surfaces that include newspaper, fabric, and found materials. In Paradise for a Tourist Bro-chure, Rodríguez implements one of his visual stand-ins, butterflies, for the people and country of the Dominican Republic. With the word "paraíso," which translates to para-dise or heaven, he presents viewers with a different side of the lush island culture that tourists expect to experience. More accurate-ly, the tiny red circles with drip marks read as bullet holes, and the handprints serve as bloody reminders of those who have died from political violence under the iron hand of repression.

In Rodríguez's most recent project, finished in late 2013, he has combined text and painting in the form of a one-of-a-kind book. He has given it the appellation, Mi Joda, which he translates as, To Upset the System. Here, he has incorporated his own words in a relation-ship with his painting.Rodríguez said, "I think

it's my job to keep exploring and learning new things. This was overtly apparent in his studio as I viewed sculptures; images that encompassed responses to the tsunami that destroyed Japan ; his endeavor to "transform baseball stats to the visual realm; folding screens.Included in the blockbuster show Caribbean: Crossroads of the World , termed "the big art event of the summer season in New York" by Holland Cotter in his New York Times review , Rodríguez's piece Homage to Tony Peña is also featured in the companion book. The show will be viewed at a series of museums and in conjunction with a full schedule of pro-grams. It's currently on view at the Pérez Art Museum Miami. Through the wide range of work that Rodríguez shared with me, and the personal history that he had narrated, his final statement summed up the whole visit:

"My truth is in my art."

A good crowd on opening night can make it hard to literally get your foot in the door, but also generally serves as a vote of confidence for a new exhibit.In the case of No Longer Empty's opening night of art exhibition If You Build It, make that overwhelming confidence. The outpouring of support was evident in the line out the door on opening night of If You Build It, a site-specific group art exhibit locat-ed at the Sugar Hill building in West Harlem.Celebrating their fifth year of programming, No Longer Empty partnered with community agencies to display the artworks on view across the third and ninth floors of the Sugar

Hill Building, a new a�ordable housing devel-opment located at 155th Street and Saint Nicholas Avenue in West Harlem, New York City. Artists and spectators alike flooded the building, peeking into future apart-ments-turned-gallery space for a glimpse of the multi-level exhibition's o�erings. 22 artists are on view as part of the show includ-ing Radcli�e Bailey, Carlos Mare, Dread Scott and Hank Willis Thomas, representing a wide range of cultural backgrounds and artistic practices. Works were specifically created for the site and related to the idea of building both in a literal sense (architecture, design) and

figurative sense (society and the local commu-nity.) Themes relating to the Sugar Hill neigh-borhood, specifically, also played a part in shaping the artwork on view.

The selection of participating artists and works on view were wide-ranging but man-aged to comfortably complement and inter-sect throughout the space. While electricity blackouts on the third floor dimmed the expe-rience (while also encouraging an interactive element among spectators!), the ninth floor was a harmonious symphony of mostly large-scale art that communicated cultural history and encouraged spectators to question many widely held beliefs on architecture and communities. A frequent recurrence was the dissembling of a whole into its component parts, and how those parts then fit into the general structure. This concept revealed itself in works by Dread Scott, Radcli�e Bailey, Scherezade Garcia, and Aziz+ Cucher. Works by all of these artists showed singular members either as part of or sepa-rated from the community as a whole, allow-ing the viewer to live a singular, fragmented experience often quite di�erent from their own personal life experience. Dread's piece Stop consisted of videos depicting young black males speaking about their experiences being stopped for questioning by authorities, showed how members of disparate communi-ties (one group from the US, one from the UK) found themselves experiencing similar situa-tions. Aziz + Cucher's digital animations in Time of the Empress (Trio) confront the indi-vidual vs. whole concept from a solidly archi-tectural standpoint, allowing a tripartite of buildings being constructed and deconstruct-ed to mark the passage of time in a civilization as it rises and declines. Another architectural construction, Jamison, Brendan & Mark Revels' ground floor miniature scale city of sugar cubes, Sugar Metropolis, o�ers viewers the chance to explore ideas of future cities: how they are constructed and how they have evolved from our present- day edifices. Per-haps the most evocative work in the exhibition, Radcli�e Bailey's half-room installation work Windward Coast depicts a man's head rising from a sea of broken piano keys piled haphaz-ardly together, perhaps in reference to slaves shipwrecked during the Middle Passage on

their way to the new world. Sugar Hill's pres-ence as a center focal point during the Harlem Renaissance is touched on in many works, such as Bailey's Pensive sculpture of Afri-can-American leader W.E.B. du Bois, as well as the idea of immigration in general, such as in Scherezade Garcia's inflated rubber tire tubes spray painted in gold pays homage to lives of immigrants as they arrive at their new destination, symbolized by airport logos attached to the tubes themselves.

If You Build It aspires to build on a stable of emerging and established artists' work as it coalesces ideas around community building and structure. It succeeds on every level (liter-ally and figuratively) as an exhibit capturing the human condition while aptly representing the physical need to build and construct, both our own individual identities and those spaces in which our communities physically evolve and materialize.

The show is on view through August 10, 2014, open to visitors Thursdays and Fridays from 3 pm-7pm and Saturdays and Sundays 1 pm- 6 pm. On view Wednesdays by appointment and closed July 4-6 for the holidays.

http://www.examiner.com/review/no-longer-empty-s-if-you-build-it-art-with-community-built-in?cid=rss

Every life has events of consequence. Those happenings impact and direct the future flow of consciousness. Sometimes, the ramifications remain beneath the surface. In other circumstances, the thread is easy to recognize. If you are an artist, such as Freddy Rodríguez , it manifests in your work.Rodríguez was born in the Dominican Republic in 1945. He came from a family of artists. His granduncle was Yoryi Morel, one of the founders of Dominican modernism. Creating art as a child, Rodríguez made masks for carnival from paper and starch. While attending a private elementary school, Rodríguez began drawing maps, where he won competitions for his efforts. By 14, he was regularly acknowledged in his geography class for his "best" achieve-ments. One such example was his "octopus in an ocean." Even then, Rodríguez didn't

want art to "imitate reality." Rather, he aspired to have the viewing be magical. He told me, "I make art to have people experi-ence something new."Yet there was nothing magical about living under the rule of a dictator, and the histo-ry of Rodríguez's country of birth perme-ates his oeuvre.The Dominican Republic was discovered by Columbus, which led the way to waves of European imperialism that would follow. In the first decade of the 1500s, slaves were imported. By 1522, the first slave uprising in the Americas occurred. The island was subject to various power brokers. The Catholic Church sought influence among the populace. The United States occupied the country for eight years commencing in 1916. In 1930, strongman Rafael Trujillo took the reins of power. Known globally for his brutality, his mark on the island was

obliterated in 1961 when he was ambushed and killed. In the immediate post-Trujillo years, Rodríguez was part of an "impro-vised" political student movement for free-dom in the Dominican Republic. "The kind of freedom that is denied in a dictatorship," he said. Word got to him-- through chan-nels from those in government--that he "needed to leave." As he related, "Friends were tortured and killed. Things were very bad."

Rodríguez came to the United States in 1963 at the age of 18. Though totally alone, he completed his high school degree. A teacher gave him free passes to the Museum of Modern Art. It was an experi-ence that he was unused to--as there were no museums in his country. He frequented the Museum of Natural History, calling it "a revelation." He sketched at the Metro-politan Museum of Art and went to galler-ies "religiously."

The loss of Rodríguez's mother in 1964, while he was in the United States, was compounded by the fact that he was "very close to her." He said, "I never saw her again and that changed my life." As a new legal resident of the country facing the

draft in 1966, Rodríguez headed back to the Dominican Republic. He then lived briefly in Puerto Rico, where he worked for a steamship company before returning to New York City.

Discussing his early years with me, Rodrí-guez's narrative was laced with the reali-ties of the challenges he faced as a person of color. "I lived here because I had no choice-- but I was not treated well in the 1960s. When I came to this country, a label was put on me--and it wasn't positive."

When Rodríguez resettled in Manhattan, he enrolled at the Fashion Institute of Technology and the New School for Social Research. "At that time," Rodríguez said,"you didn't need money to be an artist." In 1969, he reconnected with artist pal Ed Taylor, who was making textiles. Rodríguez saw that it would be "great training." He said, "It was very rigorous. There were perimeters. It taught me how to work with limitations. Color theory was vital." At the New School, Rodríguez studied with Carmen Cicero , who at the time was doing geometric painting. Beyond the technicali-ties of art-making, they conversed about art history, literature, and the works of

other artists. It was in Cicero's class that Rodríguez executed his first hard-edged painting, using the process of laying down tape.

While describing the trajectory of his work, Rodríguez segued into a commentary on the gallery scene and the "business of art." He said, "The art market is so segregated it is unbelievable. How can a Dominican enter that world?" He continued, "A lot of critics are ignorant of culture and content. Carmen Herrera was doing geometric painting in the 1940s. Criticism is from the European per-spective. It's also who you are and who you know." Yet Rodríguez maintained that despite the obstacles, he was his only com-petition. "I compete with myself, and hope that the next one [painting] is better," he stated.

As an artist who prides himself on continual exploration, Rodríguez also pointed to the galleries and critics who had a problem with the fluidity with which he changed tech-niques and stylistic approaches. "I don't like to repeat myself," he emphasized. His output is prodigious, and his method of creating is rapid. As an aside to potential detractors he noted, "A person is constantly

growing and changing, which is influenced by their life...unless they're one-dimension-al."

Rodríguez's attraction to abstract art began with his appreciation of the discipline and primary colors of Piet Mondrian, he con-nected with the emotional qualities inherent in the canvases. Rodríguez saw Frank Stella as a "kindred spirit, an artist constantly challenging himself to do new things."

With a touch of irony, Rodríguez pointed out how "those in the art world were somewhat surprised by his works that dealt purely with abstraction. They don't associate abstraction with Caribbean art." He observed wryly, "We can't think in the abstract?"This very point was addressed in the exhibit, Our America: The Latino Presence in Amer-ican Art, at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. A multi-themed presentation, Rodríguez is represented with the group of artists, "Defying Categories" He has three works from 1974 included. Each acrylic on canvas is a narrow vertical, measuring 96" x 32". They exemplify Rodríguez's use of geometry and color to animate the picture plane.

Despite barriers, Rodríguez racked up numerous solo exhibits, nationally and globally, and has been the recipient of many fellowships and awards. He received a Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant, was a Gregory Millard Fellow in Painting, and served as a New York State Council for the Arts Artist in Residence at El Museo del Barrio an expe-rience he reflected on with great satisfac-tion. Rodríguez has work owned by the Bronx Museum, the Queens Museum, el Museo del Barrio, the Newark Museum, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the Museo de Las Casas Reales in Santo Domingo. Corporations such as American Express and Smith Barney have included him in their collections. Recently, he was selected to be in the pilot phase of the CALL program (Creating a Living Legacy), which helps artists to properly document and archive their work and career.

Rodríguez was chosen to design the presti-gious memorial to Flight 587. Speaking about his approach to the project, he said, "I used my knowledge of art and my minimal-ist background. My memorial is filled with all kinds of symbols and metaphors. It also deals with the immigrant experience, reli-gious life, and the occurrence of death. There is a gate. People go back and forth--like the gates of paradise. The open-ings in the memorial, the cut-outs, they

allow light to come through. It is for remem-brance. The souls of the dead are captured by the light. For those who are visiting, the memorial functions on many levels. In its simplicity, there is spirituality."After speaking with Rodríguez extensively in the living room of his home in Queens, New York (not far from where assemblage master Joseph Cornell (http://www.gug-genheim.org/new-york/collections/collec-tion-online/artists/1068) lived), we went to his studio. Housed in a separate structure on his property, it held racks of paintings, works in progress, a table Rodríguez uses to work horizontally when pouring paint, and sculptures propped against the walls. There was plenty to look at, and Rodríguez spoke enthusiastically about each piece.

"You have to be so alert for the kind of work I do," Rodríguez said. "All my work has some kind of a conceptual meaning behind it. I do think a lot." When we first connected, Rodríguez immediately discussed his affini-ty and admiration for the renowned Argen-tine writer Julio Cortázar (http://www.thep-a r i s r e v i e w . o r g / i n t e r -views/2955/the-art-of-fiction-no-83-julio-cortazar)--who was also a political activist. Words as imagery and as contextual materi-al are integral to much of Rodríguez's output. This is evident in his collage on canvas series, where phrases are juxta-

posed with symbolic icons on a backdrop of surfaces that include newspaper, fabric, and found materials. In Paradise for a Tourist Bro-chure, Rodríguez implements one of his visual stand-ins, butterflies, for the people and country of the Dominican Republic. With the word "paraíso," which translates to para-dise or heaven, he presents viewers with a different side of the lush island culture that tourists expect to experience. More accurate-ly, the tiny red circles with drip marks read as bullet holes, and the handprints serve as bloody reminders of those who have died from political violence under the iron hand of repression.

In Rodríguez's most recent project, finished in late 2013, he has combined text and painting in the form of a one-of-a-kind book. He has given it the appellation, Mi Joda, which he translates as, To Upset the System. Here, he has incorporated his own words in a relation-ship with his painting.Rodríguez said, "I think

it's my job to keep exploring and learning new things. This was overtly apparent in his studio as I viewed sculptures; images that encompassed responses to the tsunami that destroyed Japan ; his endeavor to "transform baseball stats to the visual realm; folding screens.Included in the blockbuster show Caribbean: Crossroads of the World , termed "the big art event of the summer season in New York" by Holland Cotter in his New York Times review , Rodríguez's piece Homage to Tony Peña is also featured in the companion book. The show will be viewed at a series of museums and in conjunction with a full schedule of pro-grams. It's currently on view at the Pérez Art Museum Miami. Through the wide range of work that Rodríguez shared with me, and the personal history that he had narrated, his final statement summed up the whole visit:

"My truth is in my art."

The New Renaissance Kate HavelesJun 30, 2014

No Longer Empty celebrates its 5th anniver-sary with If You Build It, a site-specific instal-lation by 22 artists in Broadway Housing Communities' newest building in culturally historic Sugar Hill. Designed by David Adjaye to provide affordable housing, education and art within the community, The Sugar Hill Project serves as a very fitting space for the exhibition, which features work influenced by the historical significance of Sugar Hill but also the contemporary issues faced in the neighborhood and in other large cities.Themes of urban life, community, race, immigration, displacement, economic disparity, and home are all touched upon by the installations spread throughout the building—still in the final stages of construc-

tion, the empty apartments, lobby, balcony, and gallery space provide a uniquely intimate setting for the diverse works. Some high-lights include Nari Ward’s collection of canned smiles from Sugar Hill residents (the cans are available for purchase to benefit BHC’s educational programs), Scherezade Garcia’s Cathedral/Catedral, a gold-painted altar with multi-lingual prayer cards on the building’s balcony, Dread Scott’s 2-channel video install, Stop, scrutinizing the Stop and Frisk policy and the racial profiling that often influences its enforcement, Hank Willis Thomas’ neon signs flashing split phrases that hint at shattered American dreams, and Brendan Jamison & Mark Revels collabora-tive project Sugar Metropolis, a small-scale

city constructed from 250,000 sugar cubes. Sonia Louise Davis has also organized weekly music events with young local talent, dubbed fittingly “new renaissance sessions.”

If You Build It is now open at 155th Street and Nicholas Avenue in Harlem, New York. Stop by Wednesday-Sunday through August 10, 2014.

Dread Scott, Stop, 2012. Courtesy of the artist. Image by Whitney Browne Photography for No Longer Empty: If You Build It at Broadway Housing Communities’ Sugar Hill Building.

"Why're you taking a picture of the building? It's fucking ugly."

With those words, a construction worker greeted me last Thursday as I approached the entrance to David Adjaye's Sugar Hill development, on the site of a former brown-field on West 155th and Saint Nicholas Avenue in West Harlem.

Some of New York City's poorest residents will start moving into the 13-story, neo-bru-talist housing complex in August. It's a build-ing that Mayor Bill de Blasio referred to as the "epitome of everything we want to do with housing across the spectrum of

incomes.”

While many applaud the purpose behind the new building, which will also have an ear-ly-education center and a children's museum, few seem to think much of its design. "It has nothing to do with the rest of the neighborhood," said another worker on site. "Nobody likes it."

Bloggers, art critics, and armchair architects are calling Adjaye's eccentric design every-thing from "imposing" to something that "looms like a ruined bastion." Much of this dislike has to do with the look of the building itself, but a large share of the backlash

springs from concern over how it relates to the surrounding area.

Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2002, the Sugar Hill district came of age during the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s, continuing to serve as a popular desti-nation for New York's wealthy and intellectu-al African-American communities through the 1950s. That past can be seen in the ornate late 19th- and early 20th-century row houses that give the neighborhood its signa-ture style. These were the places that men such as W. E. B. Du Bois, Thurgood Marshall, Willie Mays, and Duke Ellington once called home.

But today, 70 percent of children in the neigh-borhood are born into poverty. The imposing Polo Grounds towers, a violence-plagued public-housing behemoth built in 1968, stands at the bottom of the hill—a reminder of the problems that fracture much of the area today.

That more recent history is what nonprofit developer Broadway Housing Communities (BHC) is concerned with. Established in 1983, BHC oversees hundreds of housing units in six other buildings around Washington Heights and West Harlem. Each one provides not only a place to live, but also support ser-vices.

At the Sugar Hill development, where BHC

will have a ninth-floor office, workers are putting the final touches on 124 apartments ranging from studios to three-bedroom units. Twenty-five of those will be occupied by people in the city's emergency shelter system. The rest will have rents adjusted to the low (and very low) incomes of the families moving in. The building received about 50,000 housing-lottery applications for the slots.

Funded by a combination of state and philan-thropic funds, the $80 million project was celebrated at a press conference last month, where de Blasio spoke of it as an example of what he'd like to see more of in his city. Not only does it help the city reach the mayor's goal of building and preserving 200,000 affordable housing units in the next 10 years, but it also fits into his new, city-wide pre-kin-dergarten plan.

Walk through the public plaza along Saint Nicholas that slopes down to the building's first floor, and you'll find the education center, set to open in September. Inside, as many as 200 kids ages 5 and under will spend their school days surrounded by floor-to-ceiling glass windows that look out onto the neighborhood. They'll also have access to two interior courtyards in which to play.

The Children’s Museum of Art & Storytell-ing—which will have space for kids to make their own art, room for interactive exhibits, as

well as performance space—will be located in the basement, accessible by a first-floor entrance. Once completed, windows from the ground floor will bring natural light into the underground space. Adjaye, who has a New York office but is based in London, refers to the feature as a "light chimney."

Illumination is clearly one of Adjaye's main design focuses throughout the building. Ver-tical lighting fixtures decorate the hallways on each floor, providing a surprisingly stylish touch to a part of residential architecture that often receives little attention. Inside the apartments, asymmetrical windows give personality to otherwise straightforward spaces. But depending on how they align from room to room, that can either be an exciting or frustrating feature. In person, it appears as the building's most notable archi-tectural flaw.

Terraces also emerge on the second, third and ninth floors of the building, as well as on the roof, designed to appear as imperfectly stacked boxes. From the ninth-floor terrace, you can see Yankee Stadium, the Polo Grounds towers, and the Harlem River.

Competing with 26 other firms for the com-mission, the BHC's design committee unani-mously selected Adjaye's proposal in 2010. A New Yorker profile of Adjaye from last Sep-tember noted that, soon after his plan was

first shown, angry letters came in to the BHC in response to his ultra-modern design.

In the same New Yorker piece, Adjaye said that in his Sugar Hill project, he wanted "a building that acknowledges its surround-ings." But at first (and probably second, even third) glance, the tower appears to have little in common with its gothic revival neighbors. If you look hard enough, though, context appears. Up close, the building's precast concrete panels are as harsh as those of Paul Rudolph—one of America's leading modern-ist architects. When sunlight hits the facade at an angle, abstract references to the roses on the facades of nearby row houses come into focus.

Unimpressed, New York Magazine's Justin Davidson writes that compared with the stone-carved flowers Adajye references, "his digitally drawn roses, twining around cheap air conditioning units, seem crude, the prod-uct of an evening spent fiddling with Photo-shop."

Inside, an art exhibit offers a sense of what BHC wants to be to the community once con-struction is done. Titled "If You Build It," the exhibit is run by No Longer Empty, a nonprof-it that uses unconventional spaces to show art. Usually, that means setting up in an older, underused structure. In Sugar Hill, it means a construction zone and inescapable

summer heat.

A visit is worth the sweat. The show takes up multiple floors, using rooms and common spaces to display art from more than a dozen artists exploring issues of race, commerce, and community. The exhibit, which runs through August 10, functions as an art show as much as the building's introduction to the city. On the ninth floor, Scherezade Garcia's gold-painted inner tubes and luggage tags provide a stunning representation of vulnera-bilities among Spanish-speaking immigrants in the States. Down the hall, Nari Ward play-fully addresses cultural appropriation with his cans of "Sugar Hill Smiles." Intrigued by the use of Harlem as a brand to market prod-ucts not made in Harlem, Ward had locals smile into a can before sealing it and selling it for $10. (Proceeds go to BHC program-ming.)

From the art within the building to the archi-tecture of the structure itself, everything in view is done with Sugar Hill's empowerment in mind. The facade may take some getting used to, but what's happening inside should soon turn the place into a neighbor that's easy to love.

http://www.citylab.com/hous-ing/2014/07/is-west-har-lems-most-inventive-new-building-also-its-ugliest/373998/

No Longer Empty celebrates its 5th anniver-sary with If You Build It, a site-specific instal-lation by 22 artists in Broadway Housing Communities' newest building in culturally historic Sugar Hill. Designed by David Adjaye to provide affordable housing, education and art within the community, The Sugar Hill Project serves as a very fitting space for the exhibition, which features work influenced by the historical significance of Sugar Hill but also the contemporary issues faced in the neighborhood and in other large cities.Themes of urban life, community, race, immigration, displacement, economic disparity, and home are all touched upon by the installations spread throughout the building—still in the final stages of construc-

tion, the empty apartments, lobby, balcony, and gallery space provide a uniquely intimate setting for the diverse works. Some high-lights include Nari Ward’s collection of canned smiles from Sugar Hill residents (the cans are available for purchase to benefit BHC’s educational programs), Scherezade Garcia’s Cathedral/Catedral, a gold-painted altar with multi-lingual prayer cards on the building’s balcony, Dread Scott’s 2-channel video install, Stop, scrutinizing the Stop and Frisk policy and the racial profiling that often influences its enforcement, Hank Willis Thomas’ neon signs flashing split phrases that hint at shattered American dreams, and Brendan Jamison & Mark Revels collabora-tive project Sugar Metropolis, a small-scale

city constructed from 250,000 sugar cubes. Sonia Louise Davis has also organized weekly music events with young local talent, dubbed fittingly “new renaissance sessions.”

If You Build It is now open at 155th Street and Nicholas Avenue in Harlem, New York. Stop by Wednesday-Sunday through August 10, 2014.

"Why're you taking a picture of the building? It's fucking ugly."

With those words, a construction worker greeted me last Thursday as I approached the entrance to David Adjaye's Sugar Hill development, on the site of a former brown-field on West 155th and Saint Nicholas Avenue in West Harlem.

Some of New York City's poorest residents will start moving into the 13-story, neo-bru-talist housing complex in August. It's a build-ing that Mayor Bill de Blasio referred to as the "epitome of everything we want to do with housing across the spectrum of

incomes.”

While many applaud the purpose behind the new building, which will also have an ear-ly-education center and a children's museum, few seem to think much of its design. "It has nothing to do with the rest of the neighborhood," said another worker on site. "Nobody likes it."

Bloggers, art critics, and armchair architects are calling Adjaye's eccentric design every-thing from "imposing" to something that "looms like a ruined bastion." Much of this dislike has to do with the look of the building itself, but a large share of the backlash

Nari Ward, Sugar Hill Smiles, 2014. Courtesy of the artist and Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York and Hong Kong. Image by Whitney Browne Photography for No Longer Empty: If You Build It at Broadway Housing Communities’

springs from concern over how it relates to the surrounding area.

Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2002, the Sugar Hill district came of age during the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s, continuing to serve as a popular desti-nation for New York's wealthy and intellectu-al African-American communities through the 1950s. That past can be seen in the ornate late 19th- and early 20th-century row houses that give the neighborhood its signa-ture style. These were the places that men such as W. E. B. Du Bois, Thurgood Marshall, Willie Mays, and Duke Ellington once called home.

But today, 70 percent of children in the neigh-borhood are born into poverty. The imposing Polo Grounds towers, a violence-plagued public-housing behemoth built in 1968, stands at the bottom of the hill—a reminder of the problems that fracture much of the area today.

That more recent history is what nonprofit developer Broadway Housing Communities (BHC) is concerned with. Established in 1983, BHC oversees hundreds of housing units in six other buildings around Washington Heights and West Harlem. Each one provides not only a place to live, but also support ser-vices.

At the Sugar Hill development, where BHC

will have a ninth-floor office, workers are putting the final touches on 124 apartments ranging from studios to three-bedroom units. Twenty-five of those will be occupied by people in the city's emergency shelter system. The rest will have rents adjusted to the low (and very low) incomes of the families moving in. The building received about 50,000 housing-lottery applications for the slots.

Funded by a combination of state and philan-thropic funds, the $80 million project was celebrated at a press conference last month, where de Blasio spoke of it as an example of what he'd like to see more of in his city. Not only does it help the city reach the mayor's goal of building and preserving 200,000 affordable housing units in the next 10 years, but it also fits into his new, city-wide pre-kin-dergarten plan.

Walk through the public plaza along Saint Nicholas that slopes down to the building's first floor, and you'll find the education center, set to open in September. Inside, as many as 200 kids ages 5 and under will spend their school days surrounded by floor-to-ceiling glass windows that look out onto the neighborhood. They'll also have access to two interior courtyards in which to play.

The Children’s Museum of Art & Storytell-ing—which will have space for kids to make their own art, room for interactive exhibits, as

well as performance space—will be located in the basement, accessible by a first-floor entrance. Once completed, windows from the ground floor will bring natural light into the underground space. Adjaye, who has a New York office but is based in London, refers to the feature as a "light chimney."

Illumination is clearly one of Adjaye's main design focuses throughout the building. Ver-tical lighting fixtures decorate the hallways on each floor, providing a surprisingly stylish touch to a part of residential architecture that often receives little attention. Inside the apartments, asymmetrical windows give personality to otherwise straightforward spaces. But depending on how they align from room to room, that can either be an exciting or frustrating feature. In person, it appears as the building's most notable archi-tectural flaw.

Terraces also emerge on the second, third and ninth floors of the building, as well as on the roof, designed to appear as imperfectly stacked boxes. From the ninth-floor terrace, you can see Yankee Stadium, the Polo Grounds towers, and the Harlem River.

Competing with 26 other firms for the com-mission, the BHC's design committee unani-mously selected Adjaye's proposal in 2010. A New Yorker profile of Adjaye from last Sep-tember noted that, soon after his plan was

first shown, angry letters came in to the BHC in response to his ultra-modern design.

In the same New Yorker piece, Adjaye said that in his Sugar Hill project, he wanted "a building that acknowledges its surround-ings." But at first (and probably second, even third) glance, the tower appears to have little in common with its gothic revival neighbors. If you look hard enough, though, context appears. Up close, the building's precast concrete panels are as harsh as those of Paul Rudolph—one of America's leading modern-ist architects. When sunlight hits the facade at an angle, abstract references to the roses on the facades of nearby row houses come into focus.

Unimpressed, New York Magazine's Justin Davidson writes that compared with the stone-carved flowers Adajye references, "his digitally drawn roses, twining around cheap air conditioning units, seem crude, the prod-uct of an evening spent fiddling with Photo-shop."

Inside, an art exhibit offers a sense of what BHC wants to be to the community once con-struction is done. Titled "If You Build It," the exhibit is run by No Longer Empty, a nonprof-it that uses unconventional spaces to show art. Usually, that means setting up in an older, underused structure. In Sugar Hill, it means a construction zone and inescapable

summer heat.

A visit is worth the sweat. The show takes up multiple floors, using rooms and common spaces to display art from more than a dozen artists exploring issues of race, commerce, and community. The exhibit, which runs through August 10, functions as an art show as much as the building's introduction to the city. On the ninth floor, Scherezade Garcia's gold-painted inner tubes and luggage tags provide a stunning representation of vulnera-bilities among Spanish-speaking immigrants in the States. Down the hall, Nari Ward play-fully addresses cultural appropriation with his cans of "Sugar Hill Smiles." Intrigued by the use of Harlem as a brand to market prod-ucts not made in Harlem, Ward had locals smile into a can before sealing it and selling it for $10. (Proceeds go to BHC program-ming.)

From the art within the building to the archi-tecture of the structure itself, everything in view is done with Sugar Hill's empowerment in mind. The facade may take some getting used to, but what's happening inside should soon turn the place into a neighbor that's easy to love.

http://www.citylab.com/hous-ing/2014/07/is-west-har-lems-most-inventive-new-building-also-its-ugliest/373998/

If You Build It: Press Highlights

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