11/1/2016
By Ivan Pereira
It’s time to take a spin again at Astor Place.
The city reinstalled the iconic Alamo Cube on Tuesday afternoon following a two-year absence.
As word of the 15-feet high, black steel structure’s return spread across social media, dozens of fans rushed to its new location at the pedestrian plaza at Lafayette and 8th Streets to see workers from the city’s Department of Design and Construction put it back on its tilted axis.
The moment, to them, was extra special since the installation was postponed twice during the summer.
“It’s an icon. It felt like it was a missing piece of the community,” said Kareem Adams, 22, of Bed-Stuy.
The 850-pound cube was created as a temporary art installation by Bernard J. “Tony” Rosenthal in 1967 but it became so popular that it remained at Astor Place.
The city removed the cube in 2014 as part of $17.2 million construction project in the area, which created two new pedestrian plazas and safer walking access. During that time, the artwork underwent a $180,000 renovation that included a repainting, cleaning and corrosion removal.
“We wanted to preserve as much of the original artist’s vision as we could,” said Joanna S. Pietruszewski, the art conservator who worked on the renovation along with her husband.
