Wednesday, May 25, 2011

☞ REVIVE: What's Up with FDB Circle?



The bronze wall over at Frederick Douglass Circle has been sectioned off since last week so does anyone know what type of renovations are being made?  This corner of Central Park North at 110th Street and FDB/8th Avenue finally opened about a year ago (lower photos from last year) but now has been partially closed off. Someone had mentioned that the wall had a water pool feature in the past and the star map on it was design to light up.  Since none of these design elements have been up and running yet, is this what the city is working on currently?

12 comments:

  1. They are having trouble getting the fountain up and running. Once the fountain is ready to go they will schedule a dedication.

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  2. Thanks Tip for that info, when u find out when the dedication will be could u give us a head up? I would like to attend something like that.

    Thanks

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  3. Its my opinion that the statue whould have ambient lighting. It would present a lovely welcome at night as the 'gateway to Harlem' The statuary in all areas should have ambient lighting.

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  4. Greg,

    I'd tend to agree with you, but given how much trouble they've had getting the fountain to function properly -- it is perhaps best not to tempt fate any further.

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  5. It is a very ugly statue; worse than the Andy Warhol downtown. I wish they had commissioned a better artist.

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  6. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Compared to most of the other new bronze statues uptown, Frederick Douglass is the most classic looking one of them all. Elegant, subtle and without overly done flourishes.

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  7. Wow, I love this statue. In full agreement with Critic. This exudes a certain class that is missing from a lot of statues in NYC. This along with the Harriet Tubman one further up on FDB are two of my favorites.

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  8. Really Chris? I find Mr. Douglass to be very oddly proportioned.

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  9. For what it's worth, I'm a fan of the statue as well as the man it represents.

    At any rate, it's a big improvement over the ACP monument on 125 -- which, in addition to exerting a slight gravitational pull, appears to have taken its stylistic inspiration from the DPRK...

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  10. CBR--I know but that statue of ACP is SO over the top it's really quite wonderful in its awfulness.

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  11. The ACP statue has a certain Fascist charm; the FD statue looks oddly unfinished.

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  12. Unfinished? The Fredrick Douglass Statue is a classic bronze as was mentioned before very. But art is subjective so to each his own.

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