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Coney Island Murals by Street Artists Await Their Fate

Posted in art, Food, Redevelopment, tagged Coney Island, mural, ND'A, NO Longer Empty, OverUnder, Plaza Mexico Dona Zita, restaurant, street art, Thor Equities on March 2, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Last summer, street artists OverUnder and ND’A painted murals for the restaurant Plaza Mexico Doña Zita on the Bowery and Henderson Walk in Coney Island. Giant tropical flowers blossomed on a fence on the Henderson side of Thor Equities’ construction site and brought a garden of street art to Doña Zita’s. Unlike some of its neighbors, this popular little eatery has managed to survive the upheaval brought about by Coney Island’s rezoning and redevelopment. Yet Doña Zita’s proximity to Thor’s empty lots made the seating area less than scenic. Then the murals appeared, almost miraculously, and transformed the view.

Since construction on Thor’s building is completed and the fencing was taken down, the Doña Zita murals have been piled up in the lot across the street, awaiting their fate. Murals from the Bowery, Surf and Stillwell sides of the building, which were painted by OverUnder, ND’A, Veng, Radical and Ephameron for a project curated by Keith Schweitzer for No Longer Empty, have already disappeared. Last month, some panels were spotted in a botched reassembly at another Thor construction site in Bensonhurst.

Do street artists have a tough skin when it comes to the fate of their work? ATZ contacted the No Longer Empty muralists to find out.

The artist known as OverUnder told ATZ: “Although it is saddening to see the handling of one’s public work by people, critics, and the weather, it is also inherent to the work. I would take seeing the sun and rains effect on a mural over a construction workers lack of reassembly any day but beggars, errr, street artists can’t be choosers.”

At the same time, OverUnder and the other artists are sad to see colorful, handmade, authentic signage of Coney Island replaced by pre-fab or generic signs.

“I was very pleased and honored to be able to paint something out at Coney Island,” wrote ND’A in an email. “Ever since I moved to New York the old signs and murals have always stopped me in my tracks. I think in our line of work it is a hope, not an expectation, that things will be a fixture and not ephemeral.”

“That being said,” ND’A added, “If the construction site remains unable or unwilling to put everything back to its original state I know we are all generally chomping at the bit to paint big outdoor projects. If you know of any spots where we could do more murals I’d love to put more work out there.”

Coney Island mural O V E R U N D E R with ND'A

Thor Equities new building remains vacant and is now encased in plywood except for the side on Henderson Walk, which is the back of the building and has no windows. “I see a blank canvas for No Longer Empty,” wrote one of the commenters on our recent post about the building. We’d like to see more murals too, but Thor is already throwing up advertisements. This week, signs touting “CONEY ISLAND – The RETAIL RIDE of a LIFETIME – for leasing contact..” went up on the Stillwell side. Thor debuted the odious slogan last May.

Doña Zita’s is located on Coney Island’s Bowery at Henderson Walk, one of the few historic “walks” remaining in Coney. We love her food and so did the artists. The restaurant also gets high marks on Yelp, Serious Eats (“Tacos plus sandy feet and the smell of the ocean equals the perfect summer combination”) and Time Out (“the finest quesadilla this side of Sunset Park”).

Thor’s Coney Island: New Surf Ave Building Encased in Plywood

Posted in Real Estate, Redevelopment, Uncategorized, tagged Bruce Handy, Coney Island, New Construction, Thor Equities, urban blight on February 27, 2012| 6 Comments »

Even though ATZ has been covering the boarding up of Thor Equities new (and first-ever) building in Coney Island, we were shocked by these photos. Is this a glimpse into the future of what we can expect on Joe Sitt’s property in Coney Island? Yes, the building is ugly and out of place, but the plywood just makes a bad situation worse. The blight doubled overnight.

Last time we looked, plywood covered only the Surf Avenue side, but now the entire structure has been boarded up. “Looks like they built a box then flew it in attached to helicopters,” writes photographer Bruce Handy, who shot the photos on Sunday.

What does it look like to you? Hey, let’s have a comment contest! Last time we posted photos of the building, one astute reader wrote, “Sterile is too kind of a description. Thor’s soulless construction is the true definition of urban blight.”

The plywood-encased, suburban mall-like structure is on the southeast corner of Surf and Stillwell, the gateway to Coney’s Beach and Boardwalk as well as Scream Zone’s roller coasters and thrill rides. It’s the first sight visitors see in Coney Island as they exit Stillwell Terminal. The Henderson Music Hall stood on this corner for more than a century until Sitt had it demolished along with two other buildings in 2010, putting an end to Save Coney Island’s efforts to create an historic district.

Thor Destroys 119-Year-Old Relics of Coney Trolley History

Posted in history, tagged Coney Island, Surf Avenue, Thor Equities, trolley, trolley poles, trolley utility pole on February 21, 2012| 11 Comments »

View of Thor Equities New Plywood-Wrapped Building from Stillwell Terminal. February 20, 2012. Photo © Tricia Vita via flickr

Last week, Thor Equities got rid of a pair of century-old relics of Coney Island history when a new sidewalk was laid on Surf Avenue. Two trolley utility poles which date back to the 1890s are gone. Missing from the above photo of Joe Sitt’s brand-new, plywood-wrapped building viewed from Coney Island’s Stillwell Terminal, the poles can be seen in these photos from January 2012 and April 2011. The new building is the first sight you’ll see when you exit Stillwell Terminal. It occupies the site of the century-old Henderson Music Hall, which Thor Equities demolished in 2010.

When trolley service on the Surf Avenue-Seagate line ended on December 1, 1946, the Coney Island Chamber of Commerce requested that the poles on both sides of Surf Avenue be left in place in the amusement area to be used for holiday decorations. Stan Fox, the former owner of Playland Arcade, told ATZ that about ten years ago, Charlie Tesoro of the Chamber asked him to count them. “There were sixty-four,” says Fox. “Since then some have fallen down. Others were removed.” The ones in front of MCU Park were removed when the stadium was constructed, he says. (Fox updated his trolley pole census the day after this article was posted. He says there are currently 43 poles on Surf Avenue.)

The poles in front of Luna Park have enjoyed a kinder fate. They were painted red, white and blue, as you can see in the photo below. Although most visitors to Coney Island probably pass by these humble artifacts without noticing them, the poles extend from West 5th to West 21st Streets. Trolley service began in 1893, which makes the poles older than Steeplechase Park (1897), Luna Park (1903) and Dreamland (1904), as well as any of Coney Island’s landmarks, including the Wonder Wheel (1920) and the Cyclone (1927).

Red, white and blue trolley poles on Surf Avenue in front of Luna Park Coney Island. February 20, 2012. Photo © Tricia Vita via flickr

On Flickr, the Coney Island Trolley Utility Poles Archive has documented 45 poles in the amusement area and collected historic images. “Nonetheless, with the wholesale demolition of the Coney Island amusement area in the offing within the next few years,” wrote the archivist in 2007, “the days of the trolley utility poles are numbered, and they will be inevitably consigned to the scrap heap, never to be seen again, except on this Flickr page.”

Interestingly, a commenter from the Boston area wrote: “Actually, poles almost exactly like this, and probably of the same vintage, are still in use in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Now they run the wires for the ‘trackless trolleys’ (electric buses).”