Unraveling everywhere
Goodbye Breuer building, field notes from the doctor, and watch your tone
Last week at 945 Madison Ave., the Whitney Museum said goodbye to its old Modernist home and handed the keys over to Sotheby’s. The Whitney has been downtown for about 10 years in its Renzo Piano-designed home, but this building remained in its portfolio. The Whitney spent the better part of 50 years in this spot and eventually outgrew it. I’ve only visited sparingly and never spent meaningful time in this space until the last week with the Whitney.
In the final days of Whitney ownership, I got to organize an informal farewell for staff who once worked in the building. We brought some bottles of bubbles, shared a toast, and then proceeded to the top of the building to weave our way down for one last tour. It’s an incredibly special building, full of unexpected trapezoidal windows and unusual landing areas before making your way to the next floor. Even more special, I got to hear my colleagues light up and reflect on all the achievements and crazy moments that they experienced in the building.
Marcel Breuer designed the building in the 60s specifically for the Whitney and its always-expanding collection. Even though the building was specifically designed for an art museum, it did not have a loading dock. It was angular and cramped, but they still pulled off amazing installations and forced the art handlers to hone their expertise. Despite some quirks here and there, the show still went on.
One colleague mentioned that he was obsessed with the mechanical room and this of course piqued my interest. Graphically, it is a really fun room with bright and varying colored piping winding and looping throughout the room. We can only hope the engineers were equally impressed. We only lightly rummaged in the mechanical room and I pulled out some original blue prints from Marcel Breuer & Associates. I have blue print blindness (can’t read them, don’t want to), but we found a copy of the lobby and had a ball looking through these.
I think everyone agrees, but the lobby is really the star of the show. The lighting is so spectacular and honestly, it might look better in pictures vs. IRL. My colleague who works on buildings at the Whitney shared that the bulbs were custom made and eventually the manufacturer shut down and no one else could make them. You will notice, the top half of the bulb is exposed, while the bottom half is coated with gray paint. They eventually had to find two manufacturers to make the final product, so now - as you may guess - they are a bitch to make! Doesn’t matter though because it’s worth. It makes the nicest, warmest, indirect lighting. It’s so pleasant walking into the building.
We made our way down the stairs and I heard more stories of Arnold Schwarzenegger stopping by before his exhibition, holiday party after-parties that involved too much tequila, digital art pieces of robots walking around the museum and hopping in the elevator with the visitors. The Whitney is everchanging and redefining itself. I’ve only overlapped very briefly with its history so far, but I was delighted to watch this changeover in the cultural landscape of New York.
Anyway, I love celebrities, so here’s a Whitney/Getty Image roundup from the Breuer era.
I’ll be staying tuned on Sotheby’s since they have tapped a swanky Swiss architecture firm to reimagine the building. The building is not landmarked, so say a prayer they don’t touch that facade and lobby!
I want to hard pivot now
I’m just going to leave some field notes from my week to remember how American life feels right now.
As I mentioned in my previous letter, I’m knocking out a slew of doctor visits right now and my primary care doc referred me to a derm for some follow up questions. Wonderful. That means I’m seeing a specialist, so I will have to pay this new office an additional $40 (copayment) out of pocket to be seen.
I look up this office, it’s downtown and I must take the C train. I recall, the NYT just told me a moment ago that a guy was shooting at people on the C train and there’s significant delays. Hmm. But it’s so busy and crazy in New York, am I really that special where I’m likely to be shot at? Surely not… I can’t get past this though, so I decide to walk 40 minutes instead.
I get to my derm appointment I pay my copayment before anyone talks to me. I go to my room and I wait 40 minutes for the doctor. She’s very friendly, professional, and very sorry for the delay. We proceed with the skin cancer screening because I suppose I should be doing this sort of thing once a year. I proceed with my questions about acne and she cuts me off there. She let’s me know she only has 15 minutes with me because in her charts, I’m only there for the skin cancer screening. From my perspective, this isn’t the case, I want to know more but my time is up. She tells me I need to make another appointment (another $40) for us to proceed. I look at the clock, I technically have 3 minutes left.
I am completely following what she is saying, she’s just following her own instructions, but I become frozen with frustration and I begin to unravel in front of this woman.
Thank God I am healthy. I’m fine. But many people are not and everyday our health is diminishing. I’ve just described 12 minutes of a minor inconvenience, but at the same time it reveals our needlessly rigid and unforgiving healthcare system. We take off work, pay for healthcare coverage, and then pay again to be seen, and pay again for meds that aren’t covered and pay and pay and pay.
In many ways, we’re watching the greatest tragedies of our lifetime unfold in a world where we are most optimized. People are dying at the hands of the state in new, cruel and unusual ways everyday. I walk around the city and people are crying out and begging for just any spare change. I see police hovering and actively causing unrest in our communities. I watch Gaza become unrecognizable and the Palestinian death count soars.
I don’t know how to react in words about the election. My screentime is likely to be disgusting this week. So many takes, so many mysteries. It’s all terrible.
I need people to get a grip and realize we’re not living in bubbles. You are not looking. We’re riding the same plane together, we’re waiting in the emergency room together, we participate in this *democracy together (*the great American export!). We need to care and look out for each other. Use a bit of imagination. I’ve felt generally bad this week, but I’m not going to do that anymore. I think people fundamentally expect to be shocked by others, so and they act shocked. Don’t be so quick to be offended. Listen to people and watch your tone.
NOW I AM GOING TO TAKE A DEEP BREATH :-)
I’m going to have a good three day weekend. I wake up each day getting to do the things I want to do and I’m building the life I’ve always wanted. How lucky am I? I’m so rich.
I’ve been listening to this song on repeat a lot this week and it’s healing me in ways I cannot quite describe.
I also encourage everyone to dump their PSLs down the drain. We’re now switching over to Peppermint Mochas With Whipped Cream. I’m going to do a yoga video in my living room and make sure I have a nice day. The sun is shining and now New Jersey is on fire!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My apartment is smelling awfully smoky. Sigh.
Say a prayer and hang in there.