Saturday, March 7, 2020 – 2pm

Start Location: Louis Brandeis High School, 145 West 84th Street

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Due to popular demand, The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture of The Cooper Union has organized a second walking tour of works by Sardinian-born artist and sculptor, Costantino Nivola, set to take place on Saturday, March 7th at 2pm. The tour will begin at Louis Brandeis High School, located at 145 West 84th Street in Manhattan. This event is being held in conjunction with the exhibition of Nivola works currently on display at The Cooper Union through March 15th.

Costantino Nivola was a unique figure who bridged art and architecture by creating site-specific artwork for buildings, most of them publicly accessible and many in collaboration with prominent architects. He occupies a largely unexamined but important place in the post-war modern movement, and his artwork communicates to a broad audience using a symbolic language he created with materials and methods often shared by the buildings he embellished.

For his pieces that adorned architecture, Nivola worked mostly in concrete and explored a wide range of techniques including cast and sculpted concrete, frescoes, bas-reliefs and scrafitto. He placed free-standing sculptures in and around buildings, affixed cast panels to facades and inscribed wet concrete with designs on-site.

New York City is home to the largest gathering of Nivola’s public artworks – 22 pieces across all five boroughs, 17 of which still exist. The tour will include visits to five sites in Manhattan:

    1. Louis Brandeis High School, 145 West 84th Street [1962 – Charles Luckman Associates, Architects]

    2. Stephen Wise Recreation Area, 117 West 90th Street [1963 – Richard G. Stein, Architect]

    3. Junior High School 13, 1573 Madison Avenue [1958 – Frederick G. Frost Jr. & Associates, Architects]

    4. Raymond Loewy House, 1025 5th Avenue [1955 – Raymond Loewy, Designer]

    5. 19th Precinct Combined Police & Fire Facilities, 153 East 67th Street [1991 – Carl Stein, Architect]

Please note: we will be traveling by bus between some locations.

The tour will be led by exhibition co-curator Roger Broome, a licensed, LEED-accredited architect. He practices in the greater New York City area, holds a Bachelor of Architecture from The Cooper Union (1990) and has been working in the field for over 30 years. He has worked in a broad variety of specialties such as exterior renovation, acoustical, exhibition and retail design.

Nivola in New York | Figure in Field is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

View the full Spring 2020 Lectures and Events List.