Bloomberg Scuttles Museum's move to Tweed Courthouse - Artworld - Michael Bloomberg, Museum of the City of New York - Brief Article

In mid-March, Mayor Michael Bloomberg nixed a deal made by former Mayor Rudy Giuliani to relocate the Museum of the City of New York, currently on upper Fifth Ave., to the newly renovated Tweed Courthouse in Lower Manhattan [see "Front Page," Apr. `02]. The news prompted the resignation of the museum's director of 17 years, Robert C. Macdonald, who will step down on Aug. 31. He had been working on plans and fundraising for the museum's move for the last four years. It was widely hoped and, indeed, assumed that the museum would play an important role in the rebuilding of Lower Manhattan.

Weeks before the official announcement, Bloomberg disclosed his proposal to move the Board of Education offices into the building and to create a new public school there for gifted and educationally disadvantaged children. Like Giuliani before him, Bloomberg hopes to abolish the embattled education board and appoint his own commissioner, establishing instead a Department of Education which he will control.

Before its elaborate $89-million renovation, begun under Giuliani, the spectacularly ornate courthouse had been physically neglected while being used as office space for many years; its interior was subdivided into a maze of offices, its floor covered with linoleum tiles and much of the architectural detail covered up or encrusted with paint. Though Bloomberg famously favors a bull-pen working environment, which purportedly would not impinge on the decor, the notion of reconverting the courthouse to office use makes preservationists and historians wince. In addition, opponents of the mayor's new plan insist that the taxpaying public that funded its restoration should have access. The fact that the building's construction is testament to a notorious and intriguing chapter in New York City's history should be argument enough, many believe, for the relocation of the city's history museum to that site.

The museum had been gearing up for the move by expanding its board of trustees and raising millions of dollars. Board chairman Newton P.S. Merrill told the New York Times that the museum will still seek a new downtown home. The situation has also rekindled talk of a possible merger with the New-York Historical Society on Central Park West, an idea favored by Betsy Gotbaum, the city's public advocate and former director of the historical society; Kenneth T. Jackson, president of the society; and Mike Wallace, author of Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898.

COPYRIGHT 2002 Brant Publications, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group