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Goodbye Alphabet City Toy Tower
By
John Del Signore
Published May 12, 2008
Modified May 12, 2008
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By
John Del Signore
Published May 12, 2008
Modified May 12, 2008
Share
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The farewell party for the famous "Toy Tower" at the Avenue B and 6th Street community garden took place yesterday. Vanishing New York estimates about 100 well-wishers were in attendance to eulogize the found object art tower, which rose to a height of 65 feet over the course of two decades. The eclectic structure is the work of the colorful East Village character Eddie Boros, who passed away one year ago this month.
Adrian Benepe, the city’s parks commissioner, told the Times that "parts of the tower were rotting and inspectors had become concerned that a piece of it could fall or that somebody might be injured while trying to scale the structure." Workers will begin dismantling the Toy Tower piece by piece from a cherry picker this week. Benepe added that some of the pieces would be handed over to community gardeners as mementos. It's unclear what will become of the six garden plots in the tower's footprint; one option under consideration is to use the space for a rotating series of sculpture exhibits.
Tagged
6th
Avenue B
community
demolished
department
east
Eddie Boros
garden
parks
street
tower
toy
toys
unsafe
village
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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