A busy black tie night in New York. Cool, but fair weather. Down at Cipriani 42nd Street, the Museum of Arts and Design was holding its autumn fundraising gala “Visionaries 2004.” The Museum has acquired, if you don’t already know, the former Huntington Hartford Museum of Art on Columbus Circle, the white marbled diminutive neighbor of the brand new colossal Time-Warner Center and, directly across the way, the Trump Tower.

The museum’s new home was designed by Edward Durell Stone in the 1960s and upon completion was immediately panned by one and all the architectural critics on the scene. Ada Louise Huxtable called it the “lollipop” building because of the shape of its entry arches. The art critics panned Mr. Hartford’s collection and soon, like all, or almost all, of Mr. Hartford’s fascinating and extravagant ventures, the establishment because disestablished.

Recent view of the former Huntington Hartford Museum of Art, located at 2 Columbus Circle

Today Huntington Hartford, who, it was last reported, lives somewhere out in Brooklyn, is a forgotten man. In the 1950s and 1960s, he was known far and wide and very famously as the A&P heir, possessor of a famous supermarket fortune. He lived high wide and handsome and especially invested his millions in artistic and/or creative endeavors that lacked legs financially but were nevertheless produced with great taste, panache and expense – Mr. Hartford’s expense. The museum on Columbus Circle has stood for decades as a reminder of those former glory times. Today even the genesis of his once great fortune, A&P, has disappeared in name, swallowed up by mergers and acquisitions and Wall Street monopoly games.

Founded in 1956 as the American Craft Museum, the Museum of Arts and Design changed its name officially two years ago to express its mission as a contemporary museum dedicated to celebrating materials and the process of transforming them into expressive objects. According to Holly Hotchner, the museum’s director, “The new name more accurately reflects the interdisciplinary and inclusive nature of our collections and programming ...” It is also a bit more metropolitan, and more than a bit more new age since the word “craft” carries with it a kind of quaint, hand-made, one-of-a-kind object.

Part of its new program will be the renovation and reconfiguring of Mr. Hartford’s commission and Mr. Stone’s design. In other words, you won’t even recognize it. This matter has been an issue of debate in cultural circles. Many see it as a victory for the critic, such as Ms. Huxtable, and a loss of the vision of the architect.

The fact is New York doesn’t mind such “critical” activities because it all points in one direction: commerce. Architect-designer Peter Marino made over the façade and re-designed the building that houses the new Louis Vuitton store on Fifth Avenue and 57th Street, and no one minded a bit. Furthermore, no one even remembers that on that very same plot of land once stood a row of French Renaissance townhouses, known as Millionaires’ Row, the corner of which was occupied by Mary Mason Jones, the aunt of author Edith Wharton. Just as few remember that on Columbus Circle where the Trump building was built, about the same time as the Hartford/Stone museum building, was the world headquarters of Gulf+Western which at the time owned Paramount Pictures. Not anymore, on all counts.

Barbara Tober and Oscar Tang

Meanwhile, over at Cipriani 42nd Street tonight, in a monumental dining and ballroom which (few remember) used to be the Bowery Savings Bank (you can still see the teller’s windows when you enter), the Museum of Arts and Design raised about $1.2 million for its expansion.

Visionaries 2004 is the museum’s most important annual benefit and it helps underwrite educational and public programs as well as future exhibitions. They honored Kenneth A. Himmel, President and CEO of Related Urban Development, Lino Tagliapietra, one of the world’s greatest glass artists and Lella and Massimo Vignelli, international acclaimed designers and co-founders of Vignelli Associates and Vignelli Design.

Mr. Himmel has significantly redefined the concept of the urban landscape through mixed-use projects and big deals such as Chicago 's Water Tower Place; Seattle 's Pacific Place; Boston 's Copley Place; and New York 's Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle . Lino Tagliapietra has been a leader for the renaissance of glassblowing.

Throughout his six-decade career, he has generously shared his experience, understanding and knowledge of traditional Venetian techniques with audiences around the world by mentoring other artists. Lella and Massimo Vignelli's astounding array of talents — in products from graphic and industrial design to furniture, glassware, ceramics and jewelry — has taken them to the pinnacle of the design world and inspired designers and consumers alike for the past 50 years.

There was a big crowd which turned out to support this newly revitalized and expanding cultural institution in New York.

Email
A
Friend