"Tower of Toys"

[Landseer]

This was sent to me by a buddy in the East Village of Manhattan, where a large portion of the sculptures I salvaged from buildigns came from.
Mike is an avid photographer on flickr.com and here he has a video about a 60 foot high sculpture made of salvaged timbers and toys. It has been up since 1985 and now the parks dept says it's unsafe and has to come down.

Here's part one of a video about it and the late artist;

Hello All,
Those of you from out of town might remember seeing the Toy Tower in
the intro to NYPD Blue.

On Sunday May 11th, 2008, the one year memorial for Eddie Boros the
creator of the Tower of Toys, was held in the 6th and B Community
Garden. The NYC Parks department had just declared the tower unsafe
and that it must come down. Eddie Boros was an amazing character, he
had to be in order to build and preserve from destruction his 60 foot
ramshackle tower of salvaged timber and rotting toys from 1985 until
2008, a full year after he died. I interviewed the gardeners and his
relatives, asking them to give me stories about Eddie. I combined the
interviews with the many photos I've taken of the tower, plus photos
on the garden bulletin board. as well as some that people put on the
garden fence after Eddie died in 2007. This is part 1 of a planned
three parts.

http://gammablog.com/2008/06/10/my-baby-eddie-boros-and-the-tower-of-toys/

Best,
Mike Natale

--
GammaBlog - Photos, Street Art, Architecture and Politics from the
heart of the East Village, NYC.
http://gammablog.com/

[Landseer]

Here's part 2 on this sculpture videotaped and produced by an acquantance of mine- concluding with the city hiring a tree cutting firm to come and tear the sculpture down with heavy equipment and chainsaws;

http://gammablog.com/my-baby/


Eddie's Big Wind
A fierce wind and rain storm, Monday night after the memorial, leaves
the Toy Tower dangerously leaning into the garden. This accelerates
the Parks Department's plans to tear it down. I again interview the
gardeners : Joanee Freedom, Pat Russell, Graywolf and William
Hohauser. And we hear from gardeners: Barbara (Improvisational
poetry), Steve Jones Daughs (drums) and Tim Young (a sad witness to
the final fall of the tower). Plus we hear from various neighbors who
were unhappy to see it go, and John, the single angry, vocal protester
on the morning of the take-down.

Graywolf tells a great story about how the tower almost came down in
an ice storm in 1994, and how Eddie got his friends from Sophie's bar
to save it.

Joanee gives more garden history, and shares her theory about the
storm being Eddie's Wind.

William shares some insight into how Eddie expressed his spirituality.

And Barbara Monoian from the Musee de Monoian gallery says that Eddie
was the neighborhood's "keeper of history."

A couple of neighbors expressed glee within earshot that the "pile of
junk" was finally gone, but no one was willing to go on camera to say
it.
--
Mike
GammaBlog - Photos, Street Art, Architecture and Politics from the
heart of the East Village, NYC.
http://gammablog.com/

[suburbanartists]

Hey Land, I was the NYC location mgr. for NYPD Blue in it's early years. The makers of the show were a great group. Very rare thing to say about any film or tv producers/crew. If i remember right that was a quick 2nd unit shot we did for the intro. We also shot many exterior scenes in that neighborhood. The police station was on 5th st between A and B (or B and C) if i remember correctly.

Now i'm wondering if they paid the artist for use of the image? I never met him or even knew his name. Was a bit mythic at the time. The tower would grow overnight but you'd never see anyone inside. Seemed to me most we spoke to in the neighborhood didn't like it, but the boys with cameras from Cally loved it.