Thursday, October 20th, 2011

If you’ve spent any time in the West 80s, you’ve probably walked past this thing. It’s located on the south side of 83rd Street, just west of Broadway.

At first glance, it looks like some sort of missile silo leftover from the 1970s Cold War with the Upper East Side — it is not.

According to a recent blurb in the New York Times, it’s “a kiosk for public notices.” Per NYT:

Penny Ryan, district manager for Community Board 7, forwarded this explanation from Ian Alterman, a longtime member of the 42-year-old West 83rd Street Association: “The kiosk was paid for, designed and built by the West 83rd Street Association quite some time ago, with permission from Zabar’s (which owns the real estate that Barnes & Noble sits on). The top of the kiosk was designed by Gerry Lynas, who also designed the playground in Riverside Park at 83rd Street, and does all those wonderful snow sculptures during the winter.

“The kiosk has always been open to the public, and we encourage people to place their fliers, etc., on it. Of course, since it is open to the public, this means that the companies that place the large movie and concert posters very often cover up everything else that’s there.”

Interesting note in there that Zabar’s owns all that land, although I would have thought the sidewalk was public property.

Thanks to MUW readers @TovahGo & @CyrusPavel for the link (and sorry for sitting on it for a week-and-a-half).

p.s. You can see more of Gerry Lynas’ work on his website — he lives and works on West 83rd.

Filed under: Art, Landmark, Manhattan, New York City, News, NYC, Real Estate, Riverside Park, Upper West Side, Upper West Side Blog, Upper West Side Oddities, UWS No Comments »
Tags: Art, CB 7, CB7, Community Board 7, Gerry Lynas, Ian Alterman, Kiosk, New York City, NYC, Penny Ryan, Upper West Side, UWS, West 83rd Street Association, Zabar’s