A Storyboard for 45 floors
Deutsche Bank's New York
Collection
Unlike a museum or a
gallery, Deutsche Bank's New York collection is situated in the midst of a
highly active business environment. 45 floors amount to a 1.6 million
square-foot office tower; in terms of art, that's an incredible amount of
space. Cheryl Kaplan on Deutsche Bank's new headquarters at 60 Wall
Street and 45 different ways to experience the art in the building.
Panorama View of 60 Wallstreet
Until recently,
it's been Code Orange Plus in New York. At the heart of the Financial
District, inches away from Ground
Zero, a subtle arrangement of barriers, weather-proof check-points and
National Guards give way to a gaggle of tourists armed with digital
cameras. Elsewhere, the extended anxiety of a post -9/11 world is
carefully tucked away, rarely mentioned except when the TV stations cart
out the code signals, just in time to remind us that the world is not yet
quite at peace.. In New York, talk circles around the selection of the
official memorial: is it really that bad? Is it really that good? The
Mayor does what he can to settle tensions between the families of the
victims and the families of the rescuers, each of whom want separate forms
of recognition. It's an argument that ignores the fact that destruction is
not selective and that New York, in any case, is certainly mending.
Federal Hall and stock market, New York
On Wall
Street, a tense normality can still be felt, but that may be due more to
the sub-zero weather that's been gripping the City for months. Approaching
the New York Stock Exchange, traders bundle together in groups of two and
three, for a quick chat before returning inside. Standing before the
entrance to Deutsche Bank's new Wall Street headquarters, a quick look
east finds the river practically fusing with the
FDR Drive. Nearby, construction is already underway of
Wall Street Park where a memorial fountain, created with funds the bank
has pledged to the NYC
Parks & Recreation Department, will honor four Deutsche Bank
colleagues who lost their lives on September 11th. The fountain, a symbol
of perserverance, revival and hope, references the fountain that
originally stood at Deutsche Bank's building,130 Liberty Street. As Mayor
Bloomberg has noted: "The presence of a global financial leader such as
Deutsche Bank underscores downtown's enduring status as the 'Financial
Capital of the World.'" He confidently added that Deutsche Bank's
"commitment will help take Lower Manhattan into the future." A visit to 60
Wall Street and to Deutsche Bank's New York curator, Liz Christensen,
quickly begins to illustrate why.
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Harbour and Trinity Church, New York
Having planned to relocate its US headquarters to 60 Wall Street well before
9/11, Deutsche Bank had already agreed to purchase its new building from
J.P.Morgan Chase well before the attack. Prior to September 11, 2001,
Deutsche Bank occupied a combined 1.8 million square feet at 4 World Trade
Center and 130 Liberty Street. As a result of the attacks, its offices at
4 World Trade Center were destroyed, and the space at 130 Liberty Street
was irreparably damaged. The bank was forced to relocate employees, with
many absorbed into its midtown offices at 31 West 52 Street and even some
employees even moving to 60 Wall Street in the building's early stages.
With the move, Deutsche Bank has now re-established 5,500 jobs downtown,
along with an additional 1,000 jobs in its midtown offices. Originally
completed in 1989, the interior of the 47-story tower designed by
Kevin Roche,
John Dinkeloo & Associates has gradually been transformed by the
architectural firm Gensler who in
the case of the lobby concentrated chiefly on subtle refinements,
including changes in lighting, especially in reference to the viewing of
Deutsche Bank's extensive collection of art.
Lobby, 60 Wallstreet, New York
A major public
atrium will in the future most likely become a venue for curated public
art projects and events related to the collection. Discussions are in
progress now with the
Guggenheim and others regarding the space and programming. No one is more
familiar with every square inch of Deutsche Bank's 47 floors than Liz
Christensen who has been in charge of curating and re-organizing this
massive ongoing exhibition throughout the transition from midtown back to
Wall Street. The planning for the "migration," as it's called, began in
April 2003. In this new venue, the entire re-installation will be
completed by February 2004. The context for the works in the collection
has shifted. Each floor is organized according to newly created themes or
art historical points of view.
Gerhard Richter: Abstraktes Bild (Faust), 1981, Deutsche Bank Collection
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