CB1 Wants Picnic Tables To Stay by City Hall Park

 by Ronald Drenger

Two oversized picnic tables on the the east sidewalk of City Hall Park have become quite popular since they were installed in January.

People perch on the tabletops or sit on the long wooden benches, their legs dangling above the ground. Tourists stop there to take a breather, snapping photos of one another or gazing at the Brooklyn Bridge.

People like to climb onto Ken Landauer's Picnic Tables, which Community Board 1 wants to see remain next to City Hall Park. The pieces, part of a temporary art exhibition, are due to be removed this month.

But these funky picnic tables are actually Picnic Tables, an artwork created by artist Ken Landauer. Along with five other sculptures in and around City Hall Park, they are part of a temporary art exhibition and are scheduled to be removed this month and replaced by four Roy Lichtenstein pieces.

No new work is going in the spot now belonging to the tables, though, and Community Board 1 is making a bid to keep them for a while longer, or even permanently.

Last month, the board passed a resolution approving installation of the Lichtenstein sculptures but strongly urging the Parks Department and the Public Art Fund, which organizes the sculpture shows, to retain the tables.

“Everybody likes the picnic tables,” said Marc Donnenfeld, chairman of CB1’s Seaport/Civic Center Committee. “They’re whimsical and they’re useful.”


“I’m sure it wouldn’t be the first time that a public art installation was extended past the time it was scheduled for,” said Paul Goldstein, CB1’s district manager, who wrote a letter to the Parks Department making the board’s case.

If the tables absolutely have to go, the board wants the city to replace them with other public seating. “It seems like a big waste of space to leave it vacant, when you have an opportunity to serve the public,” Goldstein said.

Representatives of the Public Art Fund and the Parks Department are delighted that the community embraces the artwork, but they say that the work is unlikely to stay.

“The nature of our program would change radically if our works became permanent,” said Tom Eccles, the Art Fund’s director. “The fact that the program is temporary means that we don’t have to go through all the approval processes that you have for permanent installations.” The City Hall Park exhibition, he noted, had already been extended from July.

As for putting in new public seating if the tables are removed, Megan Sheekey, a spokeswoman for the Parks Department, said, “It’s certainly something we could look into.”

Landauer, who lives in Stone Ridge, NY, said he would be thrilled to leave tables where they are.

“That’s one of my favorite places in Manhattan and it’s an ideal space for the piece,” he said. If the city wants to buy the sculpture and make it a permanent Downtown fixture, “I’d make the price very negotiable.”