Residents of a swanky New York street are in uproar after finding themselves unwitting exhibits at the recently rebuilt Museum of Modern Art.
In a case of life imitating art, the renovated museum, with a clear glass floor-to-ceiling wall looking out on to West 54th Street, gives its 10 000 daily visitors a bird’s-eye view into the upmarket apartments across the road.
Even in a city where gazing into other people’s apartments is an acceptable pastime, the residents of West 54th, who include the former Beatle Paul McCartney, have had enough.
Rosanna Batista, who lives in a red brick apartment building directly across the street, told the New York Post that the intrusion has made her life difficult. She said that since the museum reopened two months ago she has been constantly gawped at and disturbed by flashes as tourists take her picture.
”I feel like I’m an exhibit,” she said. ”They’re over there all day, staring, pointing, flashing their cameras.”
Batista (33) said she now keeps her blinds down, rarely goes out onto her balcony and has moved her bedroom into what was her study to gain more privacy.
Bradly Schleyer (29) who lives four doors down from Batista, said he too had been forced to keep his curtains drawn most of the time. ”It’s weird that all those museum-goers now have a clear view into my living room and bedroom,” he said.
Another resident, Lawrence Frailberg (83) said he was ready to create a stink. ”I’m too old to be doing anything I don’t want people to see but if I find out someone’s peering into my place, I’m going to raise hell,” he told the paper.
However, people living on West 54th are pretty much alone in their concerns. The building reopened in November to widespread applause after a two-and-a-half year redevelopment costing $858-million. Designed by the Japanese architect Yoshio Taniguchi, it was described by the New York Times as a ”transcendent aesthetic experience”.
Despite the $20 admission fee, making it among the most expensive museums in the world, Moma has been attracting long queues of visitors. The museum had been in exile in the neighbouring New York borough of Queens during the renovation.
At least one resident of West 54th Street is happy. Rae Baymiller, a 55-year-old fashion designer, told the Post that her neighbours should learn to live with the reopened museum. ”This is Manhattan. The architecture changes all the time. Get used to it,” she said.
A Moma spokesperson said the museum has an ”ongoing dialogue with the neighbours”. – Guardian Unlimited Â