Private Passage, a Public Art Project in Hudson River Park

I was on my way to meet a friend who lives in a striking building called Via on the West Side Highway, otherwise known as 12th Avenue, and decided to take the longer way there through Hudson River Park. I crossed a fabulous piece of Public Art, Private Passage is a sculpture created by Malcom Cochran, that has been on view in Hudson River Park’s Clinton Cove since 2005. It looks like an enormous wine bottle lying out in the park – now wouldn’t that be fun! – within which is a representation of an interior stateroom from Queen Mary, the ocean liner. The interior finishes are made to resemble a platinum print from a black and white photograph.

Here is what it looks like from a distance, and up close –

As you get closer, you notice portholes that just beg to be looked into along the sides and at either end. As I made my way around, I had limited visibility through the glass on the portholes, and then at what would be the base of the bottle, I realized the glass was broken and I could actually reach in to get some awesome photographs!

Here is what it was like through the portholes with the glass –

When I got to the base of the bottle, I had such a great view, though you can see the broken glass all over the floor –

Getting back to the Via, which is the building I was headed to, here it is from the outside looking in, and then the inside looking out –

The Via was in the news recently because a marketing agency decided to do a campaign where the Via was bathed in orange to resemble a Dorito chip. I was all excited about getting some pictures of this oversized Dorito chip and reached out to my friend who lives there, who was anything but excited because their apartments were all bathed in orange, and his dog was miserable with the orange light that was impossible to escape from the inside. Here is what that was like for everyone that lived in the building –

So while I did not get my Via looking like a Dorito chip picture, I do like Via as I like visiting my friend there as much as I like having access to this stunning building.

Hudson River does have a number of interesting things to do, and I hope to cover more in the blog soon.

Getting back to Private Passage, which is where this post began, here’s to hoping there is a mysterious message in a bottle washing up on my shore sometime soon.

#gottalovenewyork