Dive Brief:
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It’s not uncommon for builders and developers to hire photographers to chronicle buildings-in-progress, by snapping shots of the groundbreaking, ribbon cutting, and everything in between. Time Equities, Inc., which is developing a 64-story luxury residential skyscraper in Manhattan, has hired a trio of artists to paint those pictures instead.
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The walls of the developer’s sales and construction offices show off colorful paintings of bulldozers, the muddy job site and rubble by Israeli artist Noa Charuvi, whose title is “artist-in-residence.”
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Charuvi and the other artists are alumni of an artist residency program that Francis Greenburger, the founder, chairman and CEO of Time Equities, founded. "I never heard of an artist becoming part of a skyscraper," Charuvi told the Wall Street Journal. “It's not common to see paintings of” construction sites.
Dive Insight:
Greenburger says the paintings might never grace the lobby walls of his 780-foot tower at 50 West St., as he suspects the high-end homeowners who buy the units might not find renderings of a dirty construction site tasteful.