It's about whether the application is Appropriate; not if it's "nice"
Tillie’s seeks mural support
By Dana Rubinstein
The Brooklyn Paper
If a Clinton Hill muralist and a local coffee shop owner can convince preservationists of the merit of their idea, the maroon-colored wall of Tillie’s fronting on Vanderbilt Avenue will bear a multi-colored map of the neighborhood, on which residents will be able to paint dots indicating where they live.
“The mural I’m planning for Tillie’s will [enable us to] see how we really live on top of each other,” said the mural’s creator Ellie Balk.
There is one fly in the paint: because Tillie’s sits at the edge of a the Fort Greene Historic District (at the corner of Vanderbilt and DeKalb avenues), the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission must first approve the design. Such alterations of historic sites often become prickly issues.
Sharon Barnes, of the Clinton Hill Association, cautioned that allowing the mural in a historic district could lead to an avalanche of similar out-of-character alterations.
“A lot of artwork that is proposed is very nice and agreeable and there’s a temptation to say yes,” said Barnes. “But in a landmarked neighborhood, one has to be careful about precedent, because, ultimately, it won’t look like a historic district.”
Barnes cited the mural depicting a chef that went up recently on the side of Chez Oscar, the popular DeKalb Avenue boite at the corner of Adelphi Street.
“The painting is really charming,” said Barnes. “But it has to be limited. And one man’s art is another man’s graffiti.”
©2007 The Brooklyn Paper