THE DURST ORGANIZATION ANNOUNCES COMPLETION OF LOBBY UPRGRADE AND ART INSTALLATION AT 1133 AVENUE OF THE AMERICAS

Acclaimed Artist Leo Villareal’s Light Installation “Volume (Durst), 2013” to Adorn Ceiling of Modernist Skyscraper

The Durst Organization today announced the completion of a lobby upgrade and the installation of Leo Villareal’s “Volume (Durst), 2013” at 1133 Avenue of the Americas. The eight-month multi-million dollar lobby renovations, overseen by the architecture firm Gensler includes new elevator cabs with destination dispatch, LED energy efficient lighting, new lobby desk, terrazzo floors, portals, fire alarm, turnstiles and lobby concessions and newsstands. The 1.1 million square foot, 45-story Emery Roth & Sons designed building was completed by The Durst Organization in 1970 and its sleek Modernist lines heralded the transformation of Sixth Avenue into New York’s foremost corporate thoroughfare. Today, the building’s prestigious tenant roster includes: Ace American Insurance Company, Patterson Belknap, and Bank of America.

“1133 was the headquarters of The Durst Organization for many years and the building was the first my grandfather, father and uncles built on Sixth Avenue,” said Jonathan (Jody) Durst, President of The Durst Organization. “The building’s timeless design, efficient floor-plates and optimal location make it as compelling today as it was when it was constructed. The beautiful new lobby and artwork update this classic to the 21st Century and we expect will make it a desirable corporate address for at least another 40 years.”
The Durst Organization, founded in 1915 by Joseph Durst, is the owner, manager and builder of 13 million square feet of premiere Manhattan office towers. The Durst Organization is recognized as a world leader in the development of high-performance and environmentally advanced commercial and residential property.

Contact:
Jordan Barowitz
jbarowitz@durst.org
212/257-6605

About Volume (Durst) 2013:
White LEDs, mirror finished stainless steel, custom software, electrical hardware
Approximately 12 x 60 x 6 feet

Volume (Durst), 2013 is a light installation for the lobby of 1133 Sixth Avenue in Manhattan by Leo Villareal. The sculpture takes the form of a three dimensional matrix composed of 86,400 white LEDs (light emitting diodes). From a roughly 60’ wide by 6’ deep grid, 900 12’ long stainless steel rods hang to form a volumetric display. Each rod has 96 individually controllable LEDs, each capable of displaying 255 levels of brightness. The array hovers overhead, functioning as a type of map or diagram that illustrates a sequenced topography which combines both spatial and temporal resolution. The work explores the compulsion to recognize patterns and the brain’s hard -coded desire to understand and make meaning. Volume (Durst) speaks to a diverse audience: it is abstract and evocative and can have many different meanings. It creates an experience for viewers through its infinitely changing patterns. The progression of sequences never repeats as new patterns are constantly recombined. Overall, the piece resonates with the activity of the building, neighborhood and city itself.

ARTIST STATEMENT

Leo Villareal’s work is focused on stripping systems down to their essence to better understand the underlying structures and rules that govern how they work. He is interested in lowest common denominators such as pixels or the zeroes and ones in binary code. Starting at the beginning, using the simplest forms, Villareal begins to build elements within a framework. Villareal’s forms, move, change, interact and ultimately grow into complex organisms. Inspired by mathematician John Conway’s work with cellular automata and the Game of Life, the artist has sought to create his owns sets of rules. Central to Villareal’s work is the element of chance. His goal is to create a rich environment in which emergent behavior can occur without a preconceived outcome. The artist is an active participant, serving as editor in the process through his careful selection of compelling sequences. These selections are then further refined through combination with other sequences and simple operations such as addition, subtraction and multiplication. The sequence’s opacity, speed and scale can all be manipulated through custom software. Ultimately, complex compositions are formed and then displayed in random order and for a random amount of time in the final artwork. The visual manifestation of the code in light is at the core of the artist’s interest.

BIOGRAPHY

Leo Villareal received a BA in sculpture from Yale University in 1990, and a graduate degree from NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Interactive Telecommunications Program. Recently, a survey exhibition of the artist’s work organized by the San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA toured several U.S. museums and concluded in 2012. Villareal has completed many site-specific works including Radiant Pathways at Rice University, Houston, TX, Multiverse at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Diagonal Grid at the Borusan Center for Culture and Arts, Istanbul, Turkey, Stars at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Brooklyn, NY, Hive for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority at the Bleecker Street subway station and Buckyball for Madison Square Park, both in New York City. Recently, the artist completed the permanent site-specific work Cosmos for the Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY. Villareal is a focal point of the James Corner Field Operations design team that will renew Chicago’s Navy Pier. Villareal’s work is in the permanent collections of the Albright-Knox Museum, Buffalo, NY, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, Naoshima Contemporary Art Museum, Kagawa, Japan, the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland Park, KS and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.