A portrait by Gus Wittmayer, entitled, “Gypsy Girl” 
(courtesy Wittmayer Studios, Atlanta)

As part of the City review of our project, ABC No Rio was required to hire consultants to perform an historical, documentary study of our site at 156 Rivington Street.

The report prepared by Chrysalis Archaeological Consultants traces the history of the site from the 17th Century to the present, and includes many interesting facts, such as:

—Jacobus van Curler (Corlear) acquired the land at what is now 156 Rivington Street in the 1630s; although Corlear had initially promised the property to a freed “negro” who occupied the site, Anthony Fernando, he then sold the land to William Beekman in 1652; Beekman then successfully evicted Fernando from the land he’d been farming;

—Tax records indicate that from at least 1827 to 1830 the site was occupied by the Sterling Company, a manufacturer of nails and chains that employed up to 400 workers;

—In the 1830s John Sniffen, his wife Jane, and their eight children lived at 156 Rivington Street; Sniffen was a staunch proponent of the Graham System of Living, which called for the adoption of a vegetarian diet as a means to prevent impure thoughts;

—In 1861 musician and composer Gaetano Daga lived at 156 Rivington Street; Daga is best known for his 1843 piece “Union Blues Quick Step,” which is in the Library of Congress;

—In 1919 the storefront at 156 Rivington Street was leased to photographer Gustave Wittmayer; Gus’ Photo Studio was at 156 Rivington Street and then at 158 Rivington Street for the next fifty years;

We’ve decided to make two versions of the report available on our website for those with an interest in the history of New York and the Lower East Side:

A smaller file of the report (2.4MB), without the Geotechnical Report as an appendix can be downloaded at: http://media.abcnorio.org/reports/abcnorio_documentary_study_no_geotech.pdf

The file that includes the Geotechnical Report (8.2MB) can be downloaded at: http://media.abcnorio.org/reports/abcnorio_documentary_study_complete.pdf

Information in the Geotechnical Report is pretty arcane, and may be of limited interest to those without a background in engineering or geology.

Punk Island 2011

Sunday June 19  ||  10am — 5pm

ABC No Rio’s HC/Punk Collective is proud to be booking Punk Island 2011, Make Music New York’s day-long punk fest on Governors Island!

For more info: Punk Island 2011

Last Benefit Gala Before We Raze the Walls!!!

We’re proud to announce that Allegra LaViola Gallery will be hosting ABC No Rio’s upcoming Gala + Benefit Auction.

Festivities will include beer, wine, buffet, guest DJ’s, brilliant conversation and spirited bidding throughout the evening. Ticket prices begin at $50.

Event information, auction preview and ticket purchase at: http://www.abcnorio.org/benefit2011

We look forward to seeing you there!

Tuesday May 3, 2011, from 7:00 to 10:00pm

Allegra LaViola Gallery

179 East Broadway || NYC

Will you help us complete this picture?

Hard as it may be to believe, we’ve raised $4 million of the $5 million we need to build No Rio’s new home!!!

But we still need another cool million…

We’re moving forward, working closely with New York City’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Department of Design and Construction to build a fantastic new building. DDC will manage construction — they’re already reviewing our architectural and engineering documents, a process that is far more rigorous than we could ever have imagined. Our construction documents should be complete before the year is out.

We could begin construction next summer, but we still need another cool million…

The new ABC No Rio will be spectacular. We’ll have twice as much space for exhibitions, music, performances and other public events. We’re creating spaces especially designed for our projects and programs. The building will be properly sound-proofed and wheelchair accessible. 

Our new building will meet the rigorous Passive House energy efficiency standard through a high-performance building envelope with super-insulated walls and a cutting-edge heat-recovery ventilation system. We’ll be significantly more efficient than the state energy code requires. With a green roof, efficient lighting fixtures and controls, triple-paned, low “e-glazed” windows, and low-flow plumbing fixtures the new building will meet the criteria for LEED Silver.

Sustainable design is not just for mind numbing offices and luxury condos. Small grassroots spaces can be the most sustainable.

But… we still need another cool million to make that happen!

Your support is crucial to ensuring we move forward towards a bigger, better and brighter future. We trust that you will join us, and that we can count on your contribution to ABC No Rio as the year comes to a close.

PLEASE SEND YOUR CONTRIBUTION TODAY!

You can donate by way of PayPal through our support page at
http://www.abcnorio.org/support/support.html

Or send a check or money order to
ABC No Rio
156 Rivington Street
New York, NY 10002

More information about our new building is at
http://www.abcnorio.org/newbuilding.php

Thanks for your support!

ABC No Rio Entry, 1980; Photo by Jody Culkin

Alternative Histories at Exit Art

ABC No Rio is one of over 130 spaces and organizations represented in Exit Art’s Alternative Histories exhibition.

“Alternative Histories is a history of New York City alternative art spaces and projects since the 1960s… ‘Imagination is an alternative to reality, creating options that never end,’ says Papo Colo, co-founder of Exit Art… The exhibition incorporates a broad definition of the term ‘alternative space,’ and includes significant publications and artist collectives to cover a broad arc of this history – bridging neighborhoods, decades and themes.”

On Friday October 15 at 7:00pm at Exit Art former ABC No Rio Directors Jack Waters and Peter Cramer will take part in the What is Alternative? panel, along with Papo Colo, Martha Wilson (Franklin Furnace), and Bridget Finn (Cleopatra’s). Robert Storr, Dean of the Yale School of Art, moderates.

Alternative Histories runs through November 24.

On September 14 the Bouncing Souls performed a benefit for ABC No Rio’s Building Fund. Born in a Cent opened; tickets were limited to 100 and pretty much sold out within hours.

It’s always gratifying for us when artists, performers and musicians from No Rio’s past pitch-in to help us realize our future.

Photos by Alyssa Tanchajja

This link is to an article in the NY Times about the Passive House standard in construction:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/26/business/energy-environment/26smart.html

Passive House is the standard to which we are building the new ABC No Rio facility. The firm briefly profiled in the article, Zero Energy Design, is the outfit we hired as consultants in this area, and the engineer quoted, Jordan Goldman, is designing our HVAC system and consulting in passive house modeling.

Although people seem most interested and responsive to things like the solar voltaic system and the green roof, passive house is really the “cutting edge” aspect of our project, as far as the green initiatives go. I was surprised to learn from the article that there are only 13 passive house certified buildings in the entire U.S. (I thought there were at least a couple dozen).

Through our project we really will be an example for others of a responsible and far-sighted building practice.

Drilling for soil samples; mid-July 2010

We know it may seem as if it’s taking us forever to move forward with our new building project. We do appreciate everyone’s patience. And we are making progress and moving forward.

We are working closely with the City’s Department of Cultural Affairs and the Department of Design and Construction (DDC). As we received substantial funding from the City, DDC will be managing construction, and their review of our architect’s and engineers’ design and construction documents is rigorous and extensive.

A few weeks ago we brought in a crew to drill for soil samples and to find the water level. With this rig out front they drilled to 100 feet, and took soil samples every five feet. With a smaller rig in the rear yard they went down 50 feet.

Although we haven’t yet received the geo-technical report, we don’t anticipate that either water or soil quality will require any change to our proposed design.

Photo by Bruce Barone (1980) of building at 157 Rivington Street from which ABC No Rio took it’s name — ABOGADO NOTARIO to ABC NO RIO. Stencils by Anton van Dalen on the window from the “Animals Living in Cities” show.

LONG OUT OF PRINT, ABC NO RIO DINERO NOW ON-LINE

Thanks to Marc Miller, the long out print book ABC No Rio Dinero: Portrait of a Lower East Side Art Gallery is now online at Marc’s website, http://98bowery.com

Published in 1985 and edited by Marc Miller and Alan Moore, one of No Rio’s founders and a current Board Member, ABC No Rio Dinero has been a much cited primary source about the New York art scene of the 1980s.

With new layouts and color scans, the online version of ABC No Rio Dinero preserves the early history of a pioneer Lower East Side art space that was the unplanned progeny of the “Real Estate Show,” an illegal exhibition in an abandoned, city-owned building squatted by artists on New Year’s Eve 1980.

Compiling art and articles from the period, the book includes sections on Collaborative Projects Inc. (Colab), the Time Square Show, the South Bronx art space Fashion-Moda, Group Material, PADD, and East Village music and art in the 1980s. Amongst the featured artists and writers are young, up-and-comers of the 1980s like Kiki Smith, Tom Otterness, John Ahearn, Tim Rollins, Walter Robinson, and Jeffrey Deitch; the No Rio stalwarts Becky Howland, Bobby G, Peter Cramer and Jack Waters; photographers Martha Cooper, Lisa Kahane, and Tom Warren; established voices like Lucy Lippard; and a poetry section edited by Josh Gosciak that includes Amiri Baraka, Bob Holman and Miguel Pinero.

http://98bowery.com