Make It Spin
“When I first saw the carousel, I came home and told my husband: ‘you know what, David, I’m gonna restore it.’”[1] Talking about her 22 years of labor on the carousel’s restoration, Jane Walentas became so emotional that she could not help breaking into tears. It took no small amount of effort to bring this once dilapidated, historic carved wood masterpiece back to life.
Now situated in Brooklyn Bridge Park, overlooking the spectacular Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges, the Harbor, and the lower Manhattan skyline, Jane’s Carousel has been rehabilitated to its original condition. This classic three-row machine is housed in a delicate transparent pavilion designed by Pritzker Prize winner Jean Nouvel. Each of its 48 horses and 2 chariots has been exquisitely repaired and rendered. Underlying the elaborate and beautiful finish is a long-winded story of research, relationship, and relocation.
When Ms. Walentas and her husband, David Walentas, founder of the New York-based real estate development firm Two Trees Management Company, first acquired this carousel from Idora Park in Youngstown, Ohio, almost nothing was known about the structure. It was her painstaking research that uncovered the history and original look of the carousel. According to Ms. Walentas, she underwent long years of preparation before the “actual process of painting, stenciling, leafing, and top-coating everything.”[2] During that period, documents, photos, and design plans were extensively collected; layers of park paint were carefully scraped to reveal the original palette and beautiful carvings; and various materials and colors were tested and compared. Sufficiently prepared as she was, Ms. Walentas found that it was not easy to reconstruct the carousel completely to its original state in 1922; changes had to be made. For example, instead of using aluminum, which was originally applied to the leafing, Ms. Walentas used pure gold to achieve a richer and more enduring effect. As Hillary Murtha pointed out, “that complete historical accuracy… is an unobtainable goal that must, nonetheless, be continually pursued. The story of that pursuit has a history of its own that is worthy of examination.”[3]
The Walentases’ relationship with the local government and community also plays an important role in directing the restoration. According to a report in the New York Times, Jane’s Carousel was originally bought as part of David Walentas’s plan to turn the once abandoned waterfront beneath the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges into a marina and shopping complex.[4] However, after a part of the plan was turned down under community opposition and David Walentas no longer served as developer of this area, the restoration came to a standstill. As the report says, “for some years, the Walentases did not know what would become of the carousel.”[5] Finally, they found political support and were able to put the carousel in the park as a recreational facility for the community. The carousel would continue to have its role redefined as policies changed.
The relocation of the carousel imbues this historic machine with new dynamic by housing it in a chic architecture and engaging the surrounding community in its operation. Nouvel’s pavilion, the new home to the carousel, is an acrylic box, 72 feet wide along each wall and topped with a 26-foot-high ceiling. The square shape of box belies the “typical nostalgic carousel building of the amusement park genre”[6] and resonates intimately with the brutal, industrial Brooklyn Bridge behind it; whereas its transparent acrylic walls, creating slight distortion as one looked in or out, reveal a sense of delicacy that connects to the exquisite execution of the carousel. In addition to this physical accommodation, Ms. Walentas also transformed the carousel into a public activity space where people could hold birthday parties, weddings, and private events. In this way, new revenues have been introduced to maintain the ongoing restoration, while people create unique memories by using the carousel as a backdrop, which is seen to be a win-win situation.
Undoubtedly, the research, redefinition, and relocation of Jane’s Carousel form a moving and encouraging personal narrative. Yet, interestingly, further reflections on this case would also unveil the underlying art-oriented strategy of the Walentases’ family business and connect to a larger context: how the culture of Dumbo will develop with the participation of large real estate developers such as the Walentases.
In this sense, how the “carousel” will spin in the future remains to be seen.
[1] Jane Walentas, interview by author, New York, October 2, 2014.
[2] Jane Walentas, “Restoring PTC #61,” Carousel News and Trader Magazine, January 17, 2007, accessed October 7, 2014, http://www.carouselnews.com/index2.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=140&pop=1&page=0&Itemid=87.
[3] Hillary Murtha, “The Reuben Bliss Bedchamber at the Brooklyn Museum of Art: A Case Study in the History of Museum Period Room Installations,” Winterthur Portfolio 40, no. 4(2005): 206.
[4] Joyce Wadler, “A Ride with Head-Spinning Views,” New York Times, September 1, 2011, accessed October 7, 2014, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/02/arts/design/janes-carousel-at-brooklyn-bridge-park.html?pagewanted=all&module=Search&mabReward=relbias%3As%2C%7B"2"%3A"RI%3A18"%7D.
[5] Joyce Wadler, “A Ride with Head-Spinning Views.”
[6] Joyce Wadler, “A Ride with Head-Spinning Views.”