Restoring Richard Haas’s Iconic 112 Prince St Mural

About

For the first time in over four decades, artist Richard Haas’s landmark 112 Prince Street mural will be restored. Under Haas’s leadership and creative direction, muralist Robin Alcantara will work with a team of painters to restore the mural at the recommendation of Tsipi Ben-Haim, the Founder, Executive and Creative Director of 34-year-old public art and education nonprofit, CITYarts, Inc., which has been the project’s fiscal sponsor since 2015. Created in 1974 under the aegis of public art pioneer Doris Freedman, the 75-foot wide, five-story-high trompe l'oeil mural on the corner of Prince and Greene streets was Haas’s very first outdoor mural. Now largely decayed and covered in graffiti, the original mural was painted to resemble the cast-iron facades typical of 19th-century buildings distinguishing the historic district of SoHo and included the depiction of a cat in one of the windows that belonged to a longtime owner. It was, as Haas describes, “a catalyst that led to the creation of over 100 interior and exterior murals throughout the world." In a 1989 New York Times review of his public art, architecture critic Paul Goldberger called Mr. Haas “the great architectural muralist of our time.”

Approximately eight years ago, after an article written by David Dunlap appeared in the New York Times describing how the Richard Haas mural in SoHo had faded almost beyond recognition, the artist received a call from David Walentas of Two Trees, the developer and creator of the Dumbo residential district, offering a substantial gift to kick start  the fundraising campaign to restore the mural. Encouraged by Mr. Walentas’ donation, the artist and his wife, Katherine Sokolnikoff, selected CITYarts, Inc. to assume the role of fiscal sponsor for the project, and together with assistance from Kenisha Thomas, Alina Slonim, and Pauline Rumore, they were able to secure enough funding from additional philanthropies, like Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Silverweed Foundation, and Agnes Gund, as well as 75 private donations to restore the mural. The successful campaign can be largely attributed to the late Doris Freedman, who founded and ran the public art nonprofit CityWalls and was deeply involved in the public art scene in New York City in the early 1970s as the main supporter and dynamo behind the most important early murals and public art projects in NYC—including Haas’s work. In Freedman’s honor, the Bloomberg Philanthropies made a generous grant and proposed that the repainting of the mural be done in Doris’s honor, and the consensus among  several other major donors was that this was an excellent idea.  The artist was pleased with this plan as well as he has a deep respect and affection for Ms. Freedman as she truly put him on his life’s journey in the public art field through her original support of the 112 Prince Street project.

After the COVID-19 pandemic interrupted the project and stalled its progress, the two new owners of the 112 Prince Street Co-op became interested in seeing the mural restored and joined with Haas in efforts to move the project ahead. The new Co-op President had one request for Haas: to add her dog, rescued from Aleppo, Syria, as one of the pets painted into the windows of the mural. Mr. Haas was pleased to oblige.

Finally, in May of this year, Landmarks gave their approval for the mural restoration, prompting Tsipi Ben-Haim to continue her advocacy by garnering the support of local businesses and fellow SoHo residents. Acting as the public art advisor and community liaison of the project, Ms. Ben-Haim also successfully recruited the support of Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine and SoHo Councilman Christopher Marte. After years of planning and anticipation, the SoHo community is thrilled to have Haas’s historic mural brought back to life. 

The repainting of the wall will begin in late September 2023 and is set to take approximately three to four weeks—weather permitting.

About the Artists

Richard Haas is best known for his large-scale architectural murals with his signature trompe-l'oeil style that are exemplified in more than 100 public art projects across New York, Chicago, Miami, Los Angeles, and Munich, Germany that began with SoHo’s 112 Prince Street mural in 1974. He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and his numerous awards include the Medal of Honor from the American Institute of Architects. The Prince Street Mural project has also received a grant from the National Academy of Design’s Abbey Mural Fund. Haas’s works have been featured in exhibitions at major museums and galleries and his work is represented in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and the Smithsonian Museum among others. http://www.richardhaas.com/

Robin Alcantara founded Blazay LLC in 2020. Alcantara is a 30-year-old artist and muralist from Yonkers, NY. After earning his degree from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Alcantara honed in on his craft of hand-painting large-scale murals nationally while working at the award-winning Colossal Media. From 2015-2020, Alcantara served as an expert painter for Colossal working on campaigns for international brands including Adidas, Doyle Dane Bernbach, HBO, and  Gucci. Since 2020 Alcantara has focused on crowd-funded projects highlighting current events, local heroes and legends, and other private commissions. He also works with CITYarts and NYC public schools leading workshops and creating murals with community youth.