A plaque remaining from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem.

Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.

Recent entries:
“I read old books because I would rather learn from those who built civilization than those who tore it down” (4/18)
“I study old buildings because I would rather learn from those who built civilization than those who tore it down” (4/18)
“Due to personal reasons, I’m still going to be fluffy this summer” (4/18)
Entry in progress—BP17 (4/18)
Entry in progress—BP16 (4/18)
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Entry from June 01, 2006
Double Check (Seward Johnson’s businessman sculpture in Liberty Park)
Seward Johnson's 1982 sculpture "Double Check" for Liberty Park (near the World Trade Center) showed a very lifelike businessman sitting in the park.

The businessman survived September 11, 2001 covered in debris. Johnson has called his sculpture an iconic "stand-in" for those who didn't make it.

http://www.groundsforsculpture.org/c_jjohn.htm
Johnson is also known for his life sized sculptures of ordinary people in contemporary life situations. These sculptures have been placed in public settings throughout the world, including Double Check, which depicts a businessman sitting on a bench going through his briefcase. Located on New York City's Liberty Street near the World Trade Center, it has since become an impromptu memorial.

http://www.preserve.org/wtc/art.htm
Double Check, 1982, J. Seward Johnson, Jr., 1 Liberty Plaza. Bronze life-size statue, placed on metal bench. [I've seen two different photos of this, covered with rubble.]

11 November 2001, New York Times, "Bronze Survivor of Sept. 11 Dusts Himself Off" by Stuart Miller, pg. CY12:
Made by J. Seward Johnson Jr. in 1982, the bronze man hunched over his briefcase in Liberty Park was knocked loose from its bench by World Trade Center debris on Sept. 11 and has subsequently been moved several times. (It's now behind a fence in Liberty Park.)

"Double Check" achieved iconic status when photographs showed it covered in ash and surrounded by debris. Then, when rescue workers and volunteers covered the sculpture with flowers, notes, pictures and hard hats, the bronze businessman nearly disappeared beneath the tributes.

1 June 2006, New York Daily News, pg. 30:
Seward Johnson's "Double Check" sculpture was dented but unbroken in the rain of 9/11 debris. It became a monument to survival as rescue workers put a hardhat and other mementoes on it.
Posted by Barry Popik
New York CityArt/Sculpture • Thursday, June 01, 2006 • Permalink


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