Temporary

Depending on the extent and nature of facade work, sometimes it’s better done from swing-stages and sometimes it’s better done from standing scaffold. The first time I heard a contractor say he was going to “pipe the building” I was confused, but an older form of standing scaffold consists of, literally, lengths of pipe clamped together. Once netting on standing scaffold became standard – to prevent loose items from falling to the street – it was inevitable that the netting might become decorative. And when a hard enclosure – plywood – is used instead of netting, it practically begs to be used as wall for art. Which beings us to the scaffold at 1 East 57th Street for the Louis Vuitton store:

That’s a big pile of LV luggage. It’s actually a very clever design that takes advantage of the situation. Here’s the building before the scaffold, went up:

The setbacks at the top coincide with the smaller suitcases sitting on top of the trunks. It’s hard to tell from this angle, looking north up Fifth Avenue, but the suitcases are bigger than the building itself, as they are plywood mounted to the outer face of scaffolding. Looking south shows that a bit more clearly:

You can see the limestone veneer on the north facade of the building with the suitcase fascia above and west (toward the street). I was a little closer for this shot, so you can also see the detail in the handles, latches, and other enormous fake hardware.

A number of people worked very hard to make this look so good, and it is temporary. Once the facade work behind is complete, this will all go away.