5 Pointz RIP

I was in New York for my first time on holiday this past week.  Top of my wishlist of things to see was graffiti hall of fame 5 Pointz.  Not just because of its legendary status, but also due to the recent news that it was almost certainly going to be demolished by the end of the year so it can be turned into luxury apartments.  I knew this was probably my last chance to see it before that happened.

So we went to visit it on Sunday, and it met my expectations.  It’s not the biggest graffiti wall I’ve ever seen, nor the best graffiti (although there’s a lot of it, and it’s mostly very good), but it was still obviously an important HOF and I’m glad I got to see it when I did.  On Tuesday the news broke that it had been entirely buffed white early that morning.  I went back on Wednesday to see the damage done.  While it’s certainly a shame, it’s in the nature of graffiti for it to be ephemeral.  Although I don’t know why the whole place had to be ruined prematurely.

Here are just some of my photos, comparing the before and after states.

Before

After

View all my photos of 5Pointz here

Some more articles about its destruction:

• Gothamist: 5 Pointz Is Dead, And That’s Not Such A Bad Thing
• New York Times: Night Falls, and 5Pointz, a Graffiti Mecca, Is Whited Out in Queens
• New York Observer: 5Pointz Pilgrims: One Last Visit to the Doomed Graffiti Mecca
• Wall Street Journal: 5Pointz Graffiti is Painted White Overnight