Bill Cunningham Will Get a New York Street Corner Named After Him for One Week

By JE Reich  |  July 6, 2016 | 6:00am
Latest

Weeks after the passing of the famed New York Times photographer Bill Cunningham, who died at the age of 87 after being hospitalized for a stroke on June 25, Mayor Bill de Blasio is set to name a Manhattan intersection after the eminent recorder of street style on Wednesday morning—for exactly seven days, at least.

The naming ceremony, which will take place at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 57th Street on July 6 at 12:30 p.m., was scheduled after a petition signed by roughly 6,100 of Cunningham’s fans to commemorate the photographer made its rounds on the Internet. Notably, the street corner where the dedication will take place was one of Cunningham’s favorite spots to observe and indelibly capture fashionable passersby via film.

While the northeast corner of 57th and Fifth Avenue will only hold for one week under the name “Bill Cunningham Corner,” this does not mean that there is no chance for a more permanent monument to honor the beloved photographer. As NYT noted, the process behind renaming street names has become more strenuous within the past few years, requiring an intricate, bureaucratic tango (or as the Times put it, a “complicated legislative process”).

As an alternative, de Blasio’s office is currently exploring more options to honor the man known as a “living landmark” during his lifetime.

“Bill Cunningham turned our sidewalks into runways and New Yorkers into models,” de Blasio said in an official statement. “His vivid photos captured our city’s diversity in every sense of the word, and helped define New York as the fashion capital of the world.”

The temporary naming ceremony will include guests like New York’s deputy mayor Alicia Glen, former Metropolitan Museum of Art curator Harold Koda, and current NYT executive director Dean Baquet as speakers.

Image via Getty.

 
Join the discussion...