Cooper Union & Bowery Alliance Reveal Bowery History

POSTED ON: June 27, 2016

A series of 64 posters called "Windows on the Bowery" appearing along the famed street beginning July 5 will reveal the history of notable places from Doyers Street to Astor Place. See the map, with links to each poster, below or in Google Maps. The project was sponsored by The Bowery Alliance of Neighbors, who provided the research and printing costs. They reached out to Mindy Lang A'82, Creative Director in the Office of Communications, who also teaches the Professional Practice course that gives design students a chance to engage with an actual client as a studio might. As a result the "Windows" project became the focus of Charis Barrios and Sarah Purgett, both of the School of Art, during their junior year in 2015. "They collaborated on the overall design that unifies the posters as a set and each designed a number of the individual posters," Lang says. "They played to each other's strengths, one assisting the other using different skill sets, pretty much as in any office, which is the way the course works best."

A full exhibition of all the posters is planned for the western windows of the Foundation Building and inside the landmark HSBC bank at 58 Bowery. A book of the posters is also being considered.

  • Founded by inventor, industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper in 1859, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art offers education in art, architecture and engineering, as well as courses in the humanities and social sciences.

  • “My feelings, my desires, my hopes, embrace humanity throughout the world,” Peter Cooper proclaimed in a speech in 1853. He looked forward to a time when, “knowledge shall cover the earth as waters cover the great deep.”

  • From its beginnings, Cooper Union was a unique institution, dedicated to founder Peter Cooper's proposition that education is the key not only to personal prosperity but to civic virtue and harmony.

  • Peter Cooper wanted his graduates to acquire the technical mastery and entrepreneurial skills, enrich their intellects and spark their creativity, and develop a sense of social justice that would translate into action.