The Ceiling and Waterfall sculpture designed by Isamu Noguchi in 1957 for the lobby of the Tishman Building, now known as 666 Fifth Avenue, was removed in the fall of 2020 as part of a major renovation of the building by Brookfield Properties. Both The Isamu Noguchi Museum and DOCOMOMO US/New York Tri-State reached out to Brookfield in efforts to persuade them to preserve the installation and incorporate it into the renovation plans. Noguchi’s work had been partially altered over the years, most notably with the removal of his boldly patterned stone floor and side walls. DOCOMOMO US/New York Tri-State’s view, articulated in an April 2020 post shared below, is that even with the alterations, there remained elements—the cloud-like aluminum louvers on the ceiling and the fountain—that showed Noguchi’s original design intent for the space and merited preservation. 

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Brookfield Properties, the current owner, explained that Noguchi’s design was removed because the work had lost integrity through different renovations and changes. In a February New York Times article, Brookfield spokesman Andrew Brent said the work “in no way reflects Noguchi’s original vision,” but John Morris Dixon, DOCOMOMO US/New York Tri-State board member, advocated: “The most significant part of the original ensemble has survived, and it’s landmark worthy. You already have this strong, creative treatment of the walls and the ceiling and you can’t expect to come up with something nearly as artistically effective again,” said Dixon, former editor in chief of Progressive Architecture. “Why risk it when you’ve got it already? The lobby is a great asset that gives a high degree of individuality to the building. Culturally it would be a major loss to the city, and a loss to MoMA, too, because it’s a kind of extraterritorial exhibit just across the street. It’s like a MoMA annex.”
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In this post from The Noguchi Museum blog, the Ceiling and Waterfall sculpture is remembered. Click through if for no other reason, then for the 1957 images of Noguchi’s statement-making lobby before the tinkering began. After gutting the lobby this fall, Brookfield Properties donated the surviving components to The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum in Long Island City, NY. The Foundation’s long-term plan is to return the work to public view, waterfall and all.

“Altered and Destroyed,” Isamu Noguchi Museum, December 15, 2020.