Paul Bass Photo
Svigals (rear) watches Luis Torres, Anthony Capasso, and Angel Chiquilla install the sculpture.
Workers Monday installed architect Barry Svigals’ controversial tribute to democratic discussion in Wooster Square Park — and that discussion got underway before they even finished.
The installation took place Monday morning. A crew from Anthony Capuzzo’s family restoration company put in a multi-piece granite sculpture at the Greene Street end of the idyllic neighborhood park.
The sculpture is called “Family Table.” Designed by local architect Svigals, It consists of a granite table with three stools and a bench around it. Private donations of $30,000 paid for it. It is a tribute to former Alderwoman Luisa DeLauro; her late husband Ted, a neighborhood activist; and her daughter, U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro.
“The idea is to show an ancient quality: They resolved so many community issues around their kitchen table,” Svigals said as he watched the sculpture’s installation Monday. The stools represent each of the three DeLauros, he said; the bench represents “the community.”
As Capuzzo’s crew worked, neighbors gathered to offer their opinions.
Some of them, like Claire Potter (pictured), signed a petition urging Mayor John DeStefano not to proceed with the installation.
“I think it’s appalling,” Potter said. “Rosa DeLauro has a lot to answer for.” She called the design too “modern.” “It would never have gotten through a historic review,” she said.
That’s her other main complaint: the mayor should have consulted more community groups before proceeding with the sculpture. The mayor, in an email to petition-signers Sunday night, defended his actions. Read about that here.
Another neighbor, Alexander Bragg (pictured), had more positive impressions as he watched the sculpture become a reality.
“Aesthetically, it’s pleasing to me,” said Bragg, a retired hospital respiratory therapist.
He shared Potter’s critique of a lack of democracy in the decision to install “Family Table.” He added a second concern: “a mentality in this society that will tip over tombstones and write graffiti.” He said he worries that will happen with the sculpture.
Svigals (at left in photo), meanwhile, welcomed the talk.
“It’s almost a part of the installation that the community has come out and talked about this,” he said. He added that he hopes the disagreements will “galvanize a wish to do something positive” in the neighborhood.
Meanwhile, the DeLauros themselves weighed in — in the form of quotations carved into the sculpture:
Rosa DeLauro’s inscripted quotation: “This is where my roots are, and nowhere else in the world could ever be like it. At our family’s table I learned that we are all in it together, and I will carry Wooster Square, its families, its society, its culture and its history inside me forever.”
Luisa DeLauro’s quotation: “We are not living in the Middle Ages, when a woman’s part was merely to serve a master in the home. We have taken our place in every phase of human endeavor, including the male stronghold of politics.”
That's fugly.