I went to see Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller: THE MURDER OF CROWS
(http://www.armoryonpark.org/programs_events/detail/janet_cardiff_george_miller_murder_of_crows)
at the Park Avenue Armory and it was fabulously dark and eerie. The Murder of Crows is a sound installation/sound play. There are ninety-eight speakers surrounding the audience who are sitting on chairs in a pool of light in the middle of the darkened and cavernous Drill Hall. There’s a great description and review in the New York Times.
The Park Avenue Armory building itself is gorgeous. I joined as a member after taking a tour of the building. It’s under renovation and deserves to be restored. The Park Avenue Armory was designed by architect Charles Clinton in the Gothic Revival style and dedicated in 1880. It is the only armory in the United States to be built and furnished with private funds.
It originally served as the headquarters and administrative building for the 7th New York Militia Regiment, known as the Silk Stocking Regiment due to the disproportionate number of its members who were part of the city’s social elite, including the Vanderbilts, Van Rensselaers, Roosevelts, Stewarts, Livingstons and Harrimans. Built as both a military facility and a social club, the reception rooms on the first floor and the Company Rooms on the second floor were designed by the most prominent designers and artists of the day including Louis Comfort Tiffany, Stanford White, Herter Brothers and Pottier & Stymus.