The new residential development planned for the NW corner of Pearl Street and Maiden Ln. will involve demolition of the south party wall of 211 Pearl Street, which includes the intriguing brickwork symbol. The owner of the property, Rockrose Development, plans to remove the symbol by cutting around the work and clamping the section of wall between a reinforcing structure; then placing the brickwork in temporary storage.(Image: Parking garage entranceway of 211 Pearl Street. The brickwork symbol on the interior wall behind green plywood cover, approximately sixteen feet from sidewalk.)
The question now - Where is the best location for the brickwork? The following options have been discussed with a representative for the developer, Mr. John McMillan; with the first option considered the most ideal. 1) Reinstallation of the symbol back onto the interior wall of 211 Pearl Street 2) Re-location at another setting along Pearl Street 3) Re-location outside the area? The following comments provide some initial scholarly input.
I try to be flexible in these matters. I agree that in situ would be the ideal preservation option. But I think transference to a different location is quite acceptable, and certainly better than demolition. The
most important thing would be to document the exact location of the brickwork at least in photographs but preferably in a measured drawing.
Displacing the brickwork would likely affect its occult efficacity. But we don't believe in such efficacity. We only believe that someone (perhaps Town or Colgate) believed in it. So the concern should be with making sure the 'archaeological' documentation of the brickwork is complete, so that future researchers can have the best possible chance of figuring out the mechanics of the supposed efficacity of the brickwork.
Alfred Willis
Hamilton University
I have some concerns about … the proposed locus at the storefront level of a parking garage. It may be better to remain open to other contexts that may provide more stabile and more resonant surroundings. Certain symbols, images and artworks have the capacity to take on new life in transplanted settings—the obelisks that unify open plazas and embellish the fountains of Rome for example.
Giovanna Constantini
U. of Michigan
If the symbol could be incorporated into the new wall in approximately the same place, where it remains visible to passers-by, this would be great. On covering the brickwork with plaster, I would suggest not to do so. In Conservation, the removal of original features can bee seen as a part of the history fo the object, so leaving the brickwork bare, would be appropriate.
Andrea Koons
University of Leiden
I hope for it to have the greatest possible public exposure, if not on the actual building, then close by; even displayed as a separate work of art in a modernist architectural context. As such, it would be a prominent landmark, and add great character to the site, which is the contemporary version of the "occult influence" that may originally have been intended. It would draw attention to the esoteric heritage of the early Republic, and pique curiosity about how New York State became such a hotbed for new religious and spiritualist movements. I don't claim to explain its symbolism, but I am sure that it's important.
Joscelyn Godwin
Colgate University
As an art historian I would firstly document it as elaborately as possible, just to make sure that this knowledge is safe whatever happens. I would advise not to cover it with plaster, but to leave it bare. By means of computer simulation it should be possible to reconstruct the symbol virtually, covered with plaster.
Technically it would not matter where the symbol would be displayed, as long as it stays intact. I would however prefer to keep the symbol at or as close to the original location as possible. Preferably this should be in a visible spot, for people to see it and to be confronted with it. This could mean it would have to be remounted at the original location, but it could also function stand-alone as a kind of landmark, or in any other setting, as long as it stayed in the near neighborhood.
Apart from the curious, possibly occult meaning of the symbol, it is a site-specific work, tightly connected to the history of the area, the architect and to the original owners of the building. Buildings function differently from movable works of art, like paintings and applied art. Buildings are interwoven with the economic and social development of a town area as a whole, and should express and convey their art historical relevance to bypassers on the spot. Rescueing and reinstating the symbol at the location is only the first step in raising general American public awareness of the historical importance of the town area as such. Removing the symbol would mean nipping this process in the bud. Thus the symbol is not only site-specific, it also doubles as a symbol of a new awareness of the City of New York, and it serves as an example to development corporations.
Dr. Marty Bax, Amsterdam
The salvaged wood of 211 Pearl Street in lower Manhattan has avoided the landfill and seen a range of innovative design and architectural projects, including Think Coffee, a new café at 242 Mercer Street that features Free Trade Coffee, a labeling standard that “…helps coffee farmers receive a living wage for their product”. 
