Brooklyn Green Artists Design “Greenest New Yorker” Award

Green artists Nicola Armster and Brendan Smith are honored to have been chosen by New York State to design and handcraft the award for this year’s “Greenest New Yorker.” The contest, part of New York State’s I LOVE NEW YORK initiative, was created “to celebrate those individuals who are doing their part to keep the Empire State green.”

About the Design:

Designed by Nicola and Brendan specifically for the “Greenest New Yorker” winner, the one-of-a-kind art piece tries to capture the history of New York and it’s commitment to building a green and sustainable future. It’s constructed entirely from reclaimed materials.  The steel is cut from a Central Park trash bin and the reclaimed woods originate from historic buildings throughout New York State, including:

• Coney Island boardwalks and the Provincetown Playhouse in Greenwich Village;
• A water tower from the Kodak Building in Rochester and a mushroom barn in Newburg;
• The founding Republican Club in Queens and the Belasco Theater where President Obama and the First Lady went on their first date in NYC.

For the artists, this piece of art symbolizes the collective vision for a greener New Your State.  The New York Times blog wrote about the design here.

Kaity Tsui: NY State's "Greenest New Yorker"

To source the materials for the piece, Nicola and Brendan collaborated with Alan Solomon and Klaas Armster, who run a local reclaimed lumber company called Sawkil Lumber Co in the Bronx. Named after the first sawmill on Manhattan Island, built by early Dutch settlers in 1633, Sawkil is dedicated to providing a local source for reclaimed and sustainable wood products in the New York City metropolitan area.

Below is a slideshow of the historic buildings where the reclaimed materials were sourced.

Artists’ Bio:

For more than a decade Brooklyn green artists Nicola Armster and Brendan Smith have been working at the forefront of affordable, handcrafted, green art. Their work has been showcased at the New York American Folk Art Museum, profiled in the New York Times, and chosen as one of the Village Voices’ favorite ‘07 Christmas gifts. Their work blurs the lines between craft and modern art, and is constructed solely with sustainable, organic and reclaimed materials.  Nicola, raised at lumber mill, is a distinguished graduate of the University of Michigan School of Art. Brendan is a graduate Cornell Law School and runs an organic oyster farm when not selling art on the streets of New York City. To see more of Nicola and Brendan’s work, go here.

The History of the Reclaimed Materials used for the “Greenest New Yorker” Award