The Tower of Constellations explores the relationship between queerness and capitalism, especially as it relates to various queer communities in New York City. As opposed to the perception of tight-knit queer neighborhoods, many of the diverse LGBTQIA+ communities of New York experience the city as a constellation of common spaces to gather, celebrate, protest, and exist in. Unfortunately, while there are some remaining popular LGBTQIA+ spaces in New Yorkers’ constellations, many others, such as the Piers or feminine bookstores, have become faded memories. The Tower occupies the iconic Rockefeller Center, a space that symbolizes the hetero-patriarchal character of Midtown Manhattan and the dominance of capitalism over Manhattan’s grid. Rockefeller Center rethinks the grid, hosting areas for public gathering, leisure, and protests while having its own complicated constellation of power and money. The Tower of Constellations aims to transform Rockefeller Center into a social machine that creates new stars in the LGBTQIA+ constellation through Inefficiency and Unfinished Interventions. To boost chance interactions, the Tower envelopes the building in a system of elevators and platforms, pulling the publicness of the plaza and street to meet the exclusive real estate inside. Interventions support new forms of protest and foster community growth and empowerment.
