5 Pointz. (The Flooz)

As the above-ground train rolls past the Court Square stop on the 7 line, a stone’s throw into the heart of Long Island City, passengers are awakened by a defiant cacophony of shapes and colors against a backdrop of the graying and decrepit Queens skyline. There, a red-brick warehouse stands proud, one entirely outfitted in graffiti tags and murals by aerosol artists. Born of a mission to create a legal urban canvas for the criminal art form flaring up in excess throughout the city during the early ’90s, the brainchild of founder Pat DiLillo—then known as “The Phun Phactory”—opened in 1993. In 2002, Jonathan Cohen—an FIT grad who had been tagging since he was 13 and is better known in these parts by his nom de plume Meresone—began curating the work. He soon rechristened the building “5 Pointz,” after the five boroughs of New York City. But it has since branched out and become a cultural mecca of sorts, with pieces by artists from cities such as Paris, Madrid, London and Germany.

On any weekday, while businesses—a clothing factory, storage space for city hotdog vendors and a small non-profit gallery called Local Projects—hum away inside the building, Mr. Cohen can be found in or around the building, monitoring projects and making sure nobody is painting without his permission.

“I’m here every day, I have no life.”

But the 39-year-old Flushing Native may soon be getting his free time back­—at the price of his life’s work. Though plans to tear down 5 Pointz have been rumored since 2010, Jerry Wolcoff, owner and developer of the site, has recently announced tentative plans to erect two large residential towers with ground floor space for retail. According to Mr. Wolcoff, the September 2013 demolition date is awaiting approval by the community board, which would make the end of this era official.

According to Marie Rouge, a Parisian and self-proclaimed graffiti aficionado who handles the limited public relations for the building, the media coverage was the first they had heard of it.

“He’s not calling us and giving us information. We are learning everything from the press,” she told us. “We fully understand that our landlord is a real estate developer, and that he owns the building and that he can do whatever he wants. [But] we feel that what has been built in the past ten years and what 5 Pointz represents, not only in New York City, but worldwide, is not something you can just dismiss.”

“It’s sad that there’s nothing like this in the city,” Mr. Cohen said. “There is nowhere else to do this.”

But despite the disappointment and occasional outrage, the two seem resigned to accepting the impending demise. They haven’t made any plans to picket or circulated any aggressive calls to action. Most of the protest has come from a petition circulated by fans called “SHOW YOUR LOVE TO 5POINTZ,” which generated almost 15,000 signatures, and by a few minor donations on the PayPal section of the 5 Pointz website.

5 Pointz administrators are instead focusing their energy on the building’s tenth anniversary celebration—an ongoing summer festival featuring free events every Saturday. So far, the building has hosted performances by DJ Marly Marl, ’80s break dancing crew The Dynamic Rockers and various other New York City hip-hop icons. These are the things that drew Mr. Cohen to 5 Pointz and the graffiti world in the first place. “I liked this world when I was young because it was just about having fun,” he said of his goal to re-imagine the glory days of Hip Hop on this corner of Long Island City.

At the event honoring The Dynamic Rockers, Mr. Cohen succeeded in bringing that world to life as the building was rife with nostalgia. One who followed the thump of the bass to the loading dock area travelled back to a pre-Giuliani New York City, straight out of a rap video from the ’80s—flattened-out cardboard boxes made a makeshift dancefloor and the nearby fire hydrant had been broken open, all set against the graffiti backdrop of 5 Pointz. Break-dancers leapt forth into circles, a DJ spun older rap with splashes of James Brown and a few artists worked on new murals for the ever-changing face of the building. Like Mr. Cohen and Ms. Rouge, the attendees seemed nonplussed by the imminent danger to their home. True to a community long under siege, they carried on, business as usual.

Luis Lamboy Jr., or Zimad, once designed backdrops for MTV and clothing for singers like The Fresh Prince and DJ Jazzy Jeff. He now calls 5 Pointz home. “This place is about the art form itself, the goodness of the art form without the police,” Mr. Lamboy said. “It’s about the positive.”

One of the honorees, a Dynamic Rocker who goes by the name Glyde, refuses to believe 5 Pointz is going away. “I’m not going to promote that,” he said. “I’m a positive thinker. I’m going to keep with that they’re not going to tear it down—until they do.”

For a demographic that vehemently fought gentrification in the past, they appeared suspiciously quiet. Perhaps New Yorkers have just grown used to city landmarks, and childhood memories, being rezoned.

Meanwhile, elsewhere, Mr. Cohen was circling the block as usual. Within earshot of the party, he was working, as he had for nearly a decade. He stopped often to make sure everything was going to plan—and that nobody strayed from their designated spot or painted illegally.

He can barely make it halfway down the block without stopping.

“Is this the next generation?” Mr. Cohen asked an old friend carrying his baby, before turning to us. “Kids that were 15 when they started coming here now with their kids, I see that a lot.” He then asked us to wait while he stopped an unauthorized photo shoot.

Truth be told, it doesn’t seem that Mr. Cohen is really fighting the demolition at all, though it might just be because he doesn’t have a second to spare. Or perhaps he is just used to change. After all, 5 Pointz looks different every month.

“I believe ultimately there’s only so much to do. You can only work so hard to do something,” he told us. “In the end what’s meant to be will be.”

editorial@observer.com

Riverside South and One57. Which can we expect for Broadway? (Extell)

Gary Barnett continues to bulldoze his way across the city. Just last week, his Extell Development unveiled plans for a new tower at Riverside South; found a partner for a stalled 50-story hotel near Times Square; and secured $700 million in financing from Abu Dhabi toward One57, the condo-hotel tower on West 57th Street that will be the tallest, and likely most expensive, when it is completed. As if that were not enough, the developer has begun work just down the block on another of its long-simmering projects.

At the corner of Broadway and 57th Street, Extell has plans for yet another soaring tower; it will be either commercial or residential, an official decision has not been made. That has not kept the developer from moving ahead with demolition of some of the buildings it owns on the site, a controversial task since Extell fought off an effort by the Landmarks Preservation Commission to preserve two of the structures in 2009.

Extell assembled the T-shaped plot last decade and then took out a $256 million mortgage on it, leading to quite a bit of consternation when the commission unexpectedly decided 1780 Broadway and 225 West 57th Street were worth saving. Once owned by B.F. Goodrich, they are part of a stretch of Jazz Age dealerships known as Automobile Row. In the end, the commission brooked a contentious deal to save 1780 Broadway while allowing 225 West 57th Street to be torn down.

The site, like so many others at the moment, had lain fallow through the downturn but has now reawakened. Between February and June of this year, Extell filed a series of demolition permits for various buildings on 57th and 58th streets, which the Department of Buildings approved last month. One of those buildings is now coming down, with others to follow. "We're doing salvage work on the interiors of 217 and 221 West 57th and then start this week to take down the three-story 217 floor by floor," an Extell spokesman said in an email last week.

The spokesman would not disclose whether the project had financing, but that has not stopped Extell before. Demolition commenced years before construction started on either the One57 site or the International Gem Tower in the Diamond District, and both began construction using only Extell's equity. As shown at One57, this strategy allowed the developer to act faster because Mr. Barnett did not need to wait for the wrecking ball, and his construction progress helped attract investors, a particularly challenging prospect during the current economic malaise.

Extell also declined to discuss an architect or designs for the 57th and Broadway project, which brings the story back to Riverside South.

For years, Mr. Barnett was known for developing rather pedestrian buildings in line with the man he replaced on that redoubt overlooking the Hudson, Donald Trump. More recently, he has striven for greater architectural ambition, hiring SOM for the International Gem Tower and KPF for the aborted World Commerce Centre. Meanwhile, notable firms such as Lucian LeGrange and FXFowle have been designing some of his residential projects.

Perhaps no architect has benefited more than Christian de Portzamparc, the French Pritzker Prize winner who had built nothing in the city besides the LVMH headquarters a decade ago, with few buildings to his name elsewhere. Now, Mr. Barnett has become his biggest patron, tapping Mr. de Portzamparc not only for One57 but also for Riverside Center, the five-tower complex that is the final piece of the Riverside South puzzle. Extell won a tough rezoning fight for the project last year.

Now that Mr. Barnett has turned to Goldstein Hill & West Architects, a firm best known for working with Costas Kondylis on some of the city's blander buildings, for the final Riverside South tower that is not a piece of Mr. de Portzamparc's plan, it raises the question of what sort of designs New Yorkers can expect at 57th Street and Broadway. Will it be another Pritzker-worthy prize, or has Extell returned to more pedestrian fare?

mchaban [at] observer.com | @MC_NYC