Henson closes NY office

Do you happen to live there by any chance ?

No. But I sure wish I did

Anyone know when the place will be closed? I've called JHC-NY and one guy would not even comment on whether the place was up for sale in the first place.

I think they need to find a buyer first

My 999th Message

From pages 156-157 of the 1993 book "Jim Henson--The Works":

Home Sweet Headquarters

Perhaps the best place to observe the special family feeling that characterizes the company to this day is the town house near Central Park that supplies Jim Henson Productions with its New York headquarters. This building was purchased in 1977, when the success of "The Muppet Show" made a physical expansion necessary. Jim had not planned to buy anything quite as grand--he had been thinking, rather, of something like an old industrial building, and he briefly considered a disused schoolhouse and an old fire station. But he fell in love with this gracious structure in the middle of New York's diplomatic district--with the grand staircase that spiraled up from the lobby to the third floor, and with the elegant second-floor library that would make an ideal boardroom.

It took more than a year to renovate the building, but when it was finished it was a magnificent sight. Murals and stained-glass windows portrayed the characters who had made ownership of this building possible, and restrooms were papered with Muppet wallpaper. At the same time, though, the building had been restored (by architect Peter Strauss) with great respect for its period charm, making it a graceful blend of two worlds. Helping to integrate the two were the masses of carefully tended flowers and plants with which the building was (and is) always filled.

What made the building especially pleasurable to visit in the late seventies and early eighties was the fact that for a few years it contained a significant part of the New York workshop, installed in a bright, airy basement area that opened onto a sunny courtyard and was illuminated by an enormous skylight projecting from the rear of the main building. It was there that you would find Calista Hendrickson decorating a gown for Miss Piggy with bugle beads. It was there that you would come across Leslee Asch restoring classic Muppet figures for a traveling museum show. It was there that you would encounter Faz Fazakas tinkering with electrodes and transistors.

Today, although the workshop has moved a few blocks away, feelings of creativity and camaraderie still permeate the building. Visitors to the office get a chance to sit in red velvet theater seats in front of Coulter Watt's mural of the Muppet Theater--as close to the "original" experience as you can get. The atmosphere is relaxed, with an air of cheerfulness that is catching.

The office is one of those rare places where people enjoy coming to work in the morning.

AS THE SAYINGS GO

"ALL GOOD THINGS MUST COME TO AN END"

"NOTHING LASTS FOR EVER ESPECIALLY IN NEW YORK"

MY TIME AT THE MUPPET WORKSHOP (THE OLD ONE ANYWAY) IS SOMETHING I WILL ALWAYS CHERISH, NEVER AGAIN WILL SUCH A COMPLETE COLLECTION OF TALENTED PEOPLE EVER BE IN THE SAME SHOP WORKING WITH THOSE BELOVED CHARECTERS AGAIN.

FOR THOSE KEEPING SCORE

ARTIST AND TALENT======0

CORPORATE MORONS====== 1,000,000


ITS A LOSING BATTLE GUESS

*crys* and I dreamed of working there too...... the sesame street one is still opperational right? or was that the same one?

SAME ONE I AM AFRAID

That's not right. Sesame Street used to be at the workshop, sure, but they've been seperated a long time and the new onw is still operational.

"one guy would not even comment on whether the place was up for sale in the first place."

That's the spirit, you crummy Henson kids