WHAT happened to the cube?
That was the question on many minds in the East Village yesterday as passers-by eyed an empty space where the Astor Place sculpture has stood for nearly 40 years.
“It sucks that it’s gone,” said photographer and Village resident Johnny Pierce, 40. “I’ve been looking at it for 16 years. It was like a gathering place for hippies and artists. That thing always gave me inspiration.”
As it turned out, the rotating metal installation – better known as the Astor Place cube – had lost a bolt and was in danger of toppling over, said Parks Department spokesman Warner Johnston.
On Tuesday parks department workers used a crane to remove the 2,500-pound aesthetic behemoth from its traffic-island home, long a hangout for skaters, ravers, college kids and others who just enjoyed giving it a spin.
The cube was taken on a flatbed truck to the Don Lippencott foundry in New Haven, Conn., where it was made.
It will undergo $5,000 in repairs and should be back in place in “several weeks,” Johnston said.
“When it’s repaired,” he added, “it’s not only going to be safer, but it’s going to allow people to spin it with greater ease.”
The 15-foot high steel sculpture was created by Bernard “Tony” Rosenthal and dubbed “The Alamo” by the artist’s wife because its massive bulk reminded her of the Texas fort.
The sculpture has been East Village institution since it was placed in Astor Place in 1968.
“There was mostly dopeheads hanging around it,” said Rudy Steinhauser, a worker at the Mud coffee truck that is itself an Astor Place institution.
“It was a good place for people to recover from a rave. It was all right though, bored kids like to spin it.”
Several others walked right over the spot where it used to stand – and only noticed it was gone when they didn’t hit anything.
“It’s pretty empty now,” said NYU student Nicole Ramos, 18.
“I wish they would have kept the cube and gotten rid of that thing,” said one passer-by, pointing up at a new glass building that has recently gone up on Astor Place and which has proved to be unpopular with area regulars.
