What Happened To Sculpture In Pepsico Sculpture Garden

"Kiosque I'Evide" by Jean Dubuffet at (front) at the Donald M. Kendall Sculpture Gardens on the grounds of PepsiCo in Purchase, photographed Nov. 29, 2012. "Hats Off" by Alexander Calder is seen in the distance.

PURCHASE - The renowned sculpture park at PepsiCo's world headquarters, which has remained closed after the facility underwent a three-year makeover, will reopen fully to the public in March 2017, a company spokesman pledged Friday.

His comments came about two hours after The Journal News/lohud published a story questioning the attraction's future. The story was based on a statement from PepsiCo that said the company was still evaluating a way to provide "gradual, controlled access" for groups to the Donald M. Kendall Sculpture Gardens, citing corporate security concerns.

Before its closure at the end of 2012, the sculpture garden at the Anderson Hill Road property attracted more than 100,000 visitors annually on a drop-in basis, compared to about 30,000 annually at the neighboring Neuberger Museum of Art at Purchase College.

By next March, "it will be fully open to whomever wants to visit," said Jay Cooney, a vice president of corporate communications at PepsiCo.

He said the exact date and the protocols for visiting remain to be worked out. But he said company officials understood that "in Westchester County and the surrounding area, people have enjoyed having access (to the sculpture). It's something special to have in your backyard."

Earlier, members of the arts community had said they were disappointed at the possibility there might be diminished public access to the world-class collection.

"The PepsiCo sculpture collection is one of the great modern 20th century sculpture collections," said Glenn Weiss, a former New Rochelle resident who is a public art consultant and critic now based in Florida.

Janet Langsam, CEO of ArtsWestchester, a nonprofit whose mission is to ensure the availability, accessibility and diversity of the arts in Westchester, agreed.

"Grande Disco" by Arnaldo Pomodore at the Donald M. Kendall Sculpture Gardens on the grounds of PepsiCo in Purchase Nov. 29, 2012.

"The PepsiCo sculpture garden stands as one of the most generous gifts made by a corporate entity to the public at large. Keeping it, and other places of great artistic significance, open to the public embodies the imperative of freedom and the American way of life," Langsam said.

When the facility was shut down for the renovation in December 2012, Kerry Snow, a PepsiCo spokeswoman, said the sculpture garden would reopen when the renovations were completed in mid-2015.

PepsiCo, which also has offices on Westchester Avenue in White Plains, made no formal announcement when it moved workers months ago back to the renovated Purchase property, and did not respond to repeated requests from The Journal News/lohud to discuss the sculpture garden's future until recently.

Pressed for an answer, Aurora Gonzalez, the company's senior director of communications, said the renovation had given PepsiCo an opportunity to revisit its security protocol. She noted showing IDs and being registered in advance of meetings have become common practice for visits to any major corporate offices.

"With the renovation completed, in mid-June, PepsiCo provided access to the gardens to their immediate neighbors," Gonzalez wrote in a statement. "We are currently working on a process for the gradual, controlled access to the sculpture gardens by other groups."

"We will keep local officials apprised of plans to expand access to the sculpture gardens in a way that is safe and secure for all," her statement said.

(Story continues below photo gallery)

Cooney, on Friday, said the company's initial statement was a result of trying not "to overpromise and underdeliver."

He said it was not clear whether more limited access might be allowed for groups between now and March. Issues such as parking, signs, facilities and security still have to be worked out, he said.

'Noble and grand'

The Donald M. Kendall Sculpture Gardens, named after the company's former chairman and CEO, were installed in 1970 and had been praised as the food-and-beverage giant's generous gift to the community.

The collection of 45 outdoor sculptures — including pieces by Alexander Calder, Jean Dubuffet, Joan Miró, Auguste Rodin, and Alberto Giacometti — dots 168 acres of carefully tended landscape, complementing a seven-section office complex designed by Edward Durell Stone, a leading American architect of the 20th century.

In 2011, Kendall, who led the company's move from New York City to Purchase in 1970, explained the thinking behind having publicly-accessible sculpture gardens in a corporate headquarters.

"We were after building something noble and grand; a place of business that would enrich and inspire all who worked there or visited; a place to be proud, to make them proud," said Kendall, who handpicked and positioned 45 sculptures for the park.

For the following four decades, the sculpture garden was open to the public for free from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. from April to October and from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the winter

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Kendall is now in his mid-90s and lives in Greenwich, Connecticut. The Journal News reached out to him for comment on this story, but his wife said he was not available.

"I'm quite sure he would want the public to see his gardens," said Bim Kendall.

Donald Kendall and his wife, Bim, are shown in this 2004 photo at an event in Westchester.

"They are working on it," she said Friday morning. "There's a suggestion to (open the gardens to the public) over the weekend, not during the week because they can't have the traffic there. But that has not been solved yet. The construction, apparently, is not quite finished, and the parking is very much reduced."

Gonzalez did not respond to a reporter's request to visit the renovated headquarters as part of the research for this story. But one of the contractors on the exterior portion of the project touted the results in aerial footage posted on YouTube.

Public records show the renovation project received up to $7 million in sales tax exemptions from the Westchester Industrial Development Agency. In exchange, PepsiCo was required to invest at least $192 million in the project, according to the agreement obtained by The Journal News under a Freedom of Information Law request. The document also stated that the company "reasonably expects to employ not fewer than 1,000 company employees" in Purchase and at its White Plains office for at least five years after the renovation.

William Mooney III, director of Westchester's Office of Economic Development, said PepsiCo has been fulfilling the IDA requirements.

The state also gave PepsiCo $4 million in tax credits for the renovation project, and the company negotiated a 15-year payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement with Harrison and its school district.

None of these tax benefit agreements, however, required PepsiCo to reopen the sculpture garden to the public, officials said.

Shifting trends

The idea of using art as part of corporate office design became popular in the 1950s and 1960s, said Theodore Prudon, an architect whose expertise includes preservation of modern architecture.

But as security concerns — along with the values of art collections — have increased, public access to private art collections is shrinking, he said.

"Since 9/11, privately-owned art collections presented in public has largely become not accessible," said Prudon, who is also president of Docomomo US, an international advocacy organization for modern architecture, landscape and urban design. "I would imagine under those kinds of concerns, particularly in a suburban site, (maintaining) security would be very difficult."

Langsam said this week her organization was willing to meet with PepsiCo to discuss the gardens' future.

"Mindful of security concerns, ArtsWestchester would be pleased to work with PepsiCo on a plan that continues to make these great works of art accessible," she said.

Liz Waytkus, executive director of Docomomo US, who previously worked at Purchase College, fondly remembers her visits to the gardens just across the street from the PepsiCo headquarters.

"We would go across the street for lunch. I wouldn't say often, but multiple times throughout the year," said Waytkus.

She said the experience formed her appreciation of the architecture, landscape design and arts, leading her to take the current position at Docomomo US. The group's name is the acronym for the "documentation and conservation" of buildings, sites and neighborhoods of the "modern movement."

"Whatever security measures they need to take is understandable, but the gardens were designed so that they would be accessible to the public. And I think any reasonable person would understand that corporations need to protect themselves, and they should do that," Waytkus said.

"But they should find a way to allow people on a regular basis to come in there in some sort of structured way. There's no reason to just completely close it off."

Twitter: @LohudAkiko