Dream House
275 Church Street | Tribeca | built 1867
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The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.
Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1867
George Bell builds a four-story brick store and loft that dry goods firms fill
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The four-story building went up in 1866-67 for George Bell, replacing a masonry dwelling and its outbuilding. About 25 feet wide and 75 feet deep, it has a brick front with three window bays per floor and a bracketed sheet-metal cornice. Dry goods firms typically used it for stores, showrooms and salesrooms. A 1951-52 alteration removed the second-story brick piers and installed metal show windows.
“Constructed in 1866-67 for George Bell, the brick-faced building was designed with three bays of window openings per story…”
- 1963
La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela move into their loft, and John Cale soon joins their rehearsals
In August 1963 the composer La Monte Young and the artist Marian Zazeela moved into the loft at 275 Church Street, according to Young's own notes on his music. In late August or September the musician John Cale, who had crossed to the United States to study at Tanglewood on a Leonard Bernstein scholarship and was unhappy with the academic climate there, got in touch. Young invited him to a rehearsal and asked him to play specific drone pitches on viola.
Source: melafoundation.org
- 1964
Young and Zazeela begin keeping turtles in aquariums in the loft
Beginning January 27, 1964, with the gift of a turtle, La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela collected turtles and kept them in aquariums in their loft at 275 Church Street. The loft hosted every rehearsal and nearly all the recording sessions for Young's music, concert recordings aside. Young saw turtles and tortoises as creatures that had endured many millions of years with little change, an image he tied to his Dream Music. The first public performances using tortoise titles came that fall at the Pocket Theatre.
Source: melafoundation.org
- 1966
Young and Zazeela set up their first continuous sound and light environment in the loft
In September 1966 Young and Zazeela filled their Church Street loft with sine-wave tones and light sources arranged as floating sculptures and fields of color, the first version of the Dream House. It ran almost nonstop until January 1970, switched off only so the couple could listen to other music and test the contrast between long stretches inside it and silence. They worked, sang and lived in the environment and studied its effects on themselves and their visitors.
“This Dream House environment was maintained almost continuously from September 1966 to January 1970…”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1993
The Dream House opens as a long-term public installation on the third floor
In the fall of 1993 Young and Zazeela opened a long-term sound and light installation to the public on the third floor of 275 Church Street, presented through their MELA Foundation. Zazeela's colored lights fall on hanging mobile forms to cast shadows that seem solid, while Young's sound is a continuous mix of sine-wave tones. By 2008, in its sixteenth year, the foundation called it the couple's longest installation to date.
Source: melafoundation.org
- 2023
The Dream House reopens for its 30th season with a new layer of sound and light by Jung Hee Choi
By late November 2023 the Dream House had reopened for its 30th season after a short closure for maintenance and repairs, Gothamist reported. Young and Zazeela rented every floor of the building except the ground-floor restaurant and lived one floor below the installation. The new season layers a sound composition and a light sculpture by their disciple Jung Hee Choi over Young's tones, and Choi is expected to carry the project on after him.
Source: gothamist.com
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