Tom Fruin's Stained Glass Chapel is a Pop-up Church for New York's Pride Week

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Jesse Ashlock

Tom Fruin’s “Maxikiosco,” on view at the 2013 Scope Art Fair in Miami Beach. The
 piece will be installed on the rooftop of the Wythe Hotel for use as a wedding chapel during Pride Week.

NEW YORK---Church, like home, is where you find it. During New York’s Pride Week at the end of this month, gay couples looking to get married will find a church in the unlikeliest of places: on the rooftop of the Wythe Hotel in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Andrew Tarlow, one of the hotel’s founders, came up with the idea of putting a pop-up wedding chapel on the sixth-floor terrace as a tribute to the members of the L.G.B.T. community who live in the neighborhood, especially those who had worked with him for many years at his nearby restaurant Diner.

Peter Lawrence, Tarlow’s business partner, figured the ceremonies would benefit from a structure for attendees to congregate around. He immediately thought of his friend, the artist Tom Fruin, who is known for his sculptures made from reclaimed objects, like his now-iconic stained-glass watertower in Dumbo. Fruin, who also created the Wythe’s sculptural “Hotel” marquee from salvaged tin signage, had just completed a stained-glass house, titled “Maxikiosko,” that struck Lawrence for its ecclesiastic quality. [link]