For most of the 40 years between Wolkoff's purchase and subsequent whitewashing of 5Pointz, such an option for Long Island City would have been unfathomable. Given such a transformation, it makes sense that Wolkoff -- long hailed for providing a massive blank canvas for graffiti artists -- would eventually want to cash in on his investment. Wolkoff initially leased the building to a record company that made 8-track tapes, and, starting in the 1990s, to artists seeking studio space. That decade, he was asked to allow "legal graffiti" to be painted on the building's exterior, to which he agreed. In 2002, the site acquired the name 5Pointz, an allusion to the five boroughs of New York City, and soon became what the lawyer for the 21 5Pointz artists called "the world's largest open-air aerosol museum."

Source: Forbes February 15, 2018 19:18 UTC