One might argue that Milton Glaser's passing on his 91st birthday on June 26, 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, was unfair—particularly for those who wanted to celebrate his life and provide him a well-deserved, heartfelt sendoff. However, various virtual, printed and concrete tributes, memorials and testimonials have been arriving fast and furiously in the months since. On Feb. 24, The Cooper Union hosted a YouTube event titled "Remembering Milton Glaser A'51" that attracted many visitors. The School of Visual Arts | SVA NYC is planning a post-COVID celebration, and various international memorials will occur throughout 2021 and 2022.
At a Zoom ceremony on Feb. 7, the townhouse that Glaser owned, a four-story structure that housed "Milton Glaser Inc." (once shared with Seymour Chwast when they were partners in Push Pin Studios, and later with Walter Bernard, Glaser's partner in WBMG)—and the home base for New York Magazine when it was founded 50 years ago—was designated a New York City landmark, and awarded the plaque designed by Massimo Vignelli below.
The presentation of the medallion, held on Zoom, was attended by many friends and former colleagues and unveiled by Rae Hederman, proprietor and publisher of The New York Review of Books, which has taken ownership of the building. Barbaralee Diamondstein-Spielvogel, creator of the Medallion Program of the Historic Landmarks Preservation Center, introduced the various speakers, including Gloria Steinem (who co-founded MS magazine in this building), Seymour Chwast, James McMullan, David Rhodes (president of SVA NYC), Walter Bernard, Steve Hindy (co-founder of Brooklyn Beer) and David Haskell (current editor of New York Magazine), among them. Diamondstein-Spielvogel said it would have been apt to name E. 32nd Street between Second and Third Avenues after Glaser, but it had already been given the honorific Ms. Magazine Way.
