New York City Naming an Intersection “Bill Cunningham Corner” for a Week

Following a petition that received more than 6,100 signatures, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has named the corner of Fifth Avenue and 57th Street “Bill Cunningham Corner” for at least a week in honor of the beloved New York Times street style photographer, who died at 87 in late June.

The temporary naming ceremony began at 12:30 p.m. today. New York’s deputy mayor Alicia Glen, former Metropolitan Museum of Art curator Harold Koda and current New York Times executive editor Dean Baquet spoke at the event. The event was also live-streamed via Facebook Live on de Blasio’s Facebook page.

Though permanently renaming streets is a tedious process, the city of New York is trying to honor Cunningham’s legacy through other ways, including considering the possibility of constructing a sculpture of Cunningham at the intersection.

“Bill Cunningham turned our sidewalks into runways and New Yorkers into models,” de Blasio said in a statement. “His vivid photos captured our city’s diversity in every sense of the word, and helped define New York as the fashion capital of the world.”