A proposed collaborative production
Hosts · Dr. Glenn Toby & Deborah DesiletsArchitecture, art, music and service meet in one endeavor:
an oasis for public life, from Lincoln Road to the ocean.
Donation recipientThe Book Bank Foundation
↓Enter the storyOriginal conceptual artwork · Working proposal · September 2026
The proposal at a glance
The person behind the purpose
For Deborah Desilets, architectural memory is something to carry forward into people’s lives.
Her collaboration with Morris Lapidus, her work with his archive and her curatorial practice come together in the vision at the heart of this project: an oasis for public life, from Lincoln Road to the ocean.
The proposed renewal of Lincoln Road’s 200–300 blocks gives that vision a place. Art, music and learning offer ways to gather around it, connecting the spaces we remember with what we might make possible for the people who come next.
Deborah’s architectural vision gives this project its purpose. Dr. Glenn Toby’s work in art, music and community service helps bring people around it, with The Book Bank Foundation as the intended charitable recipient. Together, these contributions connect the story of Brooklyn to the possibilities of Lincoln Road.
Deborah Desilets RAMorris Lapidus™ · Morris Lapidus Foundationwww.morrislapidus.comContact DeborahContact the exhibition team ↗305.310.6331Discover the story01 / The places we remember
Summer had a meeting place.
Warm brick. The edge of the pool. A neighborhood gathering in the water.Belonging has an architecture.
From Bedford-Stuyvesant to Miami Beach, Lapidus made gathering an experience. Lincoln Road asks us to carry that care forward.Two places. Distinct histories.
NYC Parks identified Morris Lapidus Associates as the pool complex’s architect in 1966. Kosciuszko Pool opened in 1971, a decade after Lapidus’s 1960 Lincoln Road redesign.
The two places become cultural bookends: environments made for people, and a question about what we preserve for the next generation.
NYC Parks archive, 1966, pp. 110–112 ↗
A memory that opens a life
Lapidus begins his memoir, Too Much Is Never Enough, with a chapter called “A Pyramid in Brooklyn.” The title brings us back to the pool and to the pleasure of a public place filled with life.
Deborah remembers how close that pyramid was to his heart. From Brooklyn to Miami Beach, the thread is human: architecture can make gathering an experience.
She also remembers his delight in ice cream. For Deborah, the book’s exuberant title carries that same appetite for everyday joy.
Explore the memoir ↗The places we remember / The art we carry
The King’s Exhibition brings Basquiat’s visual legacy into a gathering of art and community. Its exhibition history includes limited-edition serigraphs after Jean-Michel Basquiat, alongside work by local and international artists.
In February 2020, ABC Columbia reported a King’s Exhibition show in Columbia, South Carolina, with part of the proceeds benefiting The Book Bank Foundation. That connection between art and service is part of Glenn’s contribution to this shared invitation.
Morris Lapidus / An invitation to look again
Before there is a drawing,
there is an idea about people.
Deborah Desilets brings Lapidus’s architectural memory into this shared invitation. The archive asks us to look closely at the life between buildings: encounter, delight, and the simple possibility of being together.
See where the idea could lead
Architecture of Joy / Deborah’s curatorial frame
A street carries us
somewhere.
A place invites us
to stay.
The proposed next chapter connects design heritage with art, music, learning and public life. The archive brings the human spirit of that invitation into view.
An idea, carried forward
Lapidus’s legacy has already invited new encounters. The Table Turns brought his artwork and furniture to The Ritz-Carlton, South Beach in 2023. By BitBasel 2025, a new interpretation of the Lapidus Egg connected that legacy with contemporary art.
For Deborah, this history gives the next chapter a place to begin: helping more people discover the human spirit behind the architecture.
Explore the exhibition story ↗2023 · The Table Turns / 2025 · The Orb of Harmony
Deborah’s interpretive frame
A street for cars.
What comes next?
A public place.
Room for people.
Let the horizon
open.
Deborah’s “From Grid to Green”: from streets organized around cars to public spaces for walking, gathering and joy.
Deborah’s brochure frames pedestrianization as a change in what a street is for: moving beyond the automobile-centric grid toward an “architecture of joy,” public gathering and a greener city.
Photographs and “Water Mirrors Life”: Deborah Desilets’s supplied brochure, page 1. “From Grid to Green” interpretation: page 2.
A shared invitation
The hosts bring complementary experience to the same endeavor: honoring Morris Lapidus’s legacy through a living cultural invitation, with Lincoln Road’s 200–300 blocks and the ocean at its heart.
Host / The King’s Exhibition
Brooklyn-born, with musical roots in Queens, Glenn connects his life in culture to community service. The King’s Exhibition, The Global Dance Party and the Book Bank Foundation offer ways to gather, engage and support people around the architectural purpose.
Meet Dr. Glenn TobyHost / Morris Lapidus Foundation
Deborah’s collaboration with Lapidus, archival work and curatorial practice bring architectural memory into the present. Representing the foundation, she describes a vision for Lincoln Road’s 200–300 blocks as an oasis to the ocean. That architectural initiative is the shared destination.
Deborah on Lapidus · MDPL ↗02 / Culture moves with people
From the spaces that hold us
to the sounds we carry.
A conversation across generations
The connections are cultural and generational. These histories do not require an invented meeting or a shared pool experience.
Lincoln Road is redesigned in 1960. Basquiat is born in Brooklyn that year.
Kosciuszko Pool opens in 1971. Basquiat forms the band later known as Gray in 1979.
Toby, Brooklyn-born and musically developed in Queens, records as Mr. Sweety G. At the Place to Be dates to 1981.
Deborah begins working with Lapidus in 1994. Toby founds The Book Bank Foundation in 1997.
The musical story continues / DJ Glenn “Sweety G” Toby
A beat gathers people.
A place gives them somewhere to belong.
Glenn’s present-day mix and broadcast platform carries his musical identity forward. In this collaboration, that energy could invite new audiences into the art, the listening room and the public life of Lincoln Road.
Visit Global Dance Party03 / Art becomes a meeting place
The King’s Exhibition brings works after Jean-Michel Basquiat into a cultural encounter. In dialogue with Deborah’s architectural and curatorial perspective, that encounter can ask a larger question: what do we want to make possible together?
Explore The King’s ExhibitionThe meeting point / HOSTS
HostDr. Glenn TobyHostDeborah Desilets
The shared destination is Lincoln Road. Art offers a way to gather around it through a proposed exhibition, interpretation and conversation that connect cultural memory with public possibility.
BitBasel’s 2026 deck places The King’s Exhibition within its Art Week program at Sagamore. Its platform for exhibitions, forums and cultural gathering gives this encounter a wider context, connecting the architectural story of Morris Lapidus with the artistic legacy of Jean-Michel Basquiat.
The supplied deck describes December 2–5, 2026. Final participation, program and partner responsibilities remain subject to agreement. Artist references do not establish an estate partnership.
An interlude / Wall of Sound
KISSA · KISSA · KISSA
Take a seat. Let the record hold the room.
Let a shared moment become a connection.
From the curator’s notebook
The art of paying attention
Inspired by Japan’s jazz listening cafés, Deborah’s developing KISSA concept brings The King’s Exhibition and Water Mirrors Life into one intimate encounter with recorded music, art and architectural memory.
Her curatorial and archival perspective meets Glenn’s art, music and community work. The room becomes a way into their shared purpose: an oasis for public life, from Lincoln Road’s 200–300 blocks to the ocean.
Inside the proposed experience
A carefully selected listening program could give recorded music and contextual storytelling the room to be heard. Curation would determine the selections and secure the necessary permissions.
Art, architectural interpretation and selected archival material could sit in dialogue with the music. Deborah’s Wall of Sound is the curatorial thread; The King’s Exhibition and Water Mirrors Life bring the encounter into view.
A proposed learning strand could connect the encounter to books, reflection and mentoring through the Book Bank Foundation. The aim is to carry cultural attention into young lives and back into the shared public-space mission.
A developing proposal. Program, date, venue arrangements and participating works remain to be confirmed.
Help bring the listening room to life
Proposed support could fund paid curation, archive preparation and rights clearance, sound and installation, accessible participation and learning materials.
Discuss support for this experience Contact financial support ↗04 / What we pass on
The art brings us together. The music holds our attention. What we carry out of the room matters just as much.
Culture can leave something with someone
The Book Bank Foundation brings literacy and community service into the shared endeavor. A proposed learning program could pair books, mentoring and exhibition experiences, helping young people turn an encounter with culture into questions, confidence and opportunity.
The Rhythm of Revenue, Glenn’s book and leadership framework, connects ownership, strategy, philanthropy and cultural stewardship. Alongside Global Dance Party’s music, it could inform conversations about sustaining creative work and passing opportunity forward. Those proposed learning experiences serve the Morris Lapidus Foundation’s central architectural purpose; programs and delivery partners would be agreed together.
From a cultural encounter to everyday care: explore Book Bank’s work, public records and donor documents ↗.
Lincoln Road.
An oasis to the ocean.
03 / Water and reflection
Deborah’s brochure connects “From Grid to Green” with an “architecture of joy” and ecological sustainability. Its “Water Mirrors Life” image brings reflection into that story: a street becomes a place to walk and gather, and the shared vision opens toward the ocean.
05 / The architectural purpose comes into view
Deborah describes work with Sobe Sky Development (DiLido) and Sagamore toward revitalizing Lincoln Road’s 200–300 blocks as an oasis to the sea.
She calls it the fulfillment of Lapidus’s last wish: bringing an awareness of the ocean into the city.
Conceptual artwork and geographic bookends · Not an approved site plan.
Lincoln Road / An architectural reference
Lapidus’s geometric shade structures and striped paving turn a walk into an encounter. This is part of Lincoln Road’s existing architectural language, the legacy that informs Deborah’s vision.
“A car never bought anything.”
Morris Lapidus · Miami Design Preservation League
Shelter. Surprise. A little delight.
The vision finds its ground / Lincoln Road 200–300
A street can carry traffic. A public place can carry a city’s memory. Explore the existing-street image and the proposed cultural setting supplied by Deborah.
The supplied concepts imagine a more welcoming setting for walking, gathering and cultural experience. Transit arrangements, permissions, design and funding still need to be agreed.
Choose a public benefit that matters to you, then begin a conversation about a defined contribution.
Pillars of Paradise / Proposed giving interests
Five ways into Deborah’s vision. Choose the public benefit that speaks to you and carry it into a conversation with Book Bank.
Public-space planning.
A more connected place.
Design heritage.
Places for art and performance.
Quieter, more welcoming access.
Room for people to gather.
History, learning and community.
Memory that can be shared.
Shade, planting and water.
A place to pause.
Proposed interests drawn from Deborah Desilets’s supplied Pillars of Paradise framework. These are not approved allocations or promised outcomes. Discuss any specific gift restrictions and reporting with Book Bank; selecting an interest here does not automatically restrict a donation.
Deborah’s vision / Lincoln Road 200–300
Help turn a passageway into a place to belong. Deborah imagines the last blocks toward the ocean filled with walking, music, art and everyday encounters, in a cultural dialogue with Brooklyn’s people’s pool. Charitable support can help carry that public purpose forward through a clearly agreed initiative.
Interpretive vision and planning estimates from Deborah Desilets’s recorded discussion, supplied September 2026.
Be part of what people can share.
Bring your support to a conversation about cultural access, learning and community, with The Book Bank Foundation as the intended charitable recipient.
~$800k
Deborah’s proposed first mobilization: begin moving bus activity from the 200–300 blocks. This does not fund complete street closure.
Initial planning estimate$4–6m
Deborah’s discussed next-phase range covers new bus-station arrangements, relocation and the work toward full road closure. Scope and costs require confirmation.
Proposed next-phase range~$28m
The broader activation vision for the 200–300 blocks, described in Deborah’s discussion and the April 2026 memo. A planning horizon, not a verified funding gap.
Broader planning estimateA progression of proposed scope, not amounts to add together. Deborah’s estimates are not approved budgets or a fixed campaign target. Delivery depends on confirmed scope, budgets and required approvals.
06 / A clear first step
Proposed first mobilization
$800,000
Deborah describes this initial estimate as a way to begin relocating bus activity from Lincoln Road’s 200–300 blocks, opening a path toward a more pedestrian public place.
What this first step means
Initial bus-relocation mobilization. It does not pay for complete street closure or the full public-space vision.
What needs to be confirmed
A formal scope, transit arrangements, agency permissions, delivery budget and any initiative-specific donation agreement.
Deborah’s planning discussion
She describes a proposed $4–6 million next phase for broader transit arrangements and work toward full closure, within a roughly $28 million wider vision. These estimates describe different scales of scope; they are not amounts to add together or an approved campaign total.
What support can make possible / proposed scope
Help advance a defined Lincoln Road contribution: design development, public-space interpretation or an authorized improvement within the agreed 200–300-block scope.
Accountability: approved scope, documented recipient, permissions, cost plan and delivery milestones.
Underwrite The King’s Exhibition’s proposed contribution alongside Water Mirrors Life / Wall of Sound: curation, confirmed works, transport, insurance, installation and accessible public interpretation.
Accountability: agreed object list, rights and loan terms, exhibition budget and program report.
Support a selected, rights-cleared archive phase: inventory, conservation assessment, digitization and interpretation of architectural or music-history materials stewarded by Deborah and other owners.
Accountability: an itemized scope, ownership and access terms, and a record of materials preserved.
Develop a costed program with Book Bank: books, mentoring, guided exhibition experiences and conversations about creative ownership informed by The Rhythm of Revenue.
Accountability: agreed audience, delivery partners, participation measures and a learning-program report.
Choose your contribution
Choose how you would like to take part. Give through the campaign on Givebutter, or discuss a substantial contribution with Book Bank. Suggested levels do not purchase project outcomes or promised benefits. Confirm your amount at checkout.
Too Much Is Never Enough. Deborah remembers Lapidus’s delight in ice cream: one scoop, two, three. That pleasure in everyday life is a reminder of what this vision hopes to make room for.
$100–$999
Give on Givebutter$1,000–$9,999
Give on Givebutter$10,000–$49,999
Give on Givebutter$50,000–$249,999
Discuss a $50,000 gift$250,000–$999,999
Discuss a $250,000 gift$1 million and above
Discuss a $1,000,000 giftEvery contribution is welcome. Choose your own amount on Givebutter.
Donate on GivebutterThe people behind the possibility / Trust & transparency
Deborah’s vision asks what a public place can give to people. Book Bank’s work brings that question into everyday life: books, meals and practical support. Before you give, get to know the organization intended to receive your contribution · and the records behind its work.
The IRS exempt-organizations data lists contributions as deductible. A gift’s treatment depends on the gift and any benefits received.
IRS Georgia record (CSV) ↗Jewish Communal Fund’s fiscal-year 2024 Form 990 lists a $20,000 cash grant to Book Bank Foundation Inc., identifying the same EIN and 501(c)(3) status.
This documents one grant in that filing year. It does not establish recurring funding or an endorsement of this proposed project.
View Schedule I · PDF page 111 ↗Charity Navigator lists Book Bank but does not currently give it a star rating because it has not received the public data needed to calculate one.
Use the public records alongside the Foundation’s program information, and request the documents relevant to your gift.
Charity Navigator profile ↗Service with a human purpose
Book Bank describes a mission centered on literacy and resources for people facing hunger, homelessness and abuse. Its current website describes weekly food support, clothing and hygiene outreach, and art programming connected to community service in Atlanta and New York.
Those existing programs offer context for this invitation. Any new learning or cultural program connected to Lincoln Road would need its own agreed scope and support.
Explore Book Bank’s programsProgram descriptions are Foundation-reported. They are not audited impact measurements for this project.
A volunteer’s December 2010 account on Book Bank’s archive describes a day distributing coats, clothing and toys across four New York City boroughs.
Read the archived account ↗ABC Columbia reported that a King’s Exhibition event would direct part of its proceeds to Book Bank’s work providing books to children. The report documents the announced benefit, not a verified amount raised.
Read ABC Columbia’s report ↗Book Bank’s website reports 300,000-plus people served annually, 12,000 meals per month, over 20,000 pairs of socks donated and ten families adopted each winter.
Reporting periods and calculation methods are not supplied alongside all of these figures. Ask the Foundation for the underlying reports before relying on them in a funding decision.
Visit The Book Bank FoundationFor your giving conversation
Request the IRS determination letter, a current W-9, available financial reports and a written designation for an initiative-specific gift. A verified copy of the determination letter has not yet been supplied for download here.
Public records above are open to everyone. The request link opens a short form. Your request is saved for project-team review; it does not subscribe you to a mailing list.
800-956-3395
Contact Book BankContact financial support ↗
Book Bank’s published contact
2625 Piedmont Road, Suite NE 56-290
Atlanta, GA 30324
Public sources reviewed September 11, 2026. Campaign giving is available on Givebutter. Discuss any specific restrictions and reporting with Book Bank before payment. Continue to giving options ↗
Charitable support / A shared public purpose
A place to pause. A story to discover. A chance to learn and connect. Your support can help give this cultural encounter a public purpose, with an initiative-specific gift defined together with Book Bank.
Glenn’s Brooklyn story connects personal experience to culture and service. The King’s Exhibition brings art into that journey. Book Bank’s established literacy, mentoring and outreach work connects the exhibition to people’s lives. Its history includes art events supporting community service.
Global Dance Party gathers people through music. The Rhythm of Revenue contributes a perspective on ownership, leadership and sustaining creative work. Together, these connections could support books, mentoring and accessible cultural experiences around the Lapidus initiative.
You can discuss support for learning, cultural access or another defined initiative purpose. Agree the use of your gift and how its impact will be reported before payment. This is charitable participation, not an investment, equity or a promised financial return.
Help make belonging part of the story.
Donation recipient
501(c)(3) public charity · EIN 02-0722757
The Book Bank Foundation receives charitable support for this exhibition initiative. Give through the campaign, or begin a personal conversation about a substantial contribution.
Project delivery depends on confirmed budgets, partner agreements and required agency approvals. Arrange an initiative-specific gift with Book Bank so its purpose and reporting are agreed before payment.
Opens the From Brooklyn to the Ocean campaign on Givebutter. Choose and confirm your donation there. To discuss a specific use or substantial contribution, connect with Book Bank below.
Agree the campaign designation with Book Bank before payment. You can send an inquiryContact financial support ↗ below.
07 / Your place in the story
A founding conversation begins with the part of this vision that matters to you: a public place, a cultural encounter, a preserved voice, a young person’s opportunity.
Together, define the contribution, the people responsible for delivering it and the evidence of what your support makes possible.
What a donor conversation should offer
A defined public benefit. Clear reporting. Meaningful cultural access. Optional, approved recognition. A role in a legacy that continues through people.
Share a question or discuss an initiative-specific contribution with the project team.
Send inquiry ↗Contact financial support ↗Your inquiry is stored for project-team review. Email notifications are not connected yet. This is not a pledge or payment.
