Brandon Stanton’s Dear New York Transforms Grand Central Terminal

For the following two weeks, one among New York Metropolis’s most recognizable landmarks shall be remodeled into the biggest public art set up town has seen in many years. Operating by October 19, Pricey New York reimagines Grand Central terminal—and the subway station under—as a sweeping “visible love letter” to the folks of New York.

“The final thesis is that every one of New York is the place the world comes collectively in a single place,” Brandon Stanton, the creator of the set up and the photographer behind Humans of New York, instructed ARTnews final week. “And there’s one thing nearly sacred about that—it’s like a microcosm, a proof of idea that humanity can get alongside even when shoved into the smallest areas.”

For the primary time in dwelling reminiscence, each inch of Grand Central’s promoting has been changed with artwork. Greater than 150 digital screens—sometimes reserved for industrial adverts and transit bulletins—now show 1000’s of portraits and tales from People of New York’s huge archive. The set up marks the primary time the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has unified its digital shows throughout each the terminal and its subway concourse.

“This lovely artwork set up transforms the terminal right into a photographic show of New Yorkers telling their tales from all walks of life,” Mary John, MTA director of economic ventures, stated in an announcement. “It serves as a robust reminder of our shared humanity.”

Stanton stated his hope for the undertaking was to encourage folks to cease and really feel one thing. “I simply need to create as many of those little intersections and interventions within the lives of the folks streaming by right here,” he stated. “I can’t change anybody’s life, but when even one particular person pauses and feels one thing—connection, solitude, a thought they’ve by no means had earlier than—that’s my creative aim.”

On the coronary heart of Pricey New York is the collaboration between Stanton and a group of main designers and artists. Serving as artistic director of expertise, David Korins—recognized for his units for Hamilton, Pricey Evan Hansen, and Immersive Van Gogh—designed an expertise meant to merge storytelling and spectacle at an unprecedented civic scale.

“We’ve deliberately captured each single sq. inch of commercial—plus a lot, way more floor space—to not bombard folks, however to engulf them,” Korins instructed ARTnews. “We would like this to clean over you want a meditation. For some, it’ll be a mirror; for others, a portal into deep empathy.”

Korins stated the undertaking got here collectively as a form of artistic free fall. As soon as Stanton had secured the MTA partnership, the 2 started sketching how guests would possibly transfer by Grand Central—how the photographs, tales, and music would unfold as an expertise slightly than a static show. From the concourse to Vanderbilt Corridor, they refined the show for emotion and move, in what Korins described as “constructing the airplane on the best way down.”

The Foremost Concourse anchors the set up, with 50-foot projections surrounding commuters and guests in a panorama of New York tales. The house options greater than 100 hours of music programmed in partnership with the Juilliard College, with dwell performances by college students, alumni, and school throughout classical, jazz, and historic packages. The piano within the middle of the terminal, donated by Steinway & Sons, will stay accessible all through the exhibition’s run.

Three days earlier than the undertaking launch, Stanton walked me by Grand Central’s important concourse. It was an expertise in itself. As he described Pricey New York, it was straightforward to see the way it would possibly change a straphanger’s common commute, if just for a second. Whereas we spoke, newlyweds had been being photographed just some toes from the knowledge sales space. The groom dipped his bride low, stared into her eyes, the practice of her marriage ceremony robe glowing on the concourse’s terrazzo ground. A gaggle of nuns pointed towards the knowledge board. A person in a blue-and-orange dashiki with a shiny leather-based briefcase walked by talking into his earbuds. From above, the concourse should have appeared like an ocean thick with life. However the set up isn’t simply within the concourse—it’s all of Grand Central.

Downstairs, the subway station gives an equally bold set up designed by Andrea Trabucco-Campos, accomplice at Pentagram and inventive director of design for Pricey New York. His group labored professional bono to conceive what the MTA describes as essentially the most intensive use of bodily subway house in its historical past.

“Designing a public gallery in a spot the place 4 subway traces converge—with no actual entry or exit level—was in contrast to something we’d completed earlier than,” stated Trabucco-Campos. “You’ll be able to’t construct a single, linear story down there. The house calls for one thing dynamic—one thing you possibly can step into at any second and nonetheless perceive.”

Trabucco-Campos and his group at Pentagram constructed sections of the subway in 3D to grasp its scale and visible move. They approached it like a civic experiment—mapping the corridors, photographing the “column jungle,” and making a typographic system impressed by the station’s early mosaics. The aim, he stated, was to let the photographs and tales converse first, with the design performing as a body slightly than a model. Each determination, from the sequencing of portraits to the rhythm of kind, was meant to protect the immediacy of People of New York whereas remodeling it right into a shared, bodily expertise.

“It’s an immersive artwork set up by folks, about folks, that includes folks, and consumed by folks,” Stanton stated. “The unifying thread by all of it’s that we’re right here to middle and platform others.”

In Vanderbilt Corridor, Pricey New York expands right into a group showcase, that includes work by rising artists alongside items from greater than 600 New York Metropolis public faculty college students. Chosen by an open name, the coed works mirror the identical spirit of inclusivity and civic delight that outline Stanton’s undertaking.

“We’re proud to supply all of our younger artists with the house to shine and share their views by pictures and visible storytelling,” New York Metropolis Public Colleges Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos stated in an announcement. “I’m glad to see our college students’ artwork celebrated by this partnership.”

Past its scale, Pricey New York additionally reimagines what public artwork could be. It’s each a cultural assertion and a philanthropic act: Stanton is donating all proceeds from his companion e-book, Pricey New York, past set up prices, to New York Metropolis charities.

In scope and ambition, Pricey New York remembers The Gates, Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s 2005 transformation of Central Park—however the place The Gates turned nature right into a canvas, Stanton has made a monument out of every day life. Each tasks share a perception that artwork belongs to everybody, however Stanton’s model feels distinctly of this second: a citywide self-portrait rendered in pixels as a substitute of material, drawn from the faces and tales that outline the place itself.

“If it’s lovely, it received’t be a failure,” Stanton stated. “It doesn’t matter what occurs, it’ll have been price it.”