AFTER TWO YEARS, IT WAS TIME TO SEE WHAT HAS DEVELOPED IN THE FORMER POST OFFICE, TURNED AMTRAK STATION AND MALL. &
A VIEW OF WHAT META DID WITH THE ART IN THEIR SPACE For Meta’s New York Office, Artists Created their Largest Works Yet. See Them Here.
JUDITH BERDY
WEDNESDAY, MAY 7, 2025
ISSUE #1442
Meta—the company formerly known as Facebook—has inaugurated its newest home in the landmarked James A. Farley building in midtown Manhattan with five site-specific commissions.A roster of five New York-based artists have created large-scale artworks, from joyful murals to free-hanging organic forms and to fiber and textiles murals that call to mind New York’s patchwork of people. The artists include Baseera Khan, who has created two installations inspired by the handmade silk rugs of Kashmir, and Matthew Kirk, whose panel paintings are an homage to Navajo artistic tradition.The centerpiece commission is Timur Si-Qin’s Sacred Footprint, a 50-foot-tall stainless steel and aluminum tree sculpture, suspended from the four-story skylight of Meta’s central commission.Si-Qin is an artist of German and Mongolian-Chinese descent, who grew up in Berlin, Beijing, and in a Native American community in the American Southwest, and his works speak to the ecological responsibility that unites disparate culture. With a tech-centered practice (He created the sculpture using 3D scans of trees), Si-Qin a good fit for the company’s dedicated art program, Meta Open Arts.The installations “respond to the history of the iconic Beaux Arts building, pay tribute to the natural landscapes and Indigenous communities that inhabited the space long before the structure was built, and celebrate its future as an epicenter for connection and creativity in the heart of New York City,” Meta said in a statement.See the installations below:
Photo : Bradford Devins/OWLEY Matthew Kirk created two paintings for the Farley South Lobby: A Shadow of a Shadow and Distant Lie.
2025 Installation complete.
Photo : Timur Si-Qin Timur Si-Qin’s Sacred Footprint (2022) under construction.
Photo : Bradford Devins/OWLEY Esteban Cabeza de Baca and Heidi Howard’s in process largest-scale collaboration, ‘Nature Remembers Love’.
Photo : Bradford Devins/OWLEYTodayNature Remembers Love (2022) in the main lobby.
Photo : Bradford Devins/OWLEY One half of Baseera Khan’s two-part installation, a hollowed-out column form wrapped in handmade silk rugs.
Photo : Bradford Devins/OWLEY One half of Baseera Khan’s two-part installation, a hollowed-out column form wrapped in handmade silk rugs.
THE TERMINAL IS A GRAND OPEN SPACE FOR AMTRAK AND PUBLIC
The massive train hall leading down to the lower boarding area.
THE SYMBOLIC CLOCK HANGS PROUDLY IN THE HALL
The Food seems to be a neighborhood favorite. Promptly at noon the lines formed for the variety of dining spots from Pastrami, Middle Eastern, Fried Chicken, Pizza, Bagels, French desserts and much more. There are plenty of high stool tables and regular seating. Everything is well space so those with luggage are not crowded into small spaces.
A Special Job
PHOTO OF THE DAY
I ENJOYED LUNCH SITTING WITH THESE BUSINESS ASSOCIATES FROM JAPAN
CREDITS
META
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
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