The poem, titled "The Commuter's Lament/A Close Shave," was written by Norman B Colp and was inspired by the famous Burma Shave ad campaign, a men's product that was well known for series of signs across the U.S in the 1920s. The artwork was originally commissioned as a temporary installation, and remains installed in the transfer corridor from 42 St-Port Authority Bus Terminal to Times Sq-42 St. The poem reads: “Overslept, so tired, if late, get fired. Why bother? Why the pain? Just go home, do it again.” The lines appear mounted on the overhead I-beams, approximately every fifth beam.

The Commuter's Lament/A Close Shave

 Jacob Lawrence's final work of public art dominates the Times Square subway's mezzanine, depicting the people and pastimes of New York in rich and shimmering tones. This is a MTA Arts for Transit project. The installation of "New York In Transit", a glass mosaic mural designed by Mr. Lawrence for the Times Square subway station, coincides with the Whitney Museum of American Arts opening of the most extensive retrospective of his work ever presented. His dramatic Times Square mosaic pays tribute to the diversity and strength of New York City its neighborhoods, cultural life, recreational pleasures, love of sports and, of course, its subway system.

On stairway wall between N Q W R and S mezzanines

New York in Transit (Times Square Mural)

Sandra Bloodworth, director of Arts for Transit, discusses the work New York In Transit, by Jacob Lawrence, located in the Times Square Station, 42nd Street.

 Jane Dickson celebrates the ball drop that takes place in Times Square every New Year's Eve, and the "revelers" who come from far and near to see it - with this colorful and spirited glass mosaic. This is an MTA Arts for Transit project. With the 2008 installation of her mosaic cycle Revelers in the Times Square 42nd Street Subway Station, her work has become an important aspect of the place itself. 

Lower mezzanine and 41st St. passageway, Times Square subway station

Revelers (Times Square Mural)

 Times Square Mural captures the spirit of the subway, its linear movement and dynamic energy. With a nod to both the past and the future- its central image is a futuristic bullet shaped car zipping through an underground station. And not just any station, this is Times Square, in the heart of New York City. Lichtenstein was born in New York in 1923 and spent his last years here. Times Square Mural reflects his career, with references to, and variations on, his earlier works. Lichtenstein also freely appropriated and incorporated images from the works of other artists and designers in his work. For instance, the hooded figure at the right of the mural is from the old Buck Rogers comic strips and the iconic 42 image is from a series of drawings of the architectural detail of the subway. It is a signature work that honors its creator and the place in which it is located. 

Times Square Mural 

Sandra Bloodworth, director of Arts for Transit, discusses the work Times Square Mural, by Roy Lichtenstein, located in the Times Square Station, 42nd Street.

 This public art project for the Times Square subway station consists of 35 ceramic tiles over 800 feet, installed among the glass blocks in a station passageway. Buonagurio used fashion, performance, and street art as his three touchstones when conceiving the piece. An MTA Arts for Transit Project. Glazed ceramic panels installed in the transfer corridor between the 1/2/3 station and the Shuttle. The commission was received in 1992 and the first phase of the work finally installed 2004-2005. 

35 Times (Times Square Mural)

Sandra Bloodworth, director of Arts for Transit, discusses the work Times Square: 35 Times, by Toby Buonagurio, located in the Times Square Station, 42nd Street.

 &ldquo;Every One&rdquo; is the first of a three-piece installation by the artist Nick Cave, inside the new 42nd Street connector at Times Square. The other two parts &mdash; &ldquo;Each One&rdquo; at the new shuttle entrance and &ldquo;Equal All&rdquo; on the center island platform wall &mdash; will be installed in 2022. The $1.8 million budget for the project, commissioned by M.T.A. Arts &amp; Design, is part of the overall project to rebuild and reconfigure the 42nd Street Shuttle. The Soundsuits, depicted in the artwork, are wearable fabric sculptures typically made of materials such as twigs, wire, raffia and even human hair that often generate sound when the wearer moves. Walking along the new corridor, figures on the wall are depicted leaping and twirling in mosaic Soundsuits. These have always been an amalgam of cultural references: the concepts of shamans and masquerade, obscuring the race, gender and class of the wearer and forging a new identity. They contain ties to Africa, the Caribbean and Haiti. Cave created his mosaic from recomposed source photos of the Soundsuits in motion shot by James Prinz and interpreted in glass by Meyer of Munich. 

Every One, Each One, Equal All (Times Square Mural)

When Beal was commissioned to create the pair of murals for the IRT Mezzanine, he decided to was to depict a modern interpretation of the Greek myth about Persephone, queen of the underworld. &nbsp;The artist posed his friends, created an oil painting and shipped it off to Italy where it was fabricated into a 200 lb glass mosaic. &nbsp;The entire process took about 10 years and was installed three days after September 11th. &nbsp;Considered a symbol of hope, Beal was subsequently commissioned to create a companion mural, The Onset of Winter. In this update of the ancient story, Persephone fulfills her agreement to return to the underworld, thus signaling the start of the autumn and winter seasons. She "twists in agony at the top of the stairs, knowing that she must go but wishing that she could stay," explains the artist. "The event is being filmed with a group of spectators, who certainly would have materialized." &nbsp;Again Beal posed his friends for the artwork including his dog Scoo2er.&nbsp;

South Side  of the Platform

North Side of the Platform

The Return of Spring / The Onset of Winter (Times Square Murals)

Sandra Bloodworth, director of Arts for Transit, discusses the work The Return of Spring/The Onset of Winter, by Jack Beal, located in the Times Square Station, 42nd Street.

The New York Times headquarters was completed in 1905 on a triangular site at the intersection of Broadway, Seventh Avenue and 42 St., an area soon dubbed Times Square. The Times claimed that at 476 ft, the building was the "City's Tallest Structure from Base to Top," inflating its standard curb-to-top measurement of 363 ft by including its basements and flagpole.<a href="https://culturenow.org/people/the-skyscraper-museum?name=The_Skyscraper_Museum">[1]</a>This building was the original home to The New York Times before they moved to bigger offices on 8th Ave. It was the second tallest building in Manhattan when it opened and Times Square held a celebration of the opening of its new headquarters with a display of fireworks on January 1, 1904, at midnight. Since then, the famous New Year's Times Square Ball drop has been performed every year from its roof on New Year's Eve. The outside of the building holds one of the largest advertisement sign boards in the city.

to get World Series results from a remote scoreboard in October, 1919.

One Times Square, The New York Times Building (1903 - 1913)

The Times Square project is a permanent pedestrian precinct with a goal of making it a destination for visitors, comfortable for daily workers, convenient for theater-goers and an asset to retails. The landscape will create a surface that marks the historic alignment of Broadway, blurs the traditional sidewalk/road boundaries and affords the maximum flexibility of uses.

 The Times Square project is a permanent pedestrian precinct with a goal of making it a destination for visitors, comfortable for daily workers, convenient for theater-goers and an asset to retails. The landscape will create a surface that marks the historic alignment of Broadway, blurs the traditional sidewalk/road boundaries and affords the maximum flexibility of uses. 

Times Square

The Architect talks about the decision to site the building on the formerly industrial waterfront, the integration of the roof into the landscape, the program and the collaboration with the Norwegian artists to integrate their works into the building.

Tubaloon was designed as a temporary pavilion for the annual 2 week jazz festival at Konzberg.  The architect talks about the design of the fabric structure, its acoustics and how it is dissembled and then reassembled annually.

The Architect describes the design of the Art Museum and shares some of the features of the building.

In 1989 the city of Alexandria held an international architectural competition to design a new library in the spirit of its richest legacy the library destroyed over a thousand years ago.  Snohetta won the competition and went on to construct the building which opened in 2002.  The Architect talks about the new library and it's significance.

 Aaron Dorf, Project Director of Snohetta talks about the Museum and some of the design issues involved in creating it. 

                                            
                                            
                                            
                                                 Craig Dykers talks about his personal experience on the morning of September 11th and the arduous design process behind the 9/11 Memorial Museum Pavilion in New York City. Guided by a profound sense of empathy, the architect agreed to take the risk of designing the highly symbolic structure. His aim was to "reveal the present moment", the only thing we can be certain of, and connect it to both the past and the future. 
                                            
                                        

 Claire Fellman, the landscape architect and Project Designer with Snohetta talks about the commission for the Times Square renovation and some of the design goals and challenges in the project. 

Jean Parker Phifer, NYC architect and author of Public Art New York, reads a selection on Times Square, at the crossroads of Broadway, Seventh Avenue, and 42nd Street.

Hugh Hardy of H3 Hardy Collaboration Architecture discusses his work on the transformation of 42nd Street from a seedy area to a family friendly environment.

The Theater District was also known as the Tenderloin, for its long history of prostitution rings, pimps, and porno shops. 

Sandra Bloodworth, director of Arts for Transit, discusses the work Times Square: 35 Times, by Toby Buonagurio, located in the Times Square Station, 42nd Street.

Times Square

Images

Images

Drawings and documents

2014 - Renovation

2014 - Renovation - Images

ASSOCIATED SITES

Public Art

Architecture