ReConstruction: Turning the Neighborhood’s Construction Zones Into a Walkable Art Gallery

It’s our 30th anniversary, and we’re self-celebrating. Over the next few months, we’ll be rolling out 30 stories about 30 of our biggest accomplishments, including everything from our daily public safety and sanitation work, to our small business outreach, to how we helped the neighborhood navigate challenges and even tragedies. You’ll be able to find these stories on our website, as well as in our weekly newsletter, which you can subscribe to here. 

After the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center, much of Lower Manhattan had to be rebuilt. Private and public entities invested billions of dollars into the area’s redevelopment, which eventually helped transform downtown into the vibrant, multiuse neighborhood we all get to enjoy today. Still, the rebuilding period came with challenges — chiefly, the many construction areas that served as temporary eyesores.   

So, in 2007, the Downtown Alliance started a groundbreaking initiative that aimed to mitigate the visual effects of the rebuilding, as well as to support local artists. Called ReConstruction, the program recast construction barriers as large-scale canvases for temporary public art. Over the course of its five year run, it unveiled nearly 40 works of art amid a fast-changing post-9/11 Lower Manhattan. Noteworthy pieces included “Flying Animals,” by Caitlin Hurd, at 99 Washington Street; Tattfoo Tam’s “Concrete Jungle” at Fulton Center; Maya Barkai’s “Men at Work” at Liberty and Church streets; and “Star Sun Burst,” by Tayiana Murray, at Hudson Street. 

Thanks to ReConstruction, which concluded in 2013, Lower Manhattan’s sidewalks became more user-friendly, its streetscape more scenic, and thought-provoking and delightful art was integrated into the pedestrian experience. In 2016, we put out a publication cataloging all 40 artworks on display, so our temporary living gallery can live on for many more years. Not that ReConstruction marked the end of our relationship with public art…but more on that to come!  

photo: “Downtown Dogs” by Malin Abrahamsson