new york city state of mind

Sparkle, whimsey, and a touch of solemnity yesterday.

Hudson Yard, a high-end shopping mall, is beautiful any time of year but during Christmas it gets its sparkle on from top to bottom, everywhere you look. 

Some fun for the little ones (big people, too!). These toys just arrived on South Oculus Plaza. "REWIND,"  is an exhibition of six new large-scale public art sculptures by the New York-born contemporary artist WhIsBe. The installation blends fun, whimsy and bold design in a way that invites visitors to pause, look up and reconnect with a sense of play.

One World Trade Center gives one time to reflect on the events of 9/11/2001 and to hope for the future. At the 9/11 Memorial, white roses are the standard tribute, placed daily on victims' names for their birthdays to symbolize remembrance and purity, but red roses are sometimes left by visitors as a personal gesture of love, and remembrance for specific individuals, honoring their life and loss, often alongside the official white roses.

Just around the corner from the 9/11 Memorial and World Trade Center towers is an installation found in the AmEx building. Eleven Tears is a graceful and elegant tribute to the 11 American Express employees who died on September 11, 2001.
 
The installation consists of an 11-sided, 600-pound piece of natural Brazilian quartz that resembles a gigantic tear. This “tear” is set in a steel ring suspended from a 35-foot-high ceiling by 11 cables, and hovers over an 11-sided black granite fountain with the names of the employees etched into the granite, along with five words or phrases that describe the person. Drops of water gently fall like tears over these inscriptions.

The Rockefeller Center tree is now lit and will shine for New York City and all its visitors through mid-January 2026. The tree lighting was this past Wednesday and it was complete and utter mayhem in the blocks around the plaza. We stayed away on Wednesday but caught views on Thursday and Friday nights. It really is a beautiful beacon for the city that never sleeps.