WTC construction fence

Design competition entry for the World Trade Center construction fence mural in New York (Church street side of the WTC site). 435 ft long and 7.5 ft high.

details





6 segments







the entire fence


The competition was organized by The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey , in cooperation with the New York City Department of Transportation. One of the main requirements was not to address terrorist attacks on 9/11/01. The design should liven up the busy Financial district while 9/11 Memorial is under construction.
The long strip of the mural is one continuous landscape that changes its character between the segments ― from cityscape to desert, to the seaside, to archaeological site, to a lake, and back to the cityscape. The landscape is in the form of a highly pixelated photograph. As you view the landscape, segments closer to you appear to be an abstract grid of colorful squares (pixels). As you look farther along the fence, the abstract pattern crystallizes into a legible image. The farther you look, the sharper the image becomes.
When viewing the closer segments, you may notice that smaller pixelated visual compositions, (a variety of animals and mythical beings in an arcadian-like landscape) are embedded into the main grid. These are visible when the spectator looks directly at the fence and they blend into the pattern when looked at from afar.