800 Tenth Avenue

2010, enamel on EIFS

800 Tenth Avenue is a 6500 sq. ft. mural on two exterior walls of a condominium building in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan. The urban concept is to create a vertical landscape for the neighborhood and to help visually connect Manhattan’s first community garden with its largest park – Dewitt Clinton Park to the west and Central Park to the east.

The mural is designed in relation to the surroundings and the unique perpendicular position of the two walls. The painted windows on the large wall align with actual windows on adjacent facades, and the image of trees accentuates the planted trees along the street. The small wall articulates an implied spatial connection through cast light and shadow patterns.

The colors of the painted windows are calibrated to respond to different times of day, as if to reflect the sky or glow with interior light. During the evenings, the intensity of the yellow leaves gives way to tonal relationships, and the windows become stronger, creating a subtle transition as day turns to night and back again.

Commissioned by Alchemy Properties; Installation by Colossal Media; Photography by Ngoc Minh Ngo