For the next two weeks, one of New York City’s most recognizable landmarks will be transformed into the largest public art installation the city has seen in decades. Running through October 19, Dear New York reimagines Grand Central terminal—and the subway station below—as a sweeping “visual love letter” to the people of New York.“The general thesis is that all of New York is where the world comes together in a single place,” Brandon Stanton, the creator of the installation and the photographer behind Humans of New York, told ARTnews last week. “And there’s something almost sacred about that—it’s like a microcosm, a proof of concept that humanity can get along even when shoved into the smallest spaces.”For the first time in living memory, every inch of Grand Central’s advertising has been replaced with art. More than 150 digital screens—typically reserved for commercial ads and transit announcements—now display thousands of portraits and stories from Humans of New York’s vast archive. The installation marks the first time the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has unified its digital displays across both the terminal and its subway concourse.“This beautiful art installation transforms the terminal into a photographic display of New Yorkers telling their stories from all walks of life,” Mary John, MTA director of commercial ventures, said in a statement. “It serves as a powerful reminder of our shared humanity.”Stanton said his hope for the project was to encourage people to stop and feel something. “I just want to create as many of these little intersections and interventions in the lives of the people streaming through here,” he said. “I can’t change anyone’s life, but if even one person pauses and feels something—connection, solitude, a thought they’ve never had before—that’s my artistic goal.”For two weeks, Brandon Stanton’s Dear New York will take over Grand Central.Taurat HossainAt the heart of Dear New York is the collaboration between Stanton and a team of leading designers and artists. Serving as creative director of experience, David Korins—known for his sets for Hamilton, Dear Evan Hansen, and Immersive Van Gogh—designed an experience meant to merge storytelling and spectacle at an unprecedented civic scale.“We’ve intentionally captured every single square inch of advertisement—plus much, much more surface area—not to bombard people, but to engulf them,” Korins told ARTnews. “We want this to wash over you like a meditation. For some, it’ll be a mirror; for others, a portal into deep empathy.”Korins said the project came together as a kind of creative free fall. Once Stanton had secured the MTA partnership, the two began sketching how visitors might move through Grand Central—how the images, stories, and music would unfold as an experience rather than a static display. From the concourse to Vanderbilt Hall, they refined the display for emotion and flow, in what Korins described as “building the airplane on the way down.”The Main Concourse anchors the installation, with 50-foot projections surrounding commuters and visitors in a panorama of New York stories. The space features more than 100 hours of music programmed in partnership with the Juilliard School, with live performances by students, alumni, and faculty across classical, jazz, and historical programs. The piano in the center of the terminal, donated by Steinway & Sons, will remain accessible throughout the exhibition’s run.Juilliard student Joshua Mhoon, who is studying for a Masters in music, puts on a piano performance in the Grand Concourse as part of Dear New York. Taurat HossainThree days before the project launch, Stanton walked me through Grand Central’s main concourse. It was an experience in itself. As he described Dear New York, it was easy to see how it might change a straphanger’s regular commute, if only for a moment. While we spoke, newlyweds were being photographed just a few feet from the information booth. The groom dipped his bride low, stared into her eyes, the train of her wedding gown glowing on the concourse’s terrazzo floor. A group of nuns pointed toward the information board. A man in a blue-and-orange dashiki with a shiny leather briefcase walked by speaking into his earbuds. From above, the concourse must have looked like an ocean thick with life. But the installation isn’t just in the concourse—it’s all of Grand Central.Downstairs, the subway station offers an equally ambitious installation designed by Andrea Trabucco-Campos, partner at Pentagram and creative director of design for Dear New York. His team worked pro bono to conceive what the MTA describes as the most extensive use of physical subway space in its history.“Designing a public gallery in a place where four subway lines converge—with no real entry or exit point—was unlike anything we’d done before,” said Trabucco-Campos. “You can’t build a single, linear story down there. The space demands something dynamic—something you can step into at any moment and still understand.”Trabucco-Campos and his team at Pentagram built sections of the subway in 3D to understand its scale and visual flow. They approached it like a civic experiment—mapping the corridors, photographing the “column jungle,” and creating a typographic system inspired by the station’s early mosaics. The goal, he said, was to let the images and stories speak first, with the design acting as a frame rather than a brand. Every decision, from the sequencing of portraits to the rhythm of type, was meant to preserve the immediacy of Humans of New York while transforming it into a shared, physical experience.“It’s an immersive art installation by people, about people, featuring people, and consumed by people,” Stanton said. “The unifying thread through all of it is that we’re here to center and platform others.”An installation shot of Dear New York in Grand Central terminal’s Vanderbilt Hall.Taurat HossainIn Vanderbilt Hall, Dear New York expands into a community showcase, featuring work by emerging artists alongside pieces from more than 600 New York City public school students. Selected through an open call, the student works reflect the same spirit of inclusivity and civic pride that define Stanton’s project.“We are proud to provide all of our young artists with the space to shine and share their perspectives through photography and visual storytelling,” New York City Public Schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos said in a statement. “I am glad to see our students’ art celebrated through this partnership.”Beyond its scale, Dear New York also reimagines what public art can be. It’s both a cultural statement and a philanthropic act: Stanton is donating all proceeds from his companion book, Dear New York, beyond installation costs, to New York City charities.In scope and ambition, Dear New York recalls The Gates, Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s 2005 transformation of Central Park—but where The Gates turned nature into a canvas, Stanton has made a monument out of daily life. Both projects share a belief that art belongs to everyone, but Stanton’s version feels distinctly of this moment: a citywide self-portrait rendered in pixels instead of fabric, drawn from the faces and stories that define the place itself.“If it’s beautiful, it won’t be a failure,” Stanton said. “No matter what happens, it will have been worth it.”