The passageways and waiting areas of Grand Central's subway stations are like a bustling city, an underground community — but without a skyline. This mosaic artwork brings architectural views down below. 

As part of the 2020 upgrades to the 42 St Shuttle, Jackie Ferrara’s “Grand Central: Arches, Towers, Pyramids” (2000) was expanded to span the new six-car length of track 4 and wrap new stairs from the mezzanine. The project was originally conceived as a skyline for the underground passageways and waiting areas of Grand Central Terminal. Rendered as an expansive mosaic band more than 1,500 feet long, the artwork brings architectural views down below into the busting station. Original artwork and expansion were fabricated by COLORCO Ltd. 

Ferrara has long been interested in the simple and repetitive forms of building, and she uses forms that are simple and schematic, and almost primitive-looking structures. Taken together, they lend a unity and meditative character to the space; as people move through the platforms and passageways, the images seem to shift, and no two vistas are the same. Ferrara thinks of these as pieces of a mathematical puzzle. The spare simplicity and economy of design attracts viewers. Nothing is casual or unintentional in the artist's design, which she describes: "This sequence of stripe/image is calculated. It can be seen as images on a strip of film, or a line of faces framed in the windows of a passing train."

As a sculptor and public artist, Jackie Ferrara has explored relationships between sculpture and architecture in her pyramidal stacked structures, which have evolved from indoor pieces to increasingly large-scale outdoor works. Ferrara incorporates concrete and natural elements like rock, wood, water, trees, and grass in the construction of courtyards, terraces, walkways, and other structures emphasizing geometric design. Her architectural and landscape works can be seen throughout the United States and the United Kingdom. Ferrara is represented in the collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Louisiana Museum, Denmark; the MIT List Visual Arts Center; and the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, among others.