4. One World Trade Center

José Parlá‘s mural painting is the largest of its kind in the whole western hemisphere measuring up to 90 feet tall. The Brooklyn-based painter was commissioned to create a work for the new skyscraper that would be “unifying, instead of divisive,” says Andrew Dermont, who helped advise the project. The artist worked on the mural for eight months in the studio and the remaining two weeks on-site.

Parlá seemed like the right person for the job. His website biography states “his paintings reflect the accumulated memories and experiences [of cities], the walls show a place that was, but no longer is– built over, renewed in some other configuration.” He paints what he describes as “revelations… proof of the history of our neighborhoods.” In the wake of the tragedy of 9/11 and the strong rebuilding of the new Freedom Tower, this mural feels most apt.