9. Artwork Hidden in Plain Sight at the Atlantic Avenue-Barclays Center Station
The subway entrance above Brooklyn’s Atlantic Avenue-Barclays Center station has a secret wellspring of life inside: an installation called Line (Sea House) by the artist George Trakas, commissioned by MTA Arts & Design, and created in collaboration with diDomenico and Partners in 2004 that takes up the entire original Beaux-arts fare control center. The project used artistic vision, architectural experience, and the space’s unique potential in order to create a more pleasurable and aesthetically pleasing transit experience. Trakas and the architects worked together to create a a plaza, skylight, staircase, and corridor made of limestone, brushed steel, and granite, and Trakas designed a massive steel boat-like structure that sways high above the ocean of travelers beneath.
From inside the above-ground kiosk, visitors can look through a peephole equipped with a lens to see the boat-shaped contraption made of stainless steel hanging just underneath the glass, as well as a granite wave that crests at the meeting place between the passageways that link Atlantic Avenue and Pacific Street.