After sitting for an hour inside the apple store of grand central station I was already starting my adventure on the scavenger hunt in a less then favorable mood. After hearing about the death of my phones battery I was not ready to believe that the crowded rush hour station could “evoke calm and be an uplifting experience.” When starting the list I found myself rushing and moving as quickly as possible to try and find the items on the list it wasn’t until I actually slowed down and started to just look around and examine the space that I was in that I found the beauty and joy in Grand Central Station.
After following people with my eyes in the Grand Concourse I started by finding the Richard Lipoid structure. Located in the Met Life Building the sculpture, “Light” used light to create different illusions and changing angels and perceptions of the piece. I noticed that very few people seemed to notice the piece; However, many of them seemed to be regular commuters.
Through out my three hour journey I was able to find eight ways of telling time. First the most obvious the clock found in the Grand Concourse. Next, I noticed the track information that also displayed the time. I found another list of departures that also displayed the time. Then I found my way down stairs where I also found a few more clocks hanging up. I realized I had been forgetting the most used time device in the building and the one that even I had been using, a cellphone. After going up stairs again I found another clock in Vanderbilt Hall
As I was walking around I also noticed the mural with a bi-plane on the ceiling. I had walked through that hall several times already and not noticed it. Close near there I also found, what I believe is a carving of a dragon.
I went back to the Grand Concourse and started at the ceiling for a little bit. My zodiac sign wasn’t there; However, I did find a few signs of wear and tear on the building that I researched a little bit. The first a piece of the ceiling that was left uncleaned after the ceiling restoration process in 1998. Some of this dirt was caused by trains and soot but more then 70% of it is nicotine and tar from cigarette smoking. Another interesting spot in the ceiling above the pisces symbol, a small hole. This was caused in 1957 when a rocket was placed for display in the terminal and did not actually fit.
While there I also noticed that most people were taking selfies on the balconies over looking the grand concourse. I also found my best dressed passerby here. It wasn’t about this women in uniform but here attitude. She gave me one of my interesting quotes, She yelled out “Eliza!” and a girl turned around to look at her and she laughed “Oh my god, you are like the 5th one!”
Next I went downstairs to check out the Guastavino vaulted ceilings and the whisper chamber.
In this area I also found an original piece of the building that isn’t necessarily used in the same way. It isn’t made completely obsolete but it is changing and updating with the times, like the rest of the building. The information booth that no doubt would have once been filled with people giving other people information replaced all but one of its windows with television screens that display the departure times and locations with ever-changing information.
I found the whole station to be so loud that it was extremely difficult to get any snippets of conversation. You had to be incredibly close to another person to hear what they were discussing. Tiny pieces would float around like, “That’s so weird!”, “I’m gonna take a picture!”, “Is it still raining out there?”, and “Oh my God, i am so hungry.”. I was also able to catch people on cell phones, “Hi, Where are you?” and people talking to their friends in thick foreign accents, “Haha 100 to zero real quick!”. I heard a mothers answer to a childs question, “Yes baby, they had to climb up there to paint everything.”.
Unfortunately, The Transit Muesum was closed during my visit and I wasn’t able to find a giant compass rose; However, a kind stranger gave me a real rose. I think that should count for something. This was a great subject of conversation as many roses had been given out covering the station and I could hear some people exclaim, “Where are all the flowers coming from?” and “That lady was so sweet when I gave my flower to her.”
To finish off my trip I decided to take a Milk Shake Pit-Stop at Shake and Shack. I really liked the table I sat off made from wood that used to be a bowling alley.
A few more interesting pieces installed in the walls. When I stopped to read them I noticed that people were so confused. That would glance for a second and then go back to running.
