Eclipsed Publics is a polemic drawing that confronts the conditions of public space in Penn Station. At its core, it diagrams the most important truth of this site: the burial of public space underground, where civic life is eclipsed by infrastructure and commerce. From this central condition radiate other forces that shape the public realm in the station’s contemporary era.
The drawing interrogates how “public” space is often privatized or commodified, whether through controlled waiting areas, retail concessions, or privately owned public spaces. Overall, Penn Station is quite far away from a place of being; it’s much more a place of constant movement and uncomfortable waiting that would hardly ever be described as a destination any more than just a transit stop on a map.
