Brooklyn Bucolic

Years ago I did a sketch for a proposed public art installation at the Pleasantville Train Station and, though another design was chosen, I was contacted four years later by Arts for Transit, the MTA division responsible for art in the subway, and asked to apply some of my ideas to the landmarked Avenue H Station House in the Fiske Terrace – Midwood Park Historic District of Brooklyn. The low, one story, wood frame station, with its wraparound, post-and-beam colonade and heavy eaves, suggests a slower, more rural take on rapid transit. The installation of full-size cast bronze Mt. Lebanon style rocking chairs has transformed that colonnade from a place of passage to a place of repose, thus providing Fiske Terrace – Midwood Park with a new front porch.

Brooklyn Bucolic Copyright Ed Kopel. Avenue H Station.

Commissioned and owned by MTA Arts for Transit and Urban Design.

Photos: Copyright Francis Dzikowski/Esto