Then/Now: How can a site-specific artwork enrich our appreciation of the environment?
Long before the Meatpacking District was the fashionable neighborhood that it is today—or a meatpacking district, for that matter—it was home to the Lenape people, a Dutch territory, and part of an English colony. A thriving maritime industry followed, and piers were built along the waterfront to receive ships from all over the world. Gordon Matta-Clark’s Day’s End (1975) was the artist’s way of repurposing a little piece of New York City history. David Hammons’s Day’s End (2014–21) similarly invites visitors to think about the past, present, and future of the local neighborhood.
69 Gansevoort Street
1938
2020
Gansevoort Plaza
1999
2020
Washington St. and Little West 12th St.
1980s
2019
Chelsea Market Passage/Nabisco Factory
Undated
2019
Gansevoort and Washington Streets
2000
2015
Pier 52
1901
1951
Day's End
Gordon Matta-Clark, 1975
David Hammons, 2021
Additional Resources
6sqft: Images of the Meatpacking District in the 1980s and 1990s.
Forgotten New York: Historical images of the Meatpacking District.