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Case Study: LaGuardia Terminal B

The Story

In 2017, LaGuardia Gateway Partners (LGP), the company transforming the new LaGuardia Airport Terminal B, engaged Public Art Fund to conceptualize and oversee a comprehensive art program for the redevelopment of the new Terminal B. Collaborating closely with LGP leadership, Public Art Fund curated and developed projects with a group of international artists whose original and iconic permanent commissions express the vital essence of New York City.

Opened in phases between 2018–2022, Terminal B serves as a key feature of the most dramatic transformation of New York City’s transportation infrastructure in a generation. Working at an unprecedented scale, artists Jeppe Hein, Sabine Hornig, Sarah Sze, and Laura Owens created four permanent public art installations that anchor the space, enhance the passenger experience, and underscore New York’s global position as a beacon for arts and culture.

Impact and Highlights

Impact

  • Over 15 million passengers a year passing through the terminal are inspired by the four artworks on view.

  • LaGuardia Terminal B became the first North American airport terminal to receive a perfect 5-star Skytrax rating, thanks in part to its powerful public art installations.

  • LaGuardia Terminal B received the honor of the best new airport at UNESCO’s Prix Versailles in 2021.

  • Terminal B was awarded the world’s best new terminal based on a global passenger survey conducted by Skytrax. 

Highlights

  • Each artwork has a “lightness of being” in both form and content, adapting to the monumental scale of the Terminal B building with works that seem to float in and animate space in intriguing ways.

  • Artworks make an essential contribution to the passenger experience, creating a sense of respite and relaxation amidst a stressful airport environment.

  • Artworks were designed to be in dialogue with the architectural design. Sabine Hornig’s work highlights the natural light filtering in from the expansive windows, and Laura Owens’ mosaic follows angles of the terminal’s high wall.

  • The artworks invite travelers to linger in pleasant surroundings, resulting in longer passenger dwell times in commercial areas.

Project Timeline

Artists and Artworks

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Jeppe Hein, All Your Wishes

  • About All Your Wishes: 70 steel mirror balloons and three “Social Bench” sculptures spark joy, alter perceptions, and foster connection amidst the hustle of Terminal B.

  • About Jeppe Hein: Based in Berlin, Hein creates sculptures and installations that upend the traditional relationship between artwork and spectator. His interventions in public spaces are activated by viewers’ participation.

  • Behind the Scenes: Public Art Fund collaborated with Hein’s studio to adapt initial designs into stainless steel to meet safety code, resulting in new color applications and fabrication techniques that pushed new boundaries for the artist.

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Laura Owens, I 🍕 NY

  • About I 🍕 NY: 60,000+ handmade glazed ceramic tiles spanning two levels of Terminal B form this ambitious mosaic mural celebrating icons of New York City.

  • About Laura Owens: The Los Angeles-based artist takes an experimental approach to painting that embraces a breadth of sources—fine art, folk art, pop culture, and technology— to explore the consumption of contemporary visual culture.

  • Behind the Scenes: Public Art Fund facilitated the studio’s complex tile grid map installation, coordinating teams of installers, color coding, and methods for affixing tiles on a vast, irregularly shaped interior wall. 

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Sarah Sze, Shorter than the Day

  • About Shorter than the Day: Sarah Sze’s largest and most structurally complex sculpture evokes the cyclical passage of time through a constellation of hundreds of photographs of the New York City sky forming a “floating” mirage-like sphere.

  • About Sarah Sze: Based in New York City, Sze creates elaborate assemblages from various media—including photography, film, and found objects—to investigate the intersections of information, technology, materiality, and time.

  • Behind the Scenes: Public Art Fund worked with Sze to adapt her initial proposal to  meet engineering considerations, collaborating with the base building team to develop the final design. The support structure that suspends the work was constructed to mimic the surrounding finishes, effectively camouflaging the installation and seamlessly descending from the ceiling.

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Sabine Hornig, La Guardia Vistas

  • About La Guardia Vistas: The artist’s largest installation to date, Sabine Hornig filled Terminal B Connector’s expansive glass façade with a photo collage that merges 1,100+ photos of New York City, basking travelers with a kaleidoscopic wash of color, image, and text.

  • About Sabine Hornig: The Berlin-based artist creates images and environments combining photography, sculpture, and installation to reveal new perspectives while examining political and social structures and histories.

  • Behind the Scenes: Public Art Fund worked with Hornig to facilitate her on-location photography across Queens, taking thousands of images which she stitched together to create the final composition.

Visit the exhibition webpage for more information on the artworks.

Testimonials

“Building a whole new airport at LaGuardia doesn’t just mean bricks and mortar… it also means transforming the experience for travelers with striking artwork that captures the energy of New York. We are delighted that through the partnership with Public Art Fund, these ambitious pieces can serve as focal points inside the new Arrivals and Departures Hall at LaGuardia’s Terminal B,” —Rick Cotton, Executive Director at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey

“Doing public art is a real commitment because it requires a collaboration. So when you see a public art piece, it’s the city, it’s the workers who take care of that space, it’s the government, it’s the public, it’s safety. It’s making the unimaginable possible. Public Art Fund is actually pretty fearless and completely committed to taking all this on.” — Sarah Sze, artist

In the Press

Public Art Fund’s Communications team implemented a media strategy that resulted in over 40 unique press stories in local and national lifestyle, business, arts, and travel outlets. Highlights include:

As a non-profit organization, Public Art Fund relies on contributions from individuals, corporations, and foundations to make extraordinary public art available and accessible to audiences of all ages and backgrounds—at absolutely no charge! Gifts at every level make a difference and are 100% tax-deductible. Thank you for supporting public art!

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