As commuters and sightseers stream into the Moynihan Train Hall at Penn Station via the W33rd street entrance, they are bathed in colored light. If they look up, they’ll see the reason: a gorgeous glass triptych by Kehinde Wiley, the artist famous for painting Barack Obama’s official presidential portrait, set into the ceiling. At first glance, the design is similar to the religious imagery that adorns the ceilings of churches and government buildings throughout the US and Europe – angels lounging in the clouds, looking down at the people moving below. But a second look reveals that the angels in Wiley’s work, titled “Go,” look very different from those that grace European frescoes. These angels are young, Black New Yorkers dressed in modern fashions. And they’re not lounging – these angels are breakdancing across the clouds. The work is joyful and dynamic, celebrating the Black people who have shaped and will continue to shape this city. This colorful piece is a perfect welcome to the city for travelers arriving in New York. At any rate, it is certainly an improvement over the current iteration of Penn Station.

The new Moynihan Train Hall (housed in the former James A. Farley Post Office) acts as an extension of Penn Station for Amtrak and LIRR transit passengers. It also has some incredible public art including The Hive, which greets passengers at the 31st Street entrance. Created by the artist duo Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset, The Hive is a “fantastical inverted cityscape inspired by iconic buildings of cities around the world including New York, Chicago, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, London, and Paris.” The hanging structures are made of stainless steel and aluminum, measure up to nine-feet, weigh 30,000 pounds, and feature 72,000 LED lights. The structures hang from the ceiling like stalactites which pays “tribute to the highly developed cities we live in today while reminding us of our cave-dweller origins.” The mirrored baseplate places the viewer below into the fictional city above and allows you to forget at least for a few moments that soon you'll have to get on LIRR transit.