Fence at the World Financial Center Plaza in Battery Park City

Artist: Siah Armajani; Scott Burton; M. Paul Friedberg

Architect: Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects

Collection: The Battery Conservancy

Date: Constructed, 1986

Inset into the metal railings overlooking the cove are quotes from poets Walt Whitman and Frank O'Hara in big bronze letters celebrating the exhilarating spirit of New York City. “City of the Sea!…City of wharves and stores-city of tall facades of marble and iron! Proud and passionate city!” (City of Ships, Whitman) and “One need never leave the confines of New York to get all the greenery one wishes-I can’t even enjoy a blade of grass unless I know there’s a subway handy, or a radio store or some other sign that people do no totally regret life” (Meditations in an Emergency, O'Hara)