God in Grand Central Station

By: Nita Prelvukaj

Thousands of people walk through Grand Central Station on their commute every morning. I spent a year walking in and out of trains, shops and resturants in Grand Central Station never fully looking up to admire the Celestial ceiling. New York is a fast city and Grand Central is a blur as we bolt through our day.

Decorated by artist Paul Helleu in 1912, the Celestial Ceiling at Grand Central Station features a motif of the zodiac. This design is famously inverted: some say because Helleu was inspired by a medieval manuscript showing the heavens, as they would be seen from outside celestial sphere. Others believe he simply made a mistake.

The ceiling also holds the eminence of history. In the middle of the stars above the symbol of Pisces appears a small-darkened circle. In 1957 the Soviet Union launched Sputnik. In order to reassure the American public, the Main Concourse became the location of a Redstone missile. It was so big that a hole had to be made in the ceiling to allow it to be comfortably housed.

Image of the Celestial Ceiling 

In 1998 a 12-year restoration project of Grand Central was completed. The massive mural adorning the ceiling of the concourse was obscured by filth for decades and was nearly forgotten about until restoration began. The constellations appear in reverse from how they would appear looking at the night sky. The idea was that this is the night sky from the view of God. Tucked away in the corner of the cave like space is a small, unrestored portion of the ceiling, to let people see what it looked like before the restoration.

The ceiling itself depicts what to me looks like a late Renaissance version of a celestial map: figures of the zodiac or star formations depicted in gold over a blue ground and God watching over the people of New York as they go about their day.