The Giant Artwork New Yorkers Love to Hate Has a Helpful Little Secret

Originally published by Jack Forster on Hodinkee.

It's something to which most New Yorkers don't give a second glance (or a second thought). On the south side of Union Square, in downtown Manhattan, there is a rather enigmatic—well, at first it's hard to tell what it is. Above the mundane storefronts of a Best Buy and a Duane Reade, there is a strange-looking display of numbers flickering down at you. Tourists stop to look at it and take pictures, but there's nothing on the façade of One Union Square South to explain what you're looking at, and residents are too busy rushing from one place to another to spare an upward glance to the display – part of an unusual art installation that incorporates a very enigmatic clock, and includes a spherical moonphase.