New Yorkers have dirty minds

There was a time when almost every episode of CSI:NY would start with a crowd of pretty young things partying in some secret and usually illegal New York nightspot.  Who knows what it takes to be invited to those events, but it is still possible to visit some unique – and entirely legal – places in Manhattan that definitely fly under the tourist radar.  

Consider the New York Earth Room.  

Located on the second floor of an anonymous storefront on Wooster Street in Soho, the Earth Room is a 335 square-metre space covered with 197 cubic metres of dirt.  But it’s not just any dirt.  New York’s Earth Room is a celebration of a lot of rich, loamy topsoil.  Measuring 56-centimetres deep, the entire “art installation” by Germany’s Walter de Maria weighs a staggering 127,300 kilograms!  Admission is (fortunately) free.

And before you wonder whether everyone in this town has officially lost their marbles, it’s worth noting that New York’s Earth Room has actually been on view to the public since 1980.  It’s also the third Earth Room de Maria ever created; the first two works were exhibited in Germany, but they no longer exist.  New York, for the win!