The New York Earth Room

Service was wonderful. The guy behind the desk let us in!
They had a wide variety of the one thing they offer-dirt in a room.
At free, it was a great value and a must see on anyone's tourist visit to NYC. I say tourist because all the locals have seen it already, right? Right?

Its twin is the Broken Kilometer around the corner. Check it out and ask questions.

Sometimes you meet friends in unexpected places... like in an apartment filled with dirt. The earth room was an immersive and sensory experience both in scent and sight. Beare was curious about how the dirt was maintained for insects and air quality. Belly wondered if a plant could grow in this environment without light. And freaky old lady, Pauline, was trying to make a claim that buildings would be better off filled with dirt. The space was an interesting adventure, but reaffirms that even something as simple as a room full of dirt can be made complicated by someone who needs attention.

Originally read about this installation in a novel called Severance by Ling Ma. If you haven't read it, highly recommended. Anyway, I looked it up to see if it fact it was a real thing and it was!
At a time like this in '22, the fact that this body of earth exists, an isolated space where life is not allowed to grow, is fascinating to me.
After looking up the hrs and making sure they were current, I decided to visit The Earth Room on the first Sunday- the one day a week the main caretakers of the installation are off - of the new year. It was a wonderful experience I would do again. Highly recommended! I sat on the floor with my legs crossed and contemplated.

Why not visit a free art exhibit in SoHo? We went on a Saturday at 2:30pm. Pressed the door button for 2B and heard the door buzz to be opened. Walked up the narrow stair to the second floor and started to smell and feel the humidity of the space as we got closer.

For those who don't know how to approach abstract art like this, take it as a chance to be introspective and self-observant. Use all of your senses, observe how you feel, what you think, and what questions are raised for you. WTF, OMG, and SMH are all equally valid emotional responses. The fact that you HAVE a response- even if it's a confused one- is part of the experience.

What might you think about when you look at a space full of dirt?

- it feels humid in here, it must get watered
- it smells kind of moldy, but it's not moldy
- it looks textured as if it's raked regularly
- how do they prevent things from growing
- it seems filled in just to window height
- does dirt get added over time
- this has been here for 35 years
- current rents on a space like this are crazy
- did they build the smaller room as part of the space or was that there to begin with
- how does the dirt affect the rest of the materials in the space

Then you may start getting more esoteric:
- it feels very much "alive" as if it is breathing, not static or stale
- seems fluffy and fresh for an old pile of dirt
- this artist has passed, but this dirt remains

Luckily, there's always a museum attendant available to answer your questions and dialogue with about your musings- no matter how strange.

(I only deducted a star because the elevator access doesn't seem to be readily available for exhibit visitors with physical limitations.)

A very cool place to check out if you are in the area looking for a truly unique free experience!

The New York Earth room is exactly what you get. A HUGE room filled with a few feet of dirt. It's cool place offers many wonderful questions:

Why was this place designed to have so much dirt? How did they get so much soil up so many flights of stairs? Why is there nothing planted in here? Does it represent the desolation of the modern man admits all the fast technology?

Your gonna have to go and find out! I for one did not expect to feel or wonder so many things when going to such a simple place... after all it is JUST a huge room with "clean" dirt in it. BUT this is the kind of experience you look for when you go for an artistic experience(especially with abstract art). You go and let the environment captain you to a feeling.

I went with my mother and she had a completely different experience... she felt it was a waste of time, effort, and money and worried if the soil was going to contain harmful pathogens for us to breath.

For me THIS is the artistic value of coming here. Not only did it give such striking interpretations of discussion, it offers a nice window into who the person of interpretation is at the time of the experience. Overall I had a great experience and the whole journey was approximately 10-15 minutes. I highly recommend checking this place out! Quick and commitment free!

Cool experience but you can't take a photo. The guy working the desk didn't seem too knowledgeable or friendly. He just directed us to read about it in the pamphlet. Interesting concept.

Be forewarned: this is a second-floor apartment with every room filled to thigh-level with dirt. There is one viewing alcove where you can admire aforementioned dirt. That is it.

I rated it 3 because it's exactly as stated and I can't bash honest advertising. It remains a room of dirt though. I've been informed that it's best after they water it on Tuesdays, so maybe visit on Wednesday after they rake it as well. Ring buzzer 2B and walk up the stairs.

It's free so maybe worth the visit, just make sure you know what to expect.

I came all the way down from Albany on a Trailways bus, just to see this magnificent room. It was worth every penny. As a dirt aficionado, the soil was of the finest quality, tilled to perfection, and smelled of the dashed hopes and dreams of my younger days.

I see a fellow reviewer complained that "there was nothing growing [in the earth]," dare I say: are you looking for the PLANT room? This is clearly not the plant room. I don't go to McDonald's and review it, complaining, "there was no filet mignon on the menu."

Come for the Earth. Love the Earth. F%$# plants.

This should of been a one star review as some foundation is paying for an expensive space to house an apartment full of dirt. 20 years long? I love art but hard to call dirt art. The dirt is watered once a week to keep it wet. The three stars is it gave my husband and I a few laughs throughout our week stay in NYC.

Sometimes when friends come out of town you go the nine yards. Start early with a bougie brunch, hit up a couple museums and a couple parks, show them your favorite Chinatown hole-in-the-wall, barhop until you can no longer hop...

And then sometimes the next day you're hungover and need to run errands and return a sweater so your plans for the day become "let's walk around in Soho" but it turns out that about 2 hours of capitalism are all you can take and you feel like a bad friend for taking your friend to a glorified mall instead of showing them New York's arts and culture.

This is when the Earth Room comes in clutch. It's the ideal spot to pop in, breathe in some moist air, and feel like you actually are doing things.

All the facts fit to whisper, because after all, it is a gallery:

- It's by Walter de Maria, a conceptual, minimalist, and land artist (and a peer of the Spiral Jetty guy if you took Art History)
- It's been at this location for 33 years
- They change out the soil once a year (and the same guy has done it for 23 years! http://blog.openingceremony.com/entry.asp?pid=5798)
- It's sponsored by the Dia Foundation, which also runs a small gallery in Chelsea and a big and impressive collection upstate

There's a guy in the next room who will tell you a few similarly informative facts, but I usually avoid him and just stare at dirt for a few moments with my (confused, but not unhappy) visitor. No pictures allowed Sample discussion questions for after: why here, why dirt, where is the dirt from, is this art?

Similar slices of culture in the neighborhood: The Broken Kilometer (a conceptual piece also by de Maria) and Dream House by MELA Foundation (Dia-associated installation with meditative sound and light).

Not worth a trip downtown but definitely a worthy break.