A SoHo Loft Filled With Earth

Up a flight of stairs at 141 Wooster Street, a SoHo loft holds nothing but soil. Walter De Maria's The New York Earth Room covers 3,600 square feet of floor to a depth of 22 inches: about 250 cubic yards of earth, weighing roughly 280,000 pounds. It was installed in 1977 as a three-month exhibition at Heiner Friedrich's gallery, and it simply stayed. When Friedrich helped found the Dia Art Foundation, Dia took on its permanent care, and it still maintains the room today. De Maria had filled a gallery in Munich with earth in 1968; the New York version is the one that lasted. There is nothing to do here but stand at the edge and look at a room of dark, level dirt. Admission is free.