He Built This City

He Built This City: Joe Macken’s Model celebrates the extraordinary vision and dedication behind one of the most ambitious handmade representations of New York City ever created. For the first time in New York—Macken’s muse—the artist’s monumental model will be presented to the public at the Museum of the City of New York.

Queens-born artist Joe Macken began the project in 2003. Over the next 21 years, working first in Middle Village, Queens and later in Clifton Park, New York, he devoted himself to crafting a vast architectural portrait of the city he calls home. Built entirely by hand using everyday materials—including balsa wood, cardboard, and glue—the model spans 55 by 30 feet and comprises 350 individual sections. It renders the city’s skyline, neighborhoods, and landmarks with remarkable precision, character, and imagination. Macken started with the Comcast Building at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, infusing its familiar form with details that signal his personal artistic vision.

The model will be installed in the Museum’s Dinan Miller Gallery, steps away from the permanent exhibitions New York at Its Core and Timescapes. Together, these presentations create a dynamic conversation about the city’s evolution. While New York at Its Core explores four centuries of transformation through themes of density, diversity, money, and creativity, and Timescapes animates the city’s physical expansion, Macken’s sweeping handmade model offers a tactile, artistic interpretation of New York’s built environment—bringing the city’s past and present into a shared, immersive space.