Less than two months after the Terminal opened one astute commuter noticed that the design of the ceiling is actually backwards west is east and east is west. Uranometria image courtesy of the United States Naval Observatory Library Orion as he appears in the Uranometria versus the Grand Central mural. Drawing heavily from Johann Bayer’s 1603 Uranometria for the design of the constellations, the mural was originally painted right onto the Terminal’s plaster vaulted ceiling. Monroe Hewlett and painter Charles Basing of the Hewlett-Basing Studio in Brooklyn, as well as astronomer Dr. The Grand Central ceiling took dozens of people to create but was primarily the work of five men: architect Whitney Warren, of Warren & Wetmore, the Terminal’s architects, French artist Paul Helleu, muralist J. Even before Grand Central Terminal officially opened on FebruNew Yorkers were teased with descriptions of the starry mural that had been painted on its vaulted ceiling, with the New York Times telling of its “effect of illimitable space” and how “fortunately there are no chairs in the concourse or…some passengers might miss their trains while contemplating this starry picture.” While the effect the painting has on commuters today is the same, the mural has undergone significant change.
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