When was the last time New York City took your breath away? The Cities of Awe Lab presents an exploration of how moments of wonder emerge across different neighborhoods - and asks: Can shared experiences of awe help us imagine a more connected urban life?
Cities of Awe: New York City
Beyond New York's scale, landmarks, and skyline, people experience the city through moments of awe in everyday life. In this exhibition, we turned our attention to these shared experiences and consider what they reveal about how people relate to the city and one another.
This exhibition and event series marks the first public experiment of the Cities of Awe Lab. Working with local partners, we invited New Yorkers to record moments that amazed them: to share stories, mark locations on maps, and reflect on where and how awe shows up in their neighborhoods. Through photos, interviews, maps, videos, and participatory activities, residents and students were asked to see familiar surroundings with fresh eyes.
Cities of Awe: New York City brings these contributions together as a collective portrait of awe. Rather than offering a single narrative, it reveals patterns and contrasts—showing how wonder emerges through everyday life, shaped by place, memory, and community.
Through these methods—and by listening closely to the deeply personal stories of place—clear themes began to surface. Across all the material gathered, two stood out: the quiet but powerful role of collective kindness in everyday city life, and the profound sense of awe inspired by New York’s layered, grand and monumental built environment.
Collective Kindness
Collective kindness is at the heart of New York City—a quiet, everyday force made visible through sudden moments of generosity and coordinated acts of care that hold the city together.
The stories reveal a pattern of instinctive care: people sharing food or power during crises, offering a helping hand when someone has fallen, sharing a dry spot under an umbrella, or shoveling a neighbor’s stoop just because. These small acts form a network of generosity that is easy to overlook, yet essential to how New Yorkers experience belonging. Across the 183 stories collected through the Calling Home installation, at least 27 centered on kindness and helping others.
This is a form of moral beauty—the emotional resonance of witnessing people choose to care, even when they don’t have to. Whether it’s keeping public spaces clean, making a block more beautiful, or offering support to someone who is vulnerable, these gestures remind us that the city’s strength comes from its people. The stories that follow show that collective kindness is not rare in New York; it is a shared ethic that helps the city endure, adapt, and thrive.
The Dynamic Built Environment
New York’s built environment has a rare ability to stop people in their tracks. Awe unfolds in both expected and surprising ways. The skyline, iconic architecture, and sweeping views remind us of what humans are capable of building together—structures so ambitious they expand our sense of possibility.
For many, awe arrives in the simple act of looking up. But the city’s grandeur is only one part of its magic. Awe also appears in spontaneous collective moments and quiet surprises: a block erupting into song on New Year’s Eve, strangers moving in rhythm, sunlight filtering through a small garden in Chinatown, or a park offering unexpected calm amid busy streets. These experiences reveal the power of being part of something larger than oneself—held together by spaces that gather us and softened by nature woven into the urban fabric.
These stories show how New York’s built environment continually invites wonder. Its scale inspires, its public spaces connect, and its pockets of nature delight through surprise. The awe people feel here is not incidental—it reflects a city built to hold multitudes, constantly renewing its capacity to amaze.
Explore what makes people in awe of New York
Click to explore a selection of stories, photos, and reflections on the places and people that make New York special
A Simple Gesture With Big Impact
“ At the Union Square farmers market, there’s a man who sells apples and always gives a free one to anyone who looks sad. One day, I must’ve looked miserable because he handed me one and said, “This one’s for restarting.” It worked better than any advice I’ve ever gotten.”
Unexpected Kindness on a Winter Day
“A couple of winters ago, I slipped on black ice and fell hard. Before I could even get up, three people rushed over — one handed me my hat, one grabbed my coffee, and one said, “You good?” They were gone before I could say thank you. New York can be rough, but sometimes it catches you.”
A Daily Glimpse of Lady Liberty’s Majesty
“I make sure to always go down this street because there is a straight shot down to where you can see the Statue of Liberty. And every single time I go to the Sunset Park branch, I always make sure to take the same route so that I can always catch a glimpse of Lady Liberty. She always floors me whenever I get to see her and all her majestic beauty, straight down, uninterrupted, no skyscrapers, no cars, no tree, just me and Lady Liberty for a good 10 seconds. Even better when I catch the red light and I'm able to just sit around and see Lady Liberty. So really great experience. Always leaves me in awe and wonder of this great neighborhood.”
A Hidden Garden in Chinatown
“I was walking down Chinatown once, like near Canal Street, and I stumbled onto this beautiful little community garden called Elizabeth Street Garden, and the sun was shining in just the right ways, where like the rays were hitting the grass. There's like a Victorian fountain, like a live band playing, and people were just lounging around.”
Mutual-Aid in Action after Hurricane Sandy
“So there was a moment after Hurricane Sandy in our neighborhood in Park Slope when the community all came together to create a humane shelter at the armory. And there were 500 people there, and we created a wellness center. And people wrote stories and told stories and sang music. And people from all over the neighborhood came and took care of each other. And we had this image in our minds of the Superdome as this horrible shelter after Katrina, so we tried to create the opposite. And it was a beautiful picture of people.”
New Yorkers Making the Most of Winter
"After a heavy snowfall, so many people came out to sled in the park! I loved seeing them repurpose old refrigerator as sleds—such a fun and creative idea!”
Everyday Wonders Only New York Can Offer
"Seeing things that you’d only see in NYC like pigeons riding the train in a pair lets you know that you’re apart of something wild and unique."
Creating Public Art as a Community
"Behind the scenes of community mural. Its on 4th ave /between 34-36th st. Even weekday and hot day, local people came and helped painting.”
Finding Nature Where You’d Least Expect It
"This is Brooklyn Grange at Sunset Park (roof top farm). After get out from elevator, I didn’t expect to see a beautiful garden."
A Childhood Moment of Architectural Awe
“A moment in New York City that amazed me was when I was around 3 years old and I was walking on 34th Street and I looked up and saw the Empire State Building and it was just so huge and I think it was the first time I realized scale and just the crazy things that we create. Obviously in retrospect I'm saying that but it was a moment of awe for me of whoa when I was so little seeing this big structure.”
Little Gestures from a Big City Heart
“Once I was crying on the subway, and a girl I didn’t know just handed me a tissue. New Yorkers don’t always come off as the nicest, but they are kind. It’s those small, genuine moments of community that make the city feel so unique.”
subway
elizabeth garden
new year
hurricane sandy
subway crying
mural
snow sled
anti ICE
cemetery
sunset community
New tree
Candles
Apple
Brooklyn Grange
Pigeons
Empire
Sunset Park
Black Ice
Liberty
Connected Communities in Sunset Park
“Sunset Park has a very strong community. Feels very wholesome. Lots of families. People stay and build families for generations. It's got at nice family, community feel. After wandering and moving around a lot in NY, it finally feels like a place that I feel rooted in.
A Candle That Became a Memory of Care
“A few years ago, a blackout hit my neighborhood. A deli owner lit candles inside and handed them out to people walking by. He said, “We have light, we share light.” I still have that candle. I’ve never burned it”
Finding Awe i the Daily Commute
“One thing that brings me awe in New York almost every day is riding the Q train across the Manhattan Bridge and seeing the view of New York Harbor and lower Manhattan and Brooklyn from the train window. no matter how long I live in New York. I will never get tired of that view no matter how long I live in New York.”
Communities Standing up for One Another
A Tiny Greeting From a Growing Tree
"I love this tag from when the new tree was planted. It looks like the tree tries to say “Hi” to us. This is super sweet.”
Special Moments in Spiritual Places
Discovering Awe in Sunset Park
"This is literally Sunset Park. I’ve never been to such a beautiful park. The first time I saw the sunset here, it truly filled me with awe."
When the Block Breaks Out in Song
“On New Year’s Eve, around midnight, someone in my building started playing Sinatra’s “New York, New York” through their window. Within seconds, people leaned out of theirs, shouting the lyrics into the cold air. For three minutes, the whole block sang together, completely out of tune — but perfectly in sync. Then, as the music ended, someone yelled, “Same time next year?” And everyone cheered.”
Feeling a Small Part of a Big Planet
When Culture Comes Off the Stage and Onto the Streets
Iconic Sites of Protest, Celebration, and Public Life
something bigger
chills
tears
Methods
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Calling Home
An installation with Domestic Data Streamers
Calling Home invited New Yorkers to pause and reflect on one moment in NYC that amazed them, and they would want future generations to inherit. Through an immersive installation designed with our partners Domestic Data Streamers, participants shared stories of amazement—memories anchored in place, people, or unexpected encounters with the city. These moments formed a living archive of wonder, revealing what New Yorkers hope endures in the city’s collective memory.
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Wonder Conductors
Community-led documentation using Eye Level City
Our Wonder Conductors program empowered residents to become researchers of awe in their own neighborhood, Sunset Park. Using Eye Level City, local community members documented where wonder shows up in their daily lives, capturing photos, recording interviews with neighbors about their awe-filled moments, and filming short videos. Their contributions offer grounded, intimate perspectives—showing how awe emerges not just in iconic landmarks, but in the rhythms and relationships that define everyday neighborhood life.
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Map
Tracking emotional responses across the city
In an Awe Mapping activity, participants marked places where they felt chills, teared up, or felt connected to something larger than themselves. These emotional waypoints form a collective map of New York’s awe hotspots: feelings of chills and connection cluster in nature-rich spaces like the Rockaways or Prospect Park, In visually powerful places such as the waterfronts of Brooklyn Bridge Park or Long Island City or the charming human-scaled streets of lower manhattan, welling up in tears was more common. These correlations hint at how different qualities of a place may evoke distinct or collective emotional responses, helping us understand how awe is experienced across the city. Explore the map here.
Where does awe show up in your city?
What moments make your city feel larger than yourself?
Where do you pause, look up, or feel unexpectedly connected to others?
Prompt: Take an Awe Walk through your neighborhood. Move slowly.
Notice what stops you—an act of kindness, beauty, a shared moment, a space that gathers people together. Pay attention not only to what you see, but to how you feel. Awe doesn’t announce itself. It often appears in the ordinary, waiting to be noticed.
Exhibition and event information
WonderSALON
October 25, 2025
El Museo del Barrio
WonderFEST
October 25, 2025
Brooklyn Public Library, Sunset Park
WonderSALON & WonderFEST were brought to you by
Cities of Awe Lab: A partnership between UC Berkeley, Gehl and the Gambrell Foundation. Advancing the science, design, and cultural practice of awe in cities.
Team Wonder: Nisha Baliga, Betsy MacLean & Casey Wang—a collective of experienced planners, designers, innovators and strategists who dream big and dig deep. team-wonder.com
These events were made possible by the generous support of
The Gambrell Foundation and Resilient Democracy Hub
Collaborators
Dr Dacher Keltner, a Distinguished Professor of Psychology at UC Berkeley, faculty director of the Greater Good Science Center and host of its award-winning podcast, the Science of Happiness. His research focuses on the biological and cultural evolution of compassion, awe, love, beauty, and humility, as well as power, social class, and inequality.
Sunset Park Wonder Conductors, eight extraordinary Sunset Park residents who captured neighborhood stories through interviews, photos and videos. Their data will contribute to growing research on the role neighborhoods play in fostering belonging and inspiring awe.
Domestic Data Streamers, a Barcelona-based research and design studio partnering up with organizations across the globe to fight indifference and create change through data, community, and arts.
The People’s Creative Institute uses public art and participatory design to transform civic spaces, deepen community engagement, and spark social change.
City College of New York Social Mobility Lab aims to discover new ways to accelerate and expand opportunity for our students, their families and the communities they represent.
Partners
Brooklyn Public Library, City College of NY, El Museo del Barrio, Gehl, UC Berkeley, The People’s Creative Institute, Resilient Democracy Hub, EatOffBeat, Los Pleneros de la 21
Special Thanks to Bob McKinnon, Pierre Losson, Afoam, Aisle 5, Roxana Benavides, Amy Carroll, Gonzalo Casals, Jie Ling Chen, Monika Garcia, Danny Hoch, Luis Lopez, Opisina Halili, Tom Oesau, Aida Sherif, Isa Tariq Taha