Unburied treasure: SU professor's ceramic murals makes reappearance with opening of subway station

In the underpass of New York City's Cortlandt Street station, local politicians and members of The Metropolitan Transportation Authority gathered in front of a luminous ceramic mural on Sept. 8 for a ribbon-cutting ceremony. It marked the reopening of the station's southbound platform.

Margie Hughto said she stood staring at her mural, a giant golden medallion studded with protruding stars and flanked by glossy, blue-green and copper tiles.

It's one of 12 ceramic relief murals in "Trade, Treasure and Travel." The professor of ceramics at the College of Visual and Performing Arts at Syracuse University had created it in 1997 for the station, just feet away from where World Trade Center 2 once stood.

"I feel like a lucky artist that I have this special space. My artwork was put in and allowed to go back," Hughto said of the murals that miraculously survived the attacks of 9/11.

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A decade ago, New Yorkers making their daily commute through the Cortlandt Street station passageway, connected to the World Trade Center Concourse, would see 12 murals lining the walls and hanging overhead.

"They would often stop and look around and go, ‘Wow,'" Hughto recalls, who often observed her artwork's effect on passers-by. "It was very striking. It certainly transformed that passageway."

Hughto molded the 12 panels entirely with clay, her favorite medium — one she mastered at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan as a graduate student and one she's been teaching to SU students since 1973. It's a stubborn medium, resistant to heat and durable enough to withstand the wear and tear of time.

But that didn't stop Hughto from taking careful measures to protect the murals. They were glued to the walls with an epoxy-based adhesive, coated with protective glaze.

"That's the thing about public art — the unpredictability is something that comes with the territory," she said. "You don't always know what's going to happen."

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Hughto remembers standing in her upper-level clay studio in Jamesville, N.Y., her TV blaring behind her. She turned around. The second World Trade Center tower crumbled before her eyes, crashing down in a cloud of ashy smoke.

"I thought, ‘Oh, my god.' I thought about all the people that were probably killed," she recalls. "There had to be thousands of people around that area and in those buildings."

Only when she saw the debris from the crash build up, did she remember her murals.

"I was thinking, ‘That underground is probably destroyed. What happens when all that rubble piles up on top of the ground? Everything underneath must be crushed. ‘"

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In March 1996, Hughto received a call from Mona Chen, managing director at MTA Arts for Transit, a public art initiative that commissions contemporary artworks for NYC's subway system and commuter rail buslines. Chen congratulated her on "making it to the Final Four." It was spring semester at Syracuse University and basketball season was in full swing. A confused Hughto replied, "Final Four of what?"

Chen told Hughto she's one of four ceramic artists competing to create artwork for a 60-foot underground passageway in the Financial District of NYC. She invited Hughto to check out the space.

At that point in her career, Hughto was no stranger to making art for public places. In 1985, she crafted a large-scale mural called "Season" for the ground level Utica Street Subway Station in Buffalo, N.Y. Hughto took up the offer and left for NYC.

She remembers descending three stories underground into the Cortlandt Street Station's dimly lit, stark white passageway.

"It looked like a medical operating room," she said.  "But because it was so far down, it also felt a little like going into an Egyptian tomb."

Given a month to brainstorm design plans, Hughto hit the books. She studied Egyptian hieroglyphics,sketched coins, compasses and other motifs to reflect the area of business and commerce. She wanted to transform the subway chamber into a treasure vault.

A month passed and she returned to New York to pitch her ideas to a panel of 12 judges. Three days later, Hughto found out she was the winner. The yearlong project took off.

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Roll a small slab of wet clay into a ball. With a firm press of a palm, push it down onto a plaster mold. Wait for it to harden. Gently peel off and place in an 1,800 degree heated kiln — Hughto's hands performed these steps without hesitation and repeated them countless times for the 1,500 tiles in the 12-mural installation.