The Truth Is Local Storefronts
Bringing the headlines back to the blocks where they happened.
Overview
For 160 years, The New York Times has covered the world, but its heart remains in New York City. To demonstrate their deep commitment to local reporting, we took five major investigative stories off the page and built them into the physical fabric of the city. We took over vacant storefronts across the five boroughs, transforming them into immersive dioramas that forced passersby to confront the issues shaping their own communities, from education inequality in the Bronx to taxi lending schemes in Manhattan.
Partners
The New Motor
Services
Exhibit Design
The Details
Each storefront was designed not as an advertisement, but as a physical manifestation of the reporting. In Brooklyn, we used infinite mirrors to replicate a jail cell, visualizing the scale of wrongful convictions. In Staten Island, we recreated a "ghost tunnel" to discuss abandoned infrastructure. By scanning a code on the window, pedestrians could unlock the audio history of the reporting, turning a casual walk down the street into a deep dive into the truth. It proved that in a digital age, the most powerful stories are still the ones closest to home.
