Huge pressure vessels flank a clear inspection walk, threaded with electric-blue valve lines.
Manhattan has been heated by district steam since 1882, when the New York Steam Company began service in Lower Manhattan. Con Edison bought the system in 1936 and still runs it as the largest steam system in the country. Six generating stations push up to 8.5 million pounds of steam an hour through 105 miles of mains, serving more than 1,500 customers from the southern tip of Manhattan to 96th Street. About 60 percent of the steam comes from cogeneration alongside electricity.
Source · Con Edison ↗
Riveted pressure vessels; orange-and-white exhaust stacks; manifold pipes; gauge dials. Fictional infrastructure chamber. Mood: pressure held in blue. Everything is procedural geometry with painted surfaces; nothing is a scan or a photograph. The room is an interpretation, and it hangs the New Yorkers the census recorded at this place first.