Macri Triangle (Metropolitan Avenue between Meeker Street and Union Avenue) got its own piece of public art for a brief time. As the final stop on a three-park tour, Risa Puno’s Open Invitation appeared on October 25 and disappeared on October 29. The art installation, pentagon shaped, has five attached stepped stoops is meant to lure passersby to take a load off.
Puno was inspired by a brownstone stoop’s power to become a spot for spontaneous social exchange. The artist says the piece is, “a call to inaction, an opportunity to take a break from busy city life, slow down, and savor the moment together.”
This little park’s location bordering on the BQE is no coincidence. It is because of the BQE that Macri Triangle exists. It was a leftover piece from the land used to construct the expressway, as is the case with many of the small triangular lots that are scattered throughout Greenpoint and Williamsburg. In 1971 this “sitting area” was named after Luigi Anthony Macri, a WWII veteran who worked for the NYC Department of Sanitation on his return from the war. Macri Triangle also contains a bocce court, which is a nod to the substantial Italian-American population that called the area home when it was built.
The Greenline 