Fodor's Expert Review New York Earth Room

Noted American artist and sculptor Walter De Maria's 1977 avant-garde installation consists, quite simply, of 280,000 pounds of gently sculpted soil filling 3,600 square feet of a second-floor loft maintained by the Dia Art Foundation since 1980. You can't touch or walk on the dirt, nor can you take photos, but looking at it is quite peaceful. De Maria's equally odd and impressive work The Broken Kilometer, an 18.75-ton installation that consists of five columns of a total of 1,000 meter-long brass rods covering the wooden floors of an open loft space, is a few blocks away (  393 W. Broadway) and is a good complement. The two installations have the same hours.