An international light-based artist is coming to New York City to transform what may be Manhattan's biggest undeveloped lot into a 6-acre, fiber-optic "flower box," an immersive work to go on display this winter.

Bruce Munro, whose “Field of Light” art installations have appeared from the English countryside to the Australian desert, is looking to plant 17,000 fiber-optic stemmed glass spheres in his largest urban showcase, called “Field of Light at Freedom Plaza.” It’s one of the few times his outdoor work will be displayed to the public for free. The project is expected to be open for a year.

The site, from 38th to 41st streets east of First Avenue overlooking the East River, is owned by developer Soloviev Group and billed as the largest empty property in Manhattan. It's where Soloviev is betting on winning a license to build a mixed-use casino resort among heavy competition.

Munro, a British artist whose work has also been featured in Japan as well as U.S. locations including Houston, Longwood Gardens outside Philadelphia and the wine country of Paso Robles in California, said he’s eager to see what kind of emotions his big debut in New York will evoke.

“This is the city having its own flower box,” Munro, 64, said in an interview. “I'm hopeful that it becomes a quiet space for people to come, allow them to decompress and have a smile on their face when they go home.”

In contrast, the installation in Paso Robles is set against a “rolling, undulating landscape” that feels like “it goes on forever,” Munro told CoStar News. That work is the artist's largest in the world and recently expanded to feature more than 100,000 stemmed spheres, according to his website.

Munro, who has kept sketchbooks of ideas and anecdotes, said a big part of his inspiration for using “light as paint” came during a trip to the Uluru desert in central Australia back in 1992. He had moved to Australia at 24 and lived there for eight years.

“I had this extraordinary experience where I just felt completely and utterly alive. There was no stimulation of drugs or beer or whatever. It was purely the air. And then there's the place. … I was buzzing with life, and I felt I could sort of feel it in the air around me. It was an extraordinary feeling. And that made me want to [explore] ‘How do you explain that to people?’”

Munro said his new favorite medium became an obsession.

"I see light as a way to communicate feelings. I'm trying to get to the essence of what light is,” he said.

He ended up mortgaging the farmhouse he owned in the English countryside to help pay for his first "Field of Light" installation with 15,000 stems on the property back in 2003-04.

Munro said his installations have changed the places that feature his work. For instance, he’s since returned to Uluru and was inspired to create a "Field of Light" installation there featuring 50,000 spheres.

Uluru is “a long way from any major city” in Australia, Munro said. “Although it is a tourist destination, [the installation] changed the tourism out there. … That's really powerful if artwork can do that.”

While he’s interested in helping to boost regional and rural tourism through his art in “more rural and out of the way landscapes,” Munro said he believes cities such as New York that are seeking to recover from the damages of the COVID-19 pandemic could also see some benefit.

“Artwork has a great way to communicate with communities,” he said. “Art can actually move people.”

Indeed, public art is a key part of private development that can stoke many possibilities, including helping a city reach its "aspirations,” according to Americans for the Arts, a nonprofit group based in Washington, D.C.

“Art can bring its viewers joy, surprise, stimulation, and reflection in a way that is unique to a specific place,” the organization said in a public art and private development resource guide for developers. “Notable art projects can put a city ‘on the map’ in a way that brings national, and even international attention to a site. This can make the city a more competitive location for business and tourism alike."

In fact, nearly 100 cities and municipalities across the United States have a requirement for public art in private development, and no two programs are the same, according to Americans for the Arts.

There are many examples of art's contribution to a city. For instance, Fort Wayne, Indiana’s public art program is said to have played a key part in the former Rust Belt town's revitalization. Miami’s Wynwood, a popular district for developers eyeing office, residential and other developments, is said to owe a big part of its rising charm to what’s billed as the highest U.S. concentration of street art.

In New York City, "Field of Light at Freedom Plaza" is being funded by the Soloviev Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Soloviev. Munro and Soloviev are still working out an exact opening date as they await permitting from the city, but the project is expected to debut sometime this winter.

The idea to feature a public art display on the site didn’t have anything to do with aiding Soloviev’s casino ambition, and came about in 2021 during the pandemic, even before the New York State Legislature approved up to three casino licenses in the New York City area, Michael Hershman, Soloviev's chief executive, said in an interview. The installation will cost more than $3 million, he said.

“We just came out from under the shadow of COVID,” Hershman told CoStar News. “The country is faced with a variety of problems and conflicts. … We want to do something to take people’s minds off their problems.”

In another example, Soloviev’s private art gallery, featuring works of famous artists including Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso that Hershman said are worth close to $1 billion combined, in May opened its doors to the public for the first time at Soloviev’s marquee 9 W. 57th St. office tower just south of Central Park.

The gallery has been "booked solid" on tour dates with interest coming from around the globe, he said.

This story was updated Oct. 4 to clarify “Field of Light at Freedom Plaza” in New York City is expected to be open for a year.