How a Manhattan stoop became a community art project

Kristi Hemric bought a townhouse in Manhattan with one firm plan: decorate the stoop for every holiday, the way people do in her native Dallas. Then scaffolding went up next door, crossing onto her property line and covering her narrow facade.

She did not complain. She tied pink flowers to the metal poles.

"I thought my neighbors wouldn't like it," Hemric said. "They loved an injection of color through the sunless months of January, February, and March."

That was three years ago. The stoop has since become a rotating art installation, changing themes with the season or the city's mood. Lemons in summer. Knicks basketballs when the team was winning. Country flags and soccer balls during the World Cup. Lego botanical flowers built by hand, set by set.

Hemric and her husband store the decorations in a Bronx storage unit, recycling materials across themes. They buy nothing that can be used only once. When they cannot buy it, they build it.

"It doesn't feel like work," she said. "It's purely creative fun."

The project drew attention organically from passersby and through social media. One man planned a date around a Lego-themed stoop and proposed to his fiancée on the steps. The couple later invited Hemric and her husband to dinner and to their wedding.