Carpenter's glass sculpture surrounds the escalator in the Hearst Building lobby. Recycled rainwater from the roof runs down into the lobby and flows down glass bricks that descend three stories to the ground floor.

Complementing the water sculpture "IceFalls" is a monumental fresco (made of earth & water) entitled “Riverlines” by acclaimed environmental artist Richard Long. “Riverlines”comprises nine columns of swirled handprints and rises 70 feet into the Interior Plaza, making it Long’s largest work to date.

Hearst Tower revives a dream from the 1920s, when William Randolph Hearst envisioned Columbus Circle as a vibrant media and entertainment quarter. Hearst commissioned a skyscraper on 8th Ave., but construction ended because of the Depression. The current Hearst Tower's distinctive faceted silhouette rises dramatically above the already-completed 1928 base of Joseph Urban's planned building, with a vast internal plaza occupying the entire shell of the historic base. Designed to consume significantly less energy than a conventional office building, the new 42-story tower provides almost one million square feet of office space. It rises above the old building, linked on the outside by a transparent skirt of glazing that floods the spaces below with natural light.