NEW YORK—While some art projects falter in a firestorm of public opinion, others succeed, achieving widespread, almost epic success. Rochelle Steiner, director of New York’s Public Art Fund, and Linda Blumberg, formerly of New York’s Department of Cultural Affairs, provided some of their favorite public art projects to date (listed here alphabetically by artist).

Project: The Gates
Artists: Christo and Jean-Claude
Location: Central Park, New York
Duration: Feb. 12-27, 2005

“I think it was the first time we really, as a community, collectively recovered from Sept. 11, 2001,” said Blumberg. “It made everyone happy. It was just a charming project and kind of lyrical. It used a landmark that people really love and allowed people to see it in a different way.”

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Project: Cloud Gate
Artist: Anish Kapoor
Location: Millenium Park, Chicago
Duration: Permanent

“I like this because of the way it has been part of the transformation of that area,” said Steiner. “It really captivates everyone who walks by it—it’s like a magnet.”

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Project: Puppy
Artist: Jeff Koons
Location: Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao
Duration: Permanent

“This idea of scale is so interesting,” Steiner said. “That’s what makes it so great, when artists who do public work really transform scale and do something that’s really monumental.”

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Project: South Cove
Artists: Mary Miss, Susan Child and Stan Eckstut
Location: Battery Park, New York
Duration: Permanent

“Projects that are structurally involved in the landscape have the greatest potential,” said Blumberg.

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Project: Water Tower
Artist: Rachel Whiteread
Location: Museum of Modern Art, New York
Duration: Permanent

“It has had two lives. Its original life was as a temporary exhibition, and now it has this other life where it’s been re-sited on the roof of MoMA,” Steiner said. “I like that.”

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Project: The Social Mirror
Artist: Mierle Laderman Ukeles
Location: New York City Department of Sanitation
Duration: Permanent

“[Ukeles’] works are a wonderful example of integration,” Blumberg said. “She did and continues to do amazing things.”