The hurricane even spared the first phase of a planned five-year, $13 million public art project here called “Artlantic,” scheduled to make its debut on Friday, that is attempting to transform a city that has never offered much in the way of public space beyond the famous Boardwalk.

“Artlantic: wonder,” as the first phase is called, cost $3 million and encompasses two sites, including what was, until a month ago a barren, seven-acre expanse of grass and gravel right off the Boardwalk in the center of town.

This prime real estate, where a casino once stood, was a highly visible eyesore. Before he was grappling with the hurricane’s destruction — and before he got into a war of words with Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey about evacuation plans — Atlantic City’s mayor, Lorenzo T. Langford, said in an interview that he had taken to calling this site “the hole in the middle of the doughnut.”

The lot is now dominated by two large outdoor spaces for art, both surrounded by gently terraced, amphitheaterlike hillsides covered in sod. About 22,000 sod staples, inserted just a day before the storm struck, helped the lawn survive the onslaught of wind and water.

“The inspiration for the form came from Atlantic City, just as the inspiration for all of the other works will always be coming from the city,” said Lance Fung , the freelance curator who designed “Artlantic.” Specifically, he added, “it came from the history of the roller coasters on Steel Pier, which is emblazed in everyone’s memory that knows the area.”

Mr. Fung, the principal of Fung Collaboratives, an arts organization, is best known for organizing the 2006 version of “Snow Show” — an exhibition in which works were made of snow, ice and water — at the Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. He said he was well aware not just of the different context here, in such an urban setting, but also of the sensitivity of opening an art project when some people have lost their homes. “Art has this incredible power of sending out a positive message,” he said. “This was true before the storm, and now even more so.”

On one end of the site a large sculpture by Kiki Smith , “Her” (2003), will stand surrounded by a seasonally changing “red garden,” designed by Ms. Smith.

The sculpture depicts a woman embracing a fawn, which Ms. Smith said she chose partly because it dovetailed with Mr. Fung’s overall theme of man interacting with nature. In addition, she said, “it has some austerity to it, and I liked the idea of it in that context.”

She added that she had always wanted to create a red garden that would remain that color all year. Mr. Fung set her up with the landscape designer Balmori Associates, which led all of “Artlantic: wonder,” to turn the idea into reality.

Opposite Ms. Smith’s work, in the other amphitheaterlike space, will be an installation of a pirate ship by Ilya and Emilia Kabakov. (Luckily it was still boxed in a truck on Long Island when the storm struck.) Around the outside of both mounds is an illuminated, text-based work by Robert Barry.

For the other site to be unveiled on Friday an 8,500-square-foot portion of a parking lot a few blocks away by the Boardwalk, Mr. Fung asked the artist John Roloff to make a large impact in a much smaller space.

Mr. Roloff’s “Étude Atlantis” features a wooden-walled stage painted with bold, illusionistic stripes, in front of which is a sunken cistern meant to suggest a passage to the other side of the planet, a reference to the lost city of Atlantis.

When not being used for performances this stage will be an abstract artwork on its own. Durable asphalt paint that had cured properly, and a sturdy base built with strong winds in mind helped the work survive the storm.

The cost of “Artlantic” is being split by a new marketing agency, the Atlantic City Alliance, and the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority, formed in 1984 — both of which receive funds from local businesses.