 In 1980, Halley returned to New York City and moved into a loft on East 7th Street in the East Village, Manhattan; there, Talking Heads frontman David Byrne was his upstairs neighbor.New York City had a lasting influence on Halley's distinct painting style.He became enamored with the city's intensity, scale, and three-dimensional urban grid—the "geometricization of space that pervaded the 20th century."