Museums & Architecture

After a satisfying bagel with inch thick cream cheese, we walked along the Park to the Natural History museum(AMNH); a dead zoo, more or less, but forever loved by the boys as the site of Night at the Museum. Like the Metropolitan Museum of Art on the opposite side, these 19th century behemoths are cultural temples, similar to the old banks downtown, impressively flanking the great park; the Frick museum down the road originally a home.

 ++++

Museums are sometimes mentioned as secular sacred spaces with their trophies & icons, but Teddy Roosevelt's aim as New York governor - whose statue graces the AMNH front steps - was to, in a sense, curate nature; forever since US national parks registering as our cathedrals, landmarks.

The IMAX film exhibit linked Roosevelt's profound encounter with nature to the deaths of his mother and wife, both dying in the same house within hours.  Afterwards, a pivotal camping trip with naturalist John Muir would turn the Sequoias, Yosemite Valley, and Yellowstone into national treasures - nature as momento in an act of mourning, bequeathing a national estate to future citizens.

+++++

The day before, Debby and Udo guided us through the brand new opening of Fulton Station in Wall Street,

almost as controversial (for $ and design) as nearby Oculus,

the expansive new transportation hub for Wall Street which felt like a modern Grand Central Station, in its cavernous public space.The Empire State Building for its interior splash and outdoor vistas:

+++++

 The Fulton subway station had beautiful tile mosaics of the inventor's steamship,

 

reminding of the beautiful metro stops in Paris.

 

Magnolias were blooming in the park.

- - a view from the museum restaurant facing the park, after an energetic tour of the Italian renaissance - the museum's strong suit - by Nadja, starting with a neglected Della Robia glazed relief: 

 Managed a quick visit to MOMA to show the boys the modern masterpieces,

 

 

as well as this great exhibit of SANAA, the renowned Japanese architectural firm, which won the Pritzker a few years back for their design of Lausanne's EPFL library.

 Models of the firm's global work were on display.

Museums and buildings all done in one packed afternoon!