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Anyone waltzing through New York City will naturally be taken aback by its staggering skyscrapers and glorious skyline, both fo which are world-famous and easy to recognize. Here to honor its horizon is one particular place serving up a simplified and fascinating slice of what the bustling metropolis is globally renowned for; the Skyscraper Museum in Manhattan celebrates the towering
architectural wonders adorning New York's streets and skies - as well as others around the globe standing tall and proud to rival them.
About The Skyscraper Museum In Manhattan
The splendor and futurism of New York City's buildings have beamed across the planet, influencing architects, city planners, big businesses, and governments the world over. New York's mind-boggling architectural realm has been a space of pioneering innovations and artistic flair, leading the way in terms of what's possible when the right minds, tools, and abilities come together to craft a city from the ground up.
Having evolved over the many years since the first skyscrapers were raised, the architectural heritage of NYC is an entire story in itself, one that's as long and impressive as the buildings - and the beloved Skyscraper Museum puts it on show for the public to learn, admire, and appreciate. As a fantastic place of tales and education, visitors to the museum can get an exclusive, thoughtfully laid out insight into how New York's government, industry, artistic communities, and boffin brains collectively came together over an era to create the iconic skyline seen today - one that's been celebrated on an international scale for numerous decades.
Overall, through enriching exhibitions, well-planned programs, engaging lectures, and engrossing publications, the museum explores the beauty and majesty of tall buildings and puts them on show for the public to enjoy and learn about, representing them as fundamental and incredible products of revolutionary technology, objects of pivotal design in human history, major sites of construction and real estate investment, and on a more 'down to earth' level, dwellings of work and residence.
When Was The Skyscraper Museum Founded?
New York City's Skyscraper Museum was first founded in 1996, with its initial location nearby the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan. However, after the devastating terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, it was transferred to another area because its site was needed as an emergency information center.
Upon its reopening in 2004 at its new and current placement in Battery Park City, it was indeed the first museum to open once again in New York City after 9/11 - a befitting and sentimental notion and an inauguration serving as a meaningful tribute to the legacy of the Twin Towers, which were lost on that fateful day.
What's Inside The Skyscraper Museum?
The Skyscraper Museum is plush with interesting exhibits and information to feed curious minds - be they architects, aspiring architects, or neither. There are two main galleries: one dedicated to the core exhibit, documenting evolution of New York’s skyline, and another accommodating rotating exhibits devoted to skyscrapers found across the rest of the United States and around the globe.
Even the museum's interior itself is part of the fascination and is definitely one of New York's most Instagram-worthy buildings. Projecting the beauty synonymous with New York's bewitching skyscrapers, it occupies a massive 5,800-square-foot area on the ground floor that's only ten feet in height, but the magnificent works of revered architect Roger Duffy seem to enlarge the space tenfold. Amazingly, Duffy's design forms mind-bending trickery for the eye, with polished stainless steel covering the floor and ceilings to conjure a highly effective illusion of an infinitely vertical room.
The Skyscraper Museum Opening Hours
On a weekly basis, the Skyscraper Museum welcomes the public Thursday through Saturday, opening its doors from noon and closing at 6 pm with last entries granted at 5:30 pm. As a popular attraction in Manhattan, each ticket is allocated a set time period in order to manage capacity, giving each visitor plenty of time to explore the building and soak up skyscraper history. Generally, it's recommended to book tickets online beforehand. In any case, to avoid long queues and potential disappointment at the door during the busier tourist months, hopeful museum-goers should aim to reserve their tickets in advance.
As a significant storyteller of New York and the planet's skyscraper heritage, the Skyscraper Museum is undeniably one of the greatest places in the country to get the scoop on the stupendous skyscrapers that dominate the Big Apple's land and sky - as well as those of equal grandeur in many other futuristic cities peppered across the continents.
Whether one's downtown for a mighty midtown brunch, an energetic shopping spree, or a fun-filled weekend break in New York City, a stay in this legendary spot on global jet-setters' maps would not be complete without learning about the very skyscrapers that attract and inspire visitors from all corners of the earth.