New York City

Monday, October 20th - Museum day.  The weather turned a bit -- cloudy all day and with 55% possibility of rain, but no rain while we were outside.  We rode the MTA buses, first north along 1st Avenue to 86th Street, then a second bus at right angles, from 1st Avenue to 5th Avenue.  We got off and walked 2 1/2 blocks to the Soloman R. Guggenheim Museum.  This is one of four Guggenheim Museums, the others are in Venice, Italy (which is named after Peggy), Bilboa, Spain (just Guggenheim), and Abu Dhabi, UAE (under development and just Guggenheim, too).

The Guggenheim is just off the east side of Central Park and was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.  It has a very neat interior spiral that goes up 5 levels, with more normal galleries branching off from the spiral.  The art exhibit on the walls of the spiral was from a single modern artist - Rashid Johnson.  Two of the four galleries were closed but the remaining two galleries hold the Thannhauser Collection.  The paintings in this collection are impressive and include pieces by many famous artists -- Degas, Manet, Van Gogh, Picasso, Pissarro, Renoir, Toulouse-Lautrec, Gauguin, Matisse, Kandinsky, and Monet.

The interior spiral ramp.

Rashid Johnson - footprints going in circles.

Vasily Kandinsky - Lion Hunt, 1911, reverse glass painting.

Pablo Picasso - Fernande with a Black Mantilla, 1905.

Another early Picasso - Moulin de la Galette, 1900.

Vincent Van Gogh - Roadway with Underpass.

Paul Gauguin.

Camille Pissarro - The Heritage at Pontoise.

Wassily Kandinsky - Blue Mountain.

Axe in the wall or Hard Day at the Office by Rashid  Johnson

The plants are hanging on cables from the domed ceiling.

The featured artist.

Rashid Johnson's art.

Ditto.

Ditto.

Ditto.

Ditto -- Falling Man.

The Lobby and first piece by Rashid Johnson.

Even the water fountains look artistic.

Panoramic view of the interior.

After leaving the Guggenheim, we walked a few blocks down "Museum Mile" Street to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, known as The Met.  It is an "encyclopedic art museum."  It is the third largest museum in the world, the largest in the Americas, and had nearly 6 million visitors last year.  The museum was founded in 1870 and has 17 separate departments -- Greek, Roman, Egypt, Asian, American (art, furniture, modern art), Europe, African, Oceanian, Byzantine, Islamic, Musical instruments, etc.  Pretty much every well-known artist's works are on display.  The Impressionist Galleries were a big draw today.  There are several special exhibitions open -- today's was one entitled Superfine: Tailoring Black Style.  It displayed a wide variety of Black men's fashion, think Walt "Clyde" Frazier, the former NBA player, who was an inspiration to much of the fashion that came after.

I was overwhelmed by the visual richness and didn't take many photos.  It would have been impossible to edit them down to manageable number.  But I did take some photos of classic furniture.

A wind vane -- early American craftsmanship.

The famous and classic oval Shaker box.

Andrew Jackson's table with intricate carvings and inlaid marble on the top.

A 'slipper' chair with delicate carving and bent-wood elements.

A sideboard with amazing carvings.

The detail of the carving on one door panel.

A nicely proportioned Arts and Crafts-style chest.

A Stickley tall clock.  Stickley is probably the most famous Arts and Crafts maker in the US and influenced many woodworkers, both professional and amateur.

A Stickley 6-sided table.

And a Stickley chest.

Something for the music lovers -- a Stradivarius violin. 

A colorful display of wind and horn instruments.

My one and only art photo from the Met -- Georgia O'Keefe.

The Met as we left.

We felt like we needed to stretch our legs after the moseying and standing in the museums, so we started walking.  We ended up walking all the way back to the apartment (2.4 miles).  We picked up take-out dinner and enjoyed it at our apartment.

New York City (Addendum)

 October 20th, Addendum -- Someone asked about the "skinny building," specifically how tall it was.  Here is probably more than you want to know.

It is called the Steinway Tower.  But in the following information (from the Web) it is referred to by its address.

Manhattan’s classic skyscrapers are a powerful combination of optimistic expression and technical invention. 111 West 57th Street updates that heritage for today.

 

 

With a total height of 1,428 feet, the residential tower at 111 West 57th Street is among the tallest buildings in New York City. As a prominent new local and regional landmark, it bears a special responsibility to contribute meaningfully and elegantly to the shared skyline. We achieved that goal by carefully shaping the tower’s profile, and by developing an innovative approach to using an authentic material from the golden age of the Manhattan skyscraper: terra-cotta.

       

 

The tower’s form is a bold interpretation of what is possible within the requirements of the Midtown Manhattan zoning envelope. Mandated setbacks were multiplied where the building form contacts the sky-exposure plane, resulting in a feathered rather than a stepped profile. The setbacks serve as sites for a finial at the top of each column of the terra-cotta ornament that rises on the east and west facades. Without mimicking historic precedent, this approach unifies the massing of 111 West 57th Street in the tradition of classic towers such as One Wall Street, 30 Rockefeller Center, or the Empire State Building.

 

Terra-cotta is one of the most beautiful and adaptable materials available to architects today.  For 111 West 57th Street, blocks of sequentially varying profiles were modeled, extruded, glazed, and then stacked into an involuted pattern, like a softly breaking wave, that appears at once novel and familiar.  Staggering those elements across the facade creates a distinctive moiré that changes dramatically when seen in different lights or from various distances.

 

New York City

Sunday, October 19th, Midtown to the Bowery along the east side of Manhattan.  The weather remains nice.

Today was a walking day, with an attempt to explore parts of Manhattan we had not seen before.  We ended up walking 7.2 miles, first south past the UN Plaza complex, and then out to the riverside on the East River Greenway, which should have allowed us to get to the Lower East Side.  But the path was blocked at East 15th Street, so we were forced to turn back to 18th Street and go inland.  

St George slaying the Dragon (of war?) inside the UN Plaza.

We explored an area called StuyTown (actually the place is called Stuyvesant), a large apartment complex with a central courtyard and abundant green space (for the city).  According to the internet, StuyTown covers 80 acres, has 11,250 apartments in 110 buildings.  StuyTown was originally planned as a post-war housing development during the early 1940's in anticipation of the returning World War II veterans.  This East Village complex was developed by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, which owned it until 2006.  Since then it has been sold to the first of 3 different property companies.  It currently houses about 30,000 people.  There are very few places that cars can go on the property.  Lots of people were outside enjoying the mild day and the small farmers market (produce brought in from New Jersey).  We bought some breakfast pastries and apples.

Looking up the East River, Manhattan on the left, Roosevelt Island in the middle, and Queens on the right.

A repeat photo that shows the Empire State Building (on the left) and the Chrysler Building (in front the nearly back building on the right).  The Empire is 1,454 feet tall, counting the antenna; the Chrysler is 1,046 feet tall.  So which building best represents NYC skyscrapers?

StuyTown central courtyard - there are lots of amenities (playgrounds, skating rink, fitness centers, nearby grocery stores, etc.) for residents.

After leaving StuyTown, we went further south to Tompkins Square Park, where we ran into multitudes of people.  Several streets were blocked off and we noticed dogs that were "dressed up."  It turns out that the square was hosting the annual Halloween Dog Parade.  We picked a spot on the parade route that was moderately crowded.  After standing for 30 minutes and having hordes of people pack in around us, we saw a bit of the parade (BTW, this was the 35th year of the parade).  It was impossible to get any decent photos of the dog walkers and their dogs because of the crush of folks and the fact that press photographers who were allowed on the road would jump in front when a photogenic person came by.  Here is what I glimpsed - Betsy saw even less.  The dogs seemed very tolerant of the whole business.  We suspect the parade had at least two sections - small dogs (who were mostly either carried or pushed in carts/wagon/prams) and big dogs, who probably walked ,although we gave up before they appeared.

The parade finally kicks off 20 minutes late.

Many of the flamboyant walkers played to the crowd.  Note, the chef and her carried companion on left.

Couldn't see the dog given the crush in front of us.

The military-themed outfit was creative with the little dog likewise kitted up.

I liked this one -- a woman with scratches on her body with her dog as Audrey II, the carnivorous plant in the musical The Little Shop of Horrors.  The girl is dressed as Audrey and her guy as Seymour.

Being interviewed.

Cookie Monster.

Wondering what all the fuss is about.

After extracting ourselves from the human crush, we wandered west and south, to find a place for a break.  We entered the Bowery District and a found a bar/restaurant -- Ainslie at 199 Bowery.  It was a nice wide open space with few people inside, and quite nice bathrooms.  After eating and hydrating, we walked further south to the center of New York City, seeing massive government buildings, courthouses, and the City Hall.

Approaching the governmental center of New York City.

A city administrative building.

The Brooklyn Bridge is only a short distance away.  Note the hordes of people walking across the bridge (dedicated pathway on the left).

City Hall.

We then walked over to Allen Street, which becomes 1st Avenue, to catch a bus uptown to our apartment.  We passed under the road leading to the Brooklyn Bridge and past 1 Police Plaza, home of the NY Police Department.  It is commonly known as "1PP" in all of the TV shows.

We caught the bus and easily got back to the apartment.  The buses use the same fare systems as the subway and got us much closer to our final destination.