GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM after exterior restoration

Ceiling

These are photos of the the distinctive GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM, taken when we visited last weekend. From September 2005 to July 2008, the Guggenheim Museum was enclosed in scaffolding while a team of architects, structural engineers, and conservators worked together to restore the building in preaparation for its 50th anniversary celebration in 2009. The museum is Frank Lloyd Wright's landmark building and his last major work that is widely revered today. From the street, the building looks approximately like a white ribbon curled into a cylindrical stack, slightly wider at the top than the bottom. Its appearance is in sharp contrast to the more typically boxy Manhattan buildings that surround it.

Information from wikipedia:

In the first phase of the restoration project, a team of restoration architects, structural engineers, and architectural conservators worked together to create a comprehensive assessment of the building's current condition that determined that the structure was, fundamentally sound. This initial condition assessment included: the removal of 11 coats of paint from the original surface, revealing hundreds of cracks caused over the years, primarily from seasonal temperature fluctuations detailed monitoring of the movement of selected cracks over 17 months impact-echo technology, in which sound waves are sent into the concrete and the rebound is measured in order to locate voids within the walls extensive laser surveys of the exterior and interior surfaces, believed to be the largest laser model ever constructed core drilling to gather samples of the original concrete and other construction materials testing of potential repair materials.

THE PLAZA

Palm Court

Palm Court stained glass ceiling

These are some of the images that I made when I visited THE PLAZA recently. Located at 59th Street, just off Fifth Avenue at Central Park South, it is the only hotel in New York City to be designated a National Historic Landmark. After nearly three years of renovation, the century-old hotel, designed by Henry J. Hardenbergh, has been pared from 805 guest rooms to 282 rooms. The rest of the building has been converted to condominium apartments, one of which recently sold for $50 million.

Pictured above are the main lobby as well as the Palm Court located in the center of the lobby level. The Palm Court’s luminous stained-glass lay light has been restored. Led by acclaimed Chef Didier Virot, The Palm Court offers a new afternoon tea, as well as breakfast, lunch, and Saturday and Sunday Brunch each featuring the finest international tastes of New York, inspired by fresh and locally grown products.

Commuters and Tourists at Grand Central Terminal

November 29, 2008. Grand Central Terminal Main Concourse.

Pipilotti Rist: Pour Your Body Out (7354 Cubic Meters) at the MOMA

Curator Klaus Biesenbach discusses the exhibition

On exhibit at the MUSEUM OF MODERN ART until February 2, 2009 are Swiss artist PIPILOTTI RIST's multimedia installations. At the Marron Atrium, the museum's guests can experience the 25-foot high moving images. At the center os the atrium is a circular sculptural seating island designed by Rist where visitors can sit or lie while viewing the images that merge fantasy and reality.

BLOOMBERG TOWER'S CHRISTMAS TREE (59th Street Between Lexington and Third Avenue)

This is the marvelous Christmas Tree of the BLOOMBERG TOWER located at 731 Lexington Avenue/One Beacon Court, right across from Bloomingdale's. The tree stands 40 feet and is decorated with 70,000 LED's and 30 floating stars, with 21 decorative trees around the base. 

From Wikipedia:

One Beacon Court (also called the Bloomberg Tower), is a skyscraper on the East Side of Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It houses the headquarters of Bloomberg L.P. in the lower floors and luxury condominiums in the higher floors. It is located at 731 Lexington Avenue between East 58th and 59th streets. Built on the site of the flagship Alexander's Department Store which was torn down in 2000. The mid-block public space at the base of the building is called Beacon Court. The building stands at 54 stories tall, reaching 806 feet (246 meters). Construction started in 2001 and was completed in 2005. It is currently the 14th tallest building in New York and the 42nd tallest in the United States. The building's zip code is 10022.

COOPER-HEWITT NATIONAL DESIGN MUSEUM

Earlier this afternoon, we visited the COOPER-HEWITT NATIONAL DESIGN MUSEUM.

From the official website: The Cooper-Hewitt Museum is the only museum in the nation devoted exclusively to historic and contemporary design. The Museum presents compelling perspectives on the impact of design on daily life through active educational and curatorial programming. It is the mission of Cooper-Hewitt’s staff and Board of Trustees to advance the public understanding of design across the twenty-four centuries of human creativity represented by the Museum’s collection. A branch of the Smithsonian since 1967, Cooper-Hewitt is housed in the landmark Andrew Carnegie Mansion at the corner of 91st Street and Fifth Avenue.

Curretn exhibitions:

House Proud: Nineteenth-century Watercolor Interiors from the Thaw Collection commemorates the recent gift of eighty-five watercolor interior drawings—the largest collection of its kind in America—to Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum by Eugene V. and Clare E. Thaw. Approximately seventy drawings and a selection of related objects from Cooper-Hewitt’s permanent collection document the evolution of the domestic interior in the nineteenth century, revealing the impact of economic, social, and political developments on the concept of the house.

Tulou/Affordable Housing for China

In the fifth installment of the Solos series, the museum will present Tulou, a prototype for affordable housing being built in the city of Guangzhou by the Chinese architectural practice Urbanus. The Tulou project incorporates 245 apartment units, a dormitory, a small hotel, shops, a gymnasium, a library, and various communal and public spaces. For the exhibition at Cooper-Hewitt, Urbanus will display two full-scale bedrooms, with additional areas of the unit outlined on the gallery floor and walls, in order for visitors to fully experience the spatial interior.

Wall stories: Children’s wallpaper and books

Dozens of beloved children’s story characters that can be found in Wall Stories: Children’s Wallpaper and Books, an exhibition which plumbs the holdings of Cooper-Hewitt’s Wallcoverings department—the largest such collection in the United States, with more than ten thousand objects dating from the seventeenth through the twenty-first centuries—and the Museum’s 70,000-volume National Design Library.