New York City: My Home Sweet Home

My visit to the Museum of the City of New York not only allowed me to explore the unfamiliar side of New York City, but also reminded me of how much I love this city. The museum is divided into four floors, and the exhibits are concentrated on the top three floors. The different exhibits displayed the individual aspects of NYC in various time periods, demonstrating many comparisons between the past and present times of the city. The “Campaigning for President” section, for example, highlighted the many distinctive campaigns and campaigning tactics that were used in all the elections that occurred in American history, and especially concentrated on elections that took place in NYC. With Election Day approaching in a matter of weeks, the exhibit definitely made an impact with its life-size cardboard cutouts of Obama and McCain and information on their work in NYC. From the wall covered with numerous pins denoting names of U.S. Presidents, I saw that a considerable fraction of presidents were natives of NYC, and was proud to learn that some of my fellow New Yorkers contributed a lot in shaping the American history.

The Paris/New York: Design Fashion Culture exhibit demonstrated the strong impact of New York culture and its designs on Paris. One great example of the correlation between the two cities is the Rockefeller Center. Its design involved the work of both French and Parisian artists, as well as our local American artists. It brought out the urbanism that was expanding in New York City back in the 1900s, and the building itself attracted many French tenants during the Depression. Now, the building houses corporate offices, rather than actual tenants, yet it is still a major historical landmark. It is also a hugely popular tourist destination, as well as one of my favorite places in the city, as I love visiting the Christmas tree every winter.

Another exhibit I’d like to emphasize is the “New York Fast Forward: Neil Danari builds on the High Line” section, as it illustrates the modernization of the architectural aspect of NYC. The High Line of NYC was actually an abandoned section of the former elevated freight railroad that was built between 1929 and 1934. As the title of the exhibit implies, Los Angeles-based architect Neil Denari decided to construct a new building located on West 23^rd street that lies right by the High Line, which is actually slowly being transformed into a public park. The building, HL23, is a rugged steel structure that gives off a sleek and modern impression, especially with its interesting interior structure and large glass windows. The museum walls were full of blown-up images of the computer-designed interiors of the building. I was extremely fascinated by the interestingly shaped rooms since most of the walls are slanted due to the exterior design of the building. This project is due to finish in April 2009 and I am sure it will become another unique part of NYC.

I was able to personally relate to the “Trade: Maritime New York” exhibit. Since NYC is located by the water, the construction of ports allowed NYC to become one of the busiest trading areas in the nation.  The Battery Park and South Street Seaport are places that I’ve visited often in NYC and it was fascinating to learn about their histories and how they came into existence in the early nineteenth century. One of the exhibit walls displayed a collection of objects that were found in the Hudson River by the South Street Seaport around the time when most of the seaport trade had been abandoned in 1970s. I feel that this is the most representative piece of NYC in the entire museum. I couldn’t help but think to myself, “How New York!” 

New York City is one of the leading cities in the world and the Museum of City of New York brought out some of the most essential characteristics of the city. NYC is not just the city that never sleeps; it is also the city that never fails to astonish me with its beauty.