Traveling: New York:
Tourist Attractions in New York
Government Websites in New York
Dining in New York
City Guides:
Sightseeing in New York: Our Points for Points of Interest Project
When travelling with children, we're competing with the fast pace of
t.v., video games, and daily sports. Some of the attractions are naturally
high-interest. But what about the time between high-interest attractions?
To spice up the trip, we've made booklets containing pictures of notable
points-of-interest. The kids get a point for each point-of-interest they
find. The points get "cashed in" for souvenir money. See
our "points-of-interest" by clicking on the links below. Print
them out to make your own booklets!
We scoured the Net for pictures of sculptures, fountains, paintings,
architectural details, graffiti, and anything else we thought was historically
relevant, beautiful, or emphasizes that which says "New York". Obviously
we focused on points-of-interest that we were likely to pass along our
trip although we also sprinkled in some points-of-interest that we hoped we
would see regardless of our path possibly not crossing that of the site.
[write a few interesting notes about as many pieces
as possible. look up graffiti. write notes about the important pieces
to see at the met and other places. add artists who painted the buildings,
like georgia o'keefe]
Battery Park:
World Trade Center & Koenig Sphere
before it was tragically destroyed by terrorists. Sphere
(after Sept. 11). By Fritz Koenig.
Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller Park
Tom Otterness, The
Real World, 1992
Demetri Porphyrios, The
Pavilion, 1992
The Irish Hunger Memorial,
2002
North Cove
Martin Puryear, Pylons,
1995
World Financial Center Plaza
Siah Armajani,
Scott Burton, Cesar Pelli, M. Paul Friedberg
The Plaza, 1986
Esplanade
Ned Smyth, The
Upper Room, 1987
R.M. Fischer, Rector
Gate, 1988
Richard
Artschwager, Sitting/Stance, 1988
South Cove
Mary Miss, Stanton
Eckstut, Susan Child, South Cove, 1988
Robert F. Wagner, Jr. Park
Jim Dine, Ape & Cat
(At the Dance), 1993
Tony Cragg, Resonating
Bodies, 1996
Louise Bourgeois, Eyes,
1995
Ken Mowatt, Raven
Puts the Light in the Sky, 1980
Stuyvesant High School
Kristin
Jones & Andrew Ginzel, Mnemonics, 1992
Michelle Stuart, Tabula,
1992
Wall Street:
Bronze Bull on
Bowling Green in front of the US Customs House
New York Stock Exchange Pediment
- One of the building's most recognizable and photographed features
- Designed by sculptor John Quincy Adams Ward
- Titled: "Integrity Protecting the Works of Man"
- Central figure represents Integrity
- Flanking Integrity are figures representing the sources of wealth and the means
of invention
The Metropolitan Museum of Art:
The American Wing spans two floors and includes the painting of Washington
Crossing the Delaware, one of the largest paintings in the museum's
collection. The American Wing also showcases how rooms looked back
in the 1600's, and gives kids some real perspective on how America
has changed (and lets their imaginations run riot). Our kids are especially
interested in the paintings of American children, pondering the clothes,
toys, and bizarre hairdos they feel no self-respecting kid would ever
stand for.
Augusto Rodin: The Thinker, 1879-89, bronze; Metropolitan Museum of
Art, New York.
The Obelisk is the oldest manmade object in New York City's Central
Park. It is located behind the Metropolitan Museum of Art, at East
Side and 81st Street. The Obelisk is also known at Cleopatra's Needle,
although it does not appear to be related to Cleopatra. It was created
for Thutmosis III in Heliopolis around 1500 BC, and arrived in the
United States in 1879. There are benches and flowers around the Obelisk,
which is now also illuminated.
Guggenheim Museum:
Calder sculptures and mobiles.
Sony Building:
Sea sprite & dolphin on
Sony (formerly AT&T) Building in New York City.
United Nations:
Gun tied into knot in Non-Violence
sculpture at the United Nations in New York City.
Chagall stained
glass window in the United Nations building in New York City.
Grand Central Station:
Mercury statue atop
Grand Central Station in New York City.
Rockefeller Center:
Statue of semi-nude
woman at Rockefeller Center
Art Deco panel on
Rockefeller Center
Rockefeller Plaza: Zeus, Atlas (by
Lee Lawrie), Atlas
GE Building: Prometheus,
Paul Manship
RCA Building: Sound,
relief sculpture by Lee Lawrie
Paul Manship: Prometheus, 1934, bronze and gold leaf; Rockefeller Center,
New York.
Grand Army Plaza:
Gilded equestrian
statue of Civil War General T. Sherman in Grand Army Plaza
Guggenheim Museum:
Picasso's Mandolin & Guitar painting
in the Guggenheim Museum in New York City.
Central Park:
Bethesda Fountain in
Central Park
Maine memorial on
Columbus Circle & southwest corner of Central Park
Columbus Statue on
Columbus Circle
Globe at Trump
Tower on Columbus Circle
Jose de Creeft: Alice
in Wonderland, 1959 bronze; Conservatory Lake
balto, and other sculptures in central park
Columbus Circle, located at the ends of Central Park South and Central
Park West, is home to one of the main entrances to Central Park, the
Trump International Hotel and the new 80-story Time Warner skyscrapers.
In the center of Columbus Circle stands a marble statue of the explorer
Christopher Columbus, perched on top of a tall granite column. Visitors
enter Central Park through Merchants' Gate which features the colossal
Maine Monument and pedestrian paths leading into the Park.
American Museum of Natural History:
Tower of American
Museum of Natural History
Theodore Roosevelt
(1939) sculpture by J. E. Fraser at American Museum of Natural
History
Brooklyn:
Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn
Soldiers'
and Sailors' Memorial Arch, designed by John H. Duncan
Empire State Building:
Triangles and Arches, Alexander Calder, 1965
Artist: Alexander Calder
Title / Date created: Four at Forty-five / 1966
Medium: polychromed sheet metal
Dimensions: 5'-0" x 18'-0"
Location: Corning Tower Plaza Lobby
Artist: Robert Motherwell
Title / Date created: Burnt Sienna / 1968
Medium: handwoven wool tapestry
Dimensions: 10'-3/4" x 8'-2"
Location: North Concourse
Artist: Robert Motherwell
Title / Date created: Dublin 1916, with Black and Tan / 1964
Medium: oil and acrylic on canvas
Dimensions: 7'-0" x 17'-0"
Location: Corning Tower Concourse Lobby
Artist: Isamu Noguchi
Title / Date created: Studies for the Sun / 1959-1964
Medium: travertine
Dimensions: 2'-6" (circumfrence) x 10 1/2"
Location: North Concourse
Artist: Claes Oldenburg
Title / Date created: Geometric Mouse, Scale A, 1/6 / 1969
Medium: painted steel and aluminum
Dimensions: 11'-7" x 12'- 1/2" x 6'-2"
Location: West Plaza
Artist: Mark Rothko
Title / Date created: Untitled / 1967
Medium: oil on canvas
Dimensions: 6'-8" x 69"
Location: Corning Tower Concourse Lobby
Artist: George Segal
Title / Date created: The Billboard / 1966
Medium: plaster, wood, metal, and rope
Dimensions: 16'-0" x 9'-11" x 2'-8"
Location: Corning Tower Plaza Lobby
Lincoln Center:
Henry Moore: Reclining
Figure, 1963-65, bronze. Walk toward
the Vivian Beaumont Theater, just behind Avery Fisher Hall.
Buffalo:
William McKinley
Monument (1907) by Carrere & Hastings remembers the US
President assassinated in 1901 in Buffalo.
------------------------------------------------- Washington
Square
Alice in Wonderland mural "Alice
the Way Out" (1944) by Liliana Porter in 50th Street Station ------------------------------------------------------------
Carnegie Hall
Chrysler Building
decorated with sculptures copied from the hood ornament of a 1929 Chrysler
Plymouth. The 31st floor contains what looks like shiny metal hubcaps.
Fifth Avenue: Bloomingdales, Macy's, FAO Schwartz
Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum, Pier 86 at West 46th Street and 12th
Avenue, WWII aircraft carrier
Museum of Modern Art (MOMA)
Starry Night
Madison Square Gardens
Gargoyles:
Croise Building built in 1912 has several large
panther gargoyles
Saint James Building has 5 lion head gargoyles
The Flatiron Building has over a dozen gargoyles
Irving Place
Bank of Metropolis Building, built in 1903, has 12 lion head gargoyles
The Margaret Louise Home, a lodging house in 1890 with 2 gargoyles
Judge Building with a Roman Revival style by McKim Mead & White in
1888 has 42 gargoyles
Lincoln Building built in 1890 with 1 huge gargoyle and Romanesque Revival
style
Chrysler Building
Woolworth Building
Gargoyles
in Manhattan Walking Tour
Best Outdoor Public Sculpture
At the moment, the best outdoor public sculpture in New York is way over
your head. Literally. Rachel Whiteread's mysterious Water Tower, a translucent
resin cast of an actual water tower, has sat atop a building on the northwest
corner of West Broadway and Grand Street since last June. "It gives
you the feeling of a whole new urban landscape," says art writer Michael
Brenson. Water Tower (which was commissioned by the Public Art Fund) is
not the only neck-crane-worthy art in town. The 1995 installation of Alice
Aycock's exuberant .C.East River Roundabout, a swooping, roller-coaster-esque
steel sculpture, transformed the roof of a former Sanitation Department
garage at East 60th Street above the FDR Drive into a park pavilion. "It
catches the light beautifully, and it activates and enlivens the space," says
Marian Griffiths, director of the Sculpture Center.
Even on the ground, it pays to keep your wits about you -- amazingly, some
people miss two of the city's biggest and splashiest works, Mark di Suvero's
red-painted steel Joie De Vivre, at the Holland Tunnel exit near Canal
and Varick Streets, and Dennis Oppenheim's looming steel wedding rings,
Engagement, on the traffic island at 23rd Street and Broadway (a favorite
with cabdrivers, who seem to get the work's irony immediately). But the
hands-down ground-level favorite with kids and adults is Tom Otterness's
whimsical cast-bronze animal extravaganza The Real World (in Battery
Park City's Nelson A. Rockefeller Park).
Unfortunately, New York City's worst outdoor sculpture is also impossible
to miss: Mihail Chemiakin's sixteen-breasted bronze sculpture, Cybble
Goddess Of Fertility, alarming passersby outside the Mimi Fertz Gallery
(Prince Street between Greene and Wooster Streets).
John Quincy Adams Ward; Henry Ward Beecher, bronze, 1891; Cadman Plaza,
Brooklyn
Jacob Epstein: Madonna and Child, 1927, bronze, Riverside Church, New York.
How much has New York changed? See
a photo exhibit of buildings captured by Byron's camera around the
turn of the century.
The best place to see a tribute and memorial to the lost New York Firemen
is at the New York Fire Museum. It is located in an old 1904 firehouse
in Soho at 278 Spring Street. The museum is open 10 AM to 5 PM daily. Admission
is $4
The Staten Island Ferry, 718/390-5253, a scenic round trip to Staten Island.
Aristide Maillol; The Mediterranean, 1902-05, bronze; Museum of Modern
Art, New York.
Constantin Brancusi: Bird in Space, 1927, bronze; Museum of Modern Art,
New York.
Wilhelm Lehmbruck: Kneeling Woman, 1911, cast in stone; Museum of Modern Art,
New York.
William Zorach: Child with Cat, 1926, marble; Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Alexander Calder: Lobster Trap and Fish Tail, 1939, steel wire, aluminum; Museum
of Modern Art, New York.
Pablo Picasso: She-Goat, bronze, 1950: Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Cloisters Museum, medieval art and architecture Museum of the City of New York
Storm King
Guggenheim Museum Soho
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