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New Home
Skyscraper Museum Opens In Lower
Manhattan
by Amy S. Choi
The Skyscraper Museum has finally found a home.
After years in temporary locations, the museum opened in
April in the mixed-used building that houses the Ritz-Carlton
Hotel in Battery Park City.
Designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP and built
by Tishman Construction Corp. - both of whom are based in
New York City and donated their services - the 5,800-sq. ft.
facility includes two galleries, one for a core exhibit and
another for changing shows; offices; and a museum store. The
private, not-for-profit museum offers exhibitions, programs
and publications from its location at 39 Battery Place, right
near the skyscrapers of lower Broadway and Wall Street.
The museum is walking distance from Ground Zero and the location
of World Trade Center. The one-story space was the collaborative
efforts of many people who donated their resources and services
to give the Skyscraper Museum a permanent home.
The interior by SOM partner Roger Duffy features a polished
stainless steel floor and ceiling that reflect the full-height
exhibit cases into endless verticals. The reflections create
an illusion of towering structures and of being a more spacious,
expansive, and multistory area.
Visitors enter the museum and walk up a narrow ramp bracketed
on both sides by sheets of tempered glass and steel handrails.
They are then led into a well-lighted space dotted by a series
of vitrines.
Marking the museum's entrance will be a large-scale stainless
steel "light box" by artist James Turrell. The collaboration
of Duffy and Turrell will be the artist's first public artwork
in New York City and it will be visible from the street 24
hours a day.
The new space was donated by the developers, Millennium Partners,
and is leased rent-free to the museum by the Battery Park
City Authority. Construction was also possible with major
public support from the New York City Council, Battery Park
City Authority, Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields,
New York State Council on the Arts and with corporate, foundation
and private funding.
"The museum would not have been possible without the
generosity of many supporters in the real estate community
who have donated, designed and are building the museum,"
said Carol Willis, the Skyscraper Museum's director, founder
and architectural historian.
The museum is the first and only one of its kind in the world
having photographs, drawings, models, films, city maps, blueprints,
advertisements and souvenirs that illustrate its mission to
collect, preserve and interpret the evolving history of skyscrapers.
The museum was first conceived of in 1996, Willis said. After
that came three temporary spaces downtown and exhibits in
other museums. After funding and space went forward, the building
took only about a year and half to build and design.
The museum shares the same building as the Ritz-Carlton Hotel
as well as 38 stories of condominium units.
"A permanent home in lower Manhattan was our dream from
the start," Willis said. "These buildings are really
about urban life and the urban condition. I hope we can allow
people to interpret their future from learning about their
past."
Future exhibitions at the museum will include a dedication
to the World Trade Center, including the original World Trade
Center model, and a look at Frank Lloyd Wright's skyscraper
projects and influences.
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