Posted on Nov 5, 2021, 2:40 PM
New York experienced an unprecedented experience during the pandemic: living among oneself, without foreign tourists, if this idea however makes sense in a world-city of 8 million inhabitants, where one can find a Yemeni neighborhood (in the Bronx), a very New England fishing village (City Island) and stairs like Montmartre (in the Washington Heights district). Visitors returning to New York thanks to the lifting of the travel ban on November 8 may not have time to exhaust the charms of Manhattan and Brooklyn before their return flight, or return to Broadway. , whose best shows are already filling up with American tourists. But they will be able to discover a panoply of new places that have had time to bloom over the last twenty months: a new point of view on the city, an artificial island on stilts, a collection of historical documents in the heart of a guarded library. by two marble lions (Patience and Fortitude), a brand new station …
Wall Street has proven wrong to those who predicted the city’s cultural death: the records chained to the Stock Exchange have swelled the patrons’ patrimony, mitigating the loss of income from tourism. The puffs of marijuana that surprise the passing visitor are now legal in the city, and the terraces that have flourished on the roadway are here to stay. The traffic jams are back – the traffic is as dense as before the Covid – and the subway is more congested on weekends than on weekdays: New Yorkers have taken a liking to teleworking, but they have not given up on go out.
Little Island, an artificial island on the Hudson River
It is first and foremost an architectural feat: in the southwest of Manhattan, on the banks of the Hudson River, the old pontoon of Pier 55 has been replaced by a park on stilts, designed by the architect’s studio. English Thomas Heatherwick. A garden suspended on 132 tulip-shaped stakes of different heights, forming an undulating square of one hectare with lovely views all around.
The public garden, designed by the landscape designer, Signe Nielsen, opened in May and offers a new stopover on the promenade along the river. It was funded by the family foundation of media mogul Barry Diller and fashion designer Diane von Fürstenberg – the couple were once big patrons of the nearby High Line, New York’s “green belt”. In addition to its views and sloping lawns conducive to contemplation, Little Island offers a 700-seat amphitheater on the water.
Pier 55, Hudson River Park, Hudson River Greenway.
At 340 meters above the ground, Edge is the all-new observatory in New York City. © John Angelillo / UPI / ABACAPRESS.COM
Edge, the new point of view on the city
Among the New York observatories (Top of the Rock, One World, etc.), Edge’s originality is to offer a bird’s eye view of Manhattan from a terrace built in front of the building that supports it, and above all located … in midair. At 340 meters in height, the visitor is separated from the void only by a high thick ice, and can walk more freely than at the top of the Empire State Building which faces him. The place opened in early March 2020, to close two days later with confinement. It reopened in September 2020.
The end of the day, with the sun setting over the nearby Hudson and neighboring New Jersey, is the best time to enjoy the view, but also the busiest time to take a picture at the edge of the terrace or on the few square meters of glazed floor. The tower that Edge is built on is located in the Hudson Yards neighborhood, which continues to line up its massive new skyscrapers despite office vacations.
www.edgenyc.com/fr
–The Rose Main Reading Room, to be discovered at the same time as the “Treasures” of the Public Library. Clarence Holmes/Alamy/Photo12
The “Treasures” of the Public Library
Among the 56 million pieces and documents that constitute its collection, the Public Library of New York, which has just celebrated its 125 years, has selected a few hundred which it has been presenting since the end of September in a luxurious and erudite staging. In the historic building that borders Bryant Park, near Times Square, the visitor can thus discover one of the rare manuscripts of the Declaration of Independence written by Thomas Jefferson, but also the 1811 plan of New York, which drew the ” grid ”, in other words the grid of streets and avenues that characterizes the city.
The Polonsky Exhibition, named after its patron (a British insurer), does not disdain more recent or eclectic art, for example with a project for the cover of Lou Reed’s “Walk on the Wild Side” single. A visit can also be an opportunity to admire the beautiful building of the central Public Library, and in particular its large consultation room.
www.nypl.org
–Among the “Treasures” of the Public Library unveiled by the Polonsky exhibition: a manuscript of the Declaration of Independence written by Thomas Jefferson, and the Hunt-Lenox globe of 1510. © Robert Kato
The Frick Collection in a new setting
A change of location for a clash of cultures: the quintessence of classical painting, the Frick collection is now housed in the former brutalist building designed by Marcel Breuer in the 1960s and located on Madison Avenue. A refreshing alliance for the Fragonards, Rembrandts and other Van Dycks, lit by the trapezoidal windows opening like paintings onto neighboring buildings.
The place, renamed Frick Madison, will however only be a temporary setting, the time to carry out work in the mansion of the former steel magnate Henry Clay Frick, a few blocks away, in Central Park. The Breuer building had been commissioned to house the Whitney Museum’s collections, before they moved to southern Manhattan in a very “instagramable” museum. The Met had taken over the place to make it an annex, welcoming more contemporary artists like Gerhard Richter. For amateurs, another part of the Frick collection is housed in the former family residence in Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania).
www.frick.org
Governors Island, accessible year round
In September, the small “island of governors” did not close: it will now remain open all year round and no longer only in the summer months. A few minutes by ferry from southern Manhattan, Governors Island offers an incomparable panorama of its tip, but also of the Statue of Liberty and Brooklyn, also accessible by New York public transport boats. A former fort and military housing also recall that the island was first one of the high places of command and defense of New York, from the 18th century.e century.
Its surface has since been doubled by the rubble from the construction of a metro line, giving it its current form of “ice cone”. And an artificial hill has been added in recent years to provide 360-degree views of New York Harbor and surrounding areas. The island is now a place of walk between vestiges of the military past, artistic exhibitions and environmental commitment.
Ferry tickets can be booked at www.govisland.com/plan-your-visit/ferry
The renovated and enlarged MoMA
After four months of work and $ 450 million in investment, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) reopened in October 2019: few international tourists have therefore had the opportunity to discover the new spaces of this high place of contemporary art before the “travel ban” of March 2020. The MoMA, which claims a major change per decade, now has 30% more spaces. Enough to expand the exhibition spaces, but also to offer a brand new “creativity lab” or rest areas, as well, trade requires, that a store upstairs.
At the end of the year, MoMA is offering a short exhibition of Alexander Calder’s mobiles, a sure bet. And “Automania”, an exhibition on the place of the automobile, mirroring that organized in the same walls in 1951. We see in particular some iconic models and industrial paintings by Charles Sheeler.
www.moma.org
–On the ceiling of Moynihan Train Hall, extension of Penn Station, a work of art called The Hive, by Elmgreen & Dragset.© Marcus Baker/Alamy/Photo12
Moynihan Train Hall, the new station stop
It’s hard to beat Grand Central station in terms of decor, but if you’re going to Washington or Boston by train, New York finally has a modern infrastructure with Moynihan Train Hall, which opened earlier this year. On the 8e Avenue, the new concourse is located in a stately former post office, the Farley Building, and serves as an extension to the soulless Penn Station (whose original building was destroyed in the 1960s).
A glass ceiling illuminates the place, decorated with a large clock and some works of art. In terms of air transport, La Guardia has also just had a facelift. Enough to enhance an airport whose geographical location offers the best view of the sky over Manhattan. Passengers arriving through JFK Airport (the most numerous) will be able to take a look or stop by the old TWA terminal, designed by architect Eero Saarinen in the 1960s, and transformed into a vintage hotel in the summer of 2019. Time travel guaranteed.
www.moynihantrainhall.nyc/visit/getting-here
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