The Skyscraper Museum is devoted to the study of high-rise building, past, present, and future. The Museum explores tall buildings as objects of design, products of technology, sites of construction, investments in real estate, and places of work and residence. This site will look better in a browser that supports web standards, but it is accessible to any browser or Internet device.
NEW HOME CONSTRUCTION
The site at the southern tip of Battery Park City. Image courtesy of EarthData Solutions.
In early 2004, The Skyscraper Museum opened its permanent home in a new building at the southern tip of Battery Park City (BPC). View photos of the finished gallery by three renowned photographers by visiting our Slideshows page. Created under planning guidelines of the Battery Park City Authority that require the inclusion of a public amenity as part of each BPC project, the Museum received its 5,000 square-foot gallery space from Millennium Partners, the building's developers. The distinguished firm of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) is the Museum's architect, with award-winning partner Roger Duffy as lead designer. SOM donated its design services and Tishman Construction Corporation, which has been building New York since 1898, served as Construction Manager pro bono. For a description of the design by SOM and for more photos of the new space, please visit the page dedicated to our Grand Opening Celebration titled "Stand Up for Skyscrapers", which took place on March 1st, 2004.
Exterior view of the Ritz-Carlton Downtown. Designed by Gary Edward Handel & Associates in collaboration with Polshek and Partners.
The new facility contains two main galleries: one for the core exhibit Skyscraper/City on the evolution of New York's commercial skyline, another for changing shows. With a permanent home, the Museum also begins the process of collecting and preserving important artifacts of high-rise history, of organizing an active education program, and of celebrating New York's rich architectural heritage.
With the skyline of Lower Manhattan as its immediate backdrop and the panorama of New York harbor at its front door, the Museum enjoys a site of breathtaking beauty and an unmatched location for cultural tourism and serves as a vital element in the changed landscape of downtown. A short walk from the historic skyscrapers and canyons of lower Broadway and Wall Street, and minutes from the embarkation point of boats to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty, the Museum stands at a nexus of past and present that attracts over 10 million tourists annually.
The museum's permanent home broke ground in November 1999. Photo from August 2000.
Other nearby attractions include the New York Stock Exchange, the Museum of the American Indian, Trinity Church, the Museum of Financial History, aand the neighboring Museum of Jewish Heritage. Of particular relevance is "ground zero", which will continue to command global interest in Lower Manhattan.
We have a quicktime movie showing a time-lapse animation from the first months of the Ritz-Carlton construction for you to view. Quicktime required.
Museum interior view courtesy Skidmore, Owings & Merrill.
Museum plan and maquette courtesy Skidmore, Owings & Merrill.
