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Longwood Gardens, Pennsylvania
If this is paradise, I wish I had a lawnmower
Longwood Gardens is in Pennsylvania but closer to Wilmington, Delaware than Philadelphia, although both aren’t all that far away. This somehow was my first trip ever to Longwood Gardens, it took place in the winter on a gloomy gray day and on the very last day that all of the holiday decorations remained on view. I’m not quite sure how it’s taken me this long to actually get here, although I do have a theory. If I’m going to Philadelphia, I’m probably going to take a train, and if I’m going to Wilmington, it’s probably time to question my life choices that are making me go to Wilmington (nothing against Wilmington, I’m sure it’s very nice, although I’ll probably never intentionally find that out). Longwood Gardens is more of car place than a train place, in fact if you search for “Longwood Gardens train,” actual public transportation options will be way, way down the list after garden trains and holiday trains.
All of these slideshows have a tendency to bounce around a lot. So far we’ve been to California, Nevada, Connecticut, two New York City Boroughs and even Pennsylvania. We’re back in New York and in Manhattan (or the city as its known locally) where an art project uncreatively named Projecting Change at the Empire State Building, It featured, well, projections on the Empire State Building coordinated with the spire lighting, featuring National Geographic images of endangered species. What you can’t see in these pictures is the north, east or west views, and you’re not seeing them for a reason. The projection was on the south side only, and from everywhere else it was just another night at the Empire State Building.
We’re staying in Manhattan for a little while, and we’re now visiting an art festival called Ideas City organized by the New Museum. Ideas City was fun and interactive, and watching strangers walk around in public with boxes on their heads is always going to make me happy I went.
There are often art installations in Madison Square Park, but the one this summer is probably the best one yet: Fata Morgana by Teresita Fernandez, A “Fata Morgana” is a tricky ocean mirror mirage that probably drives sailors insane. The artwork here had nothing to with sailors, but instead involved mirrors that hind of looked like tree canopies suspended over the park, and who (besides possibly crazy sailors) doesn’t love that?
Some pictures of the brand new, Renzo Piano Whitney Museum at the foot of the High Line on Gansevoort Street. where, proving that I have the patience of a saint, I waited a whole 8 days after opening before seeing it.
I’m generally far more impressed with the new building than I expected to be. It has some really fun outdoor terraces with great views and some really impressive details, although there is a pretty big one that they kind of forgot. When you go and visit, you’ll be impressed by the stair that leads up to the first museum galleries five floors up, and you’ll be impressed with the exterior stair that links the sixth, seventh and eight floor galleries. Where you won’t be impressed is when it comes time to go between the fifth and sixth floors and you are faced with either a long line for a slow elevator or a hidden fire stair that feels like it’s not quite ready for primetime. Seems like an odd deliberate choice in a building filled with nothing but deliberate choices.
Enough of me complaining. Just go to Gansevoort Street, wait in line, buy a ticket and see it all for yourself.
It has been well over a decade since 9/11, and construction is slowly finishing up (probably) on what looks to be its most spectacular piece, the nicest PATH Station ever designed by Santiago Calatrava. From the outside it kind of looks finished (insane, yes, but finished), and to celebrate this, I’m including a side by side of two New York City Calatrava projects for you to compare and contrast on your own. The PATH Station is the second photo, while the first is a public sculpture from Santiago Calatrava: On Park Avenue which is, of course, on Park Avenue.
We’re rolling on with some pictures from the Open House New York tour of the Javits Center, and, to be a little more specific, the green roof at the Javits Center. What drew me to the tour was a rare chance to ascend up to see this space, one of the largest green roofs ever created and a great space full of birds, bats, bees, bugs and massive HVAC units. It’s a really interesting space to be in and one that was intentionally designed to be nice and also designed not open to the public. The guides even mentioned that what the roof looked like from the impending Hudson Yards skyscrapers was a driving design factor. A real lost opportunity if you ask me.
The fine people at Open House New York not only took me up to the roof of the Javits Center, they also took me on a boat tour of the Newtown Creek superfund site, something which was actually just as interesting as you might think it was. Newtown Creek separates Queens (and Long Island City) from Brooklyn (and Greenpoint). And, compared to the Gowanus Canal, not quite as oily and super disgusting (sorry, Gowanus Canal).
We’ve so far visited Queens, the Bronx, Brooklyn and Manhattan. If you were hoping that Staten Island was next, you’re out of luck. Instead we’re headed south into New Jersey to visit the Grounds for Sculpture. I am not a fan of Grounds for Sculpture, I think the Seward Johnson sculptures are gimmicky at best and only there because of the Johnson & Johnson money, but I returned once again specifically to see a temporary exhibit, Michael Graves: Past as Prologue.
I had made plans to see the exhibit on a weekend, and only three days before I planned on going, Michael Graves passed away. This unwelcome news made the trip and exhibit a little more intense. I am not always a fan of his, but I do agree that he was very talented and, even if I dislike something, I usually find it interesting and well designed. However, maybe because the man literally just died, I found myself really enjoying the exhibit and wondering why I was the only one there to see it. People were outside taking their pictures in the cold by some trite Seward Johnson sculpture while inside, three days after the man died, this wonderful exhibit was pretty much a ghost town. A real shame on so many levels.
