Yale University and Environs

New Haven

Connecticut

Thanks to the miracle of medium-speed rail (America is still on the fence about ever developing high-speed rail like nearly all of Europe….), it is possible to travel from Manhattan to Connecticut in two hours for about $20. That makes a day-trip to visit Yale University’s many free museums quite doable. Even better, though, is finding a cheap apartment on airbnb.com and making it a two- or three-day weekend so you can explore what else New Haven has to explore. Though, be warned, the joke about how many Yale students it takes to screw in a light bulb makes perfect sense the moment you wander away from the main campus area… 

Many people find Yale University’s gray-stoned buildings charming. I personally am annoyed that every structure looks like a late English Gothic church. Note: none of them is actually an church. They are actually residence halls or college buildings filled with classrooms. The churches tend to be American colonial revival on the outside and Gothic revival on the inside and are lovely. They look like churches and they are churches. Several are even filled with gorgeous Tiffany stained glass, despite having been poorly renovated as to cover much of said gorgeous stained glass. Yes, my boyfriend will tell you it can be bothersome to visit New Haven with someone who gets easily annoyed with architecture, though we do come in handy from time to time. 

If fabulous architecture is your thing, Yale has more to offer than fake churches. Its two major museums, the Yale University Art Gallery and the Center for British Art, were both designed by Louis Kahn. The Art Gallery, 1953, was his first major commission and the Center for British Art, 1974, was his last. While the art in the Gallery might be more famous, the Center’s actual structure is far more striking. Not that the works at the Center are none too shabby—there’s plenty of Turner and Stubbs, plus many fabulous paintings of horses and boats, English specialties. Kahn designed the Center for British Art to be airy and open; at any time you can see through and around spaces. It makes you realize how claustrophobic most art museums are. 

The design for the Yale University Art Gallery is less successful, mainly because he designed only the core building where visitors enter and exit. The Gallery branches off into another building that looks like (you guessed it) yet another one of those pseudo English Gothic churches. The large windows in the ancient art galleries works, but the rest of the space is dark and heavy, and surprisingly densely packed with artwork ranging from African to Asian to Medieval to Modern. Indeed, the Gallery’s collection is so tightly displayed that it rather fatiguing. Best to break this museum into two separate visits. What’s the point of finally getting to Van Gogh’s Night Cafe if you’re so tired and cranky you can’t enjoy it? 

For a real visual treat be sure to visit the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, 1963, on a sunny day. This stunning building was built with translucent marble walls in lieu of glass windows. Rather than make the building a dark box or put in windows that would just be shuttered off to protect the books, Gordon Bunshaft made a visually striking structure that appears to glow when you’re inside it. Some of the books are rather impressive, too—an original Gutenberg Bible and a double elephant folio of Audubon’s Birds of North America. 

Travelers not afraid to explore beyond Chapel Street might want to check out East Rock Park. The hiking trails make a nice change of pace from museum walls and the various summits offer wonderful views of New Haven. Parts of the walk to the park demonstrate some of New Haven’s local color, but nothing so untoward that trekkers should be deterred. A fair warning: it’s at least two miles from downtown New Haven to East Rock Park. Then after hiking up and down overlooks for a few hours, and maybe checking out the Eli Whitney Museum, it’s probably for the best to take a bus or taxi back downtown. My boyfriend and I did not do this, and we greatly regretting the seemingly endless walk back to our rented apartment. 

Also off the beaten Yale path are the Divinity School and the Peabody Museum of Natural History, both about halfway between the New Haven Green and East Rock Park. The original Divinity School structure was recently rebuilt and its red brick is a change from the usual Yale buildings. There are also several picturesque private Victorian-style homes and mini-mansions along the way on Hillhouse Avenue and Prospect Street. Visitors familiar with New York’s Museum of Natural History will find the Peabody Museum to be a bit ho-hum, as well as overpriced. Ticket enforcement is rather lax (there are none), however, so if you go to the gift shop you can continue to walk around the museum without paying. Most of the displays are text-heavy and laden with mediocre objects. The display on the exposition to Machu Picchu is rather interesting, but the most fun room in the museum is the kids discovery room which contains an entire tropical leaf-cutter ant colony. Don’t worry, adults without children can see it, too. 

A bit closer to campus are the Grove Street Cemetery and the New Haven Museum. Be sure to download a map of the cemetery if you want to find some of the more famous residents, like Charles Goodyear, Noah Webster, and Eli Whitney. The New Haven Museum houses a modest collection of local industrial artifacts like Goodyear’s rubber inkwell and one of Whitney’s original cotton gins, as well as folk art. 

For something TOTALLY unexpected—and a little bit creepy—head down to the free Knights of Columbus Museum. Walking through the corridors of this museum it becomes very apparent that this place is loaded with cash. The exhibits and displays are of a far higher quality that most small museums, like the Peabody or New Haven Museum. This is despite the fact that the Knights of Columbus Museum receives very little foot traffic and charges no admission. Several parts of the collection were donated directly from the Vatican. There’s even a reliquary room. Catholics will love it and the rest will be awestruck up until they feel a burning desire to get out the place as fast as possible.

As for food, forget all the hype about New Haven pizza, especially if you’re from New York City. The white clam pizza from Frank Pepe’s is gross and hardly worth waiting in line for an hour or more. Instead, head in the opposite direction and check out Miya’s, an eclectic sushi restaurant that serves fusion rolls with brie and goat cheese alongside more traditional Japanese fare. Hippie bonus: everything is local, organic, and homemade. A good breakfast option is the Atticus Bookstore Café which opens an hour before most other places. 

If you visit New Haven between April and October, the Center Church on the Green offers tours down into its crypt. However, except when visiting one of the three churches on the New Haven Green, it’s best to avoid the small green area flanked by Phelps Gate and City Hall. What should be a nice, relaxing place to stroll and lounge is actually a rather sad plot of land that serves as a sleeping area for New Haven’s homeless. Why New Haven or Yale hasn’t done something along the lines of outreach serves to clean up the Green is beyond me. Lord knows parents paying $35,000 a year to send their children to Yale don’t want the entranceway to the campus filled with makeshift cardboard beds and dwellings. The New Haven Green is a perfect example of how everything in the town isn’t as peachy as visitor brochures would have you believe.

For those who haven’t heard it, the joke goes:

How many Yale students does it take to screw in a light bulb?

None: New Haven looks better in the dark. 

It’s not as bad as all that, though, and certainly nice enough for a relaxing weekend. If you go when school’s not in session things are much quieter. But, if you’re itching to see a play or attend a concert, you’ll need to visit when the area is crawling with co-eds.

Dyker Heights Christmas Displays

Dyker Heights

Brooklyn

You wouldn’t expect tourists from France, Germany, and China to travel almost to the bottom of Brooklyn to see anything other than Coney Island in the summertime. Yet the Dyker Heights Christmas displays attract an astonishingly varied international set. When I went to visit the much-lauded displays the weekend before Christmas, I heard precious little English being spoken. Locals who haven’t checked out this amazing display of electrical drain should consider making the trek down the D-line before the end of the year. Hopefully, these displays will stay up for a few weeks after Christmas.

Sources are vague as to how the whole Dyker Heights lights thing got started, but it’s generally believed to have begun in the 1980s. I like to think it was an elaborate, expensive holiday version of keeping up with the Joneses. Indeed, most of the homes clearly demonstrate that this is not a working-class neighborhood: pediments, columns, fountains, and French-manicured shrubbery abound. Some of the most elaborate displays are professional jobs that cost up to $20,000. 

While there are pockets of homes with copious lights and large displays throughout Dyker Heights and Bensonhurst, the grandest are centered between 85^th and 80^th Streets and 11^th and 12^th Avenues. Some of the craziest homes are on 82^nd and 84^th Streets. 

Be prepared for large groups clustered around the grandest homes; there are even tour buses parked nearby. Also be prepared for screaming children, both with joy and with crankiness. I heard one bewildered three-year-old ask, “Mommy, why are we here?” I also got to watch parents encourage their children to trespass. Some homes have fences and dividers intended to keep viewers away from their front door, yet that didn’t keep one family from instructing their four children to duck under the garland rope to pose with a nutcracker soldier. I imagine the, “Corre, rapido, rapido!” was supposed to make it better. 

Not all of the displays are bright and cheerful, however. Several homeowners failed to take into account that under-lighting things makes them scary at night, even if they are Mrs. Claus or Frosty the Snowman. 

A home on the corner of 80^th and 12^th was particularly disturbing—the mechanics on the old figures didn’t work very well and the jerky movements only added to the frightening effects of the lighting. There were also some humorous instances of inflated displays losing too much air. 

Still, the area is much nicer to walk around than Rockefeller Center, which has but one measly tree. It is far less crowded, though not so much as to keep panhandlers in off-brand Sesame Street and Disney character costumes from earning buckets of cash by posing with tourists. Though, I don’t see what Elmo has to do with Christmas. 

Brooklyn Historical Society

Brooklyn Heights

Brooklyn

The New York Historical Society is next door to the Museum of Natural History and is just a stone’s throw from the Strawberry Fields memorial in Central Park. It boasts an enviable collection of Hudson River School paintings, original Audubon drawings, and Tiffany lamps. As such, it has much greater success pulling in visitors than the far-less-known Brooklyn Historical Society. The Brooklyn Historical Society is geared toward all things Brooklyn and so can come off as exclusive to non-residents. The NYHS definitely caters to a larger audience. However, the BHS building is far more interesting than its Manhattan neighbor; so, if you’re around during a weekend when BHS is offering a tour, you might consider crossing the East River. 

When the Queen Anne style building designed by George B. Post opened in 1881, Brooklyn Heights was the place to be: the Brooklyn Academy of Music hadn’t yet moved away and Saint Ann’s was the tallest church in the city. Post had already designed the Williamsburg Savings Bank and New York Stock Exchange and was a hot name in architecture. Due to budget constraints, the exterior designs were modeled from red terracotta. It is the red color that makes the building stand out in a sea of brown and gray, although there are obvious long-term preservation issues with using such a material outdoors. The heroic busts of Michelangelo, Beethoven, Columbus, Franklin, Gutenber, and Shakespeare seem to be holding up just fine, and are looking perky due to a recent cleaning that removed decades of coal smoke residue. 

Despite a glorious beginning, the building that houses the BHS has had a rather checkered past that has caused some of its former features to be lost. The ground floor had originally been a grand theater, but when the Great War diminished the demand for performances and dances, the chairs were pulled out and it was converted into a nurses’ station. Then, alas, during WWII, when it was once again a nurses’ station, the stained glass in the windows was removed to allow in more light. For several decades lawyers rented the rooms left vacant after the end of the wars. Now, finally, the first floor is being renovated. It will return to being a theater space as well as a lobby gallery. And, thankfully, there are still a few windows in the building that retain their original stained glass.

It will be several months before visitors can see if the renovated theater space lives up to its former glory. The real jewel of the BHS, the Othmer Library, thankfully can never be altered as it is a designated interior landmark, one of only a few in Brooklyn. It is entrance into the Othmer Library that makes taking the tour worthwhile. The library is open only 1 to 5, Monday through Friday—hardly hours most working adults can take advantage of. The library doors get thrown open, however, during the public tours offered one or two Saturdays a month. 

The contents of the Othmer Library will seem ho-hum to most; the collection focuses on mainly Brooklyn housing information and genealogy. There is nothing ho-hum, however, about the gorgeous carved oak interior. Despite being surrounded by dark wood, the room feels very light an airy, thanks to Post’s application of the bridge construction technique of a truss system in the roof that suspends the fourth floor. Post deliberately designed the shelves to be short of the ceiling in order to prove that they don’t offer any structural support. The Corinthian-style columns are actually strong iron that has been wrapped in oak; the bases are looped with art nouveau-esque plant tendrils.

 As you walk around the building, keep an eye out for little design details. Post was very thorough; even the door hinges and keyholes are decorated. The lamps in the stairwells are also original, though they now use electricity instead of gas.

If you are interested in viewing the exhibits, you may want to get to the BHS early. Our 45-minute tour lasted almost 90. Tours generally start at 3pm, and the building closes at 5pm. It opens at noon, so you can get there well before the tours. Not that you’ll need hours to view the four small exhibits on display, three of which were designed by college and high school students. As such, they are a bit lacking in places, but offer some bright moments. 

The third floor holds Say Cheese and Inventing Brooklyn, both of which were curated by high school students through the Historical Society’s Ex Lab (Exhibition Laboratory) program. Say Cheese is on the development of portraiture and contains images ranging from tintypes to digital prints. It’s always nice getting to see tintypes which are usually kept in storage for preservation purposes. The didactics, however, were clearly written by the students, and, as such, some fair better than others.

Inventing Brooklyn begins in the hall with a rather loud television broadcasting clips of Brooklyn in movies. Keeping with the loud theme, the walls are covered in movie posters and advertisements. The part of the exhibition through the doors, however, is quiet as can be. It’s a bit small and cluttered, but not claustrophobically so, and the didactics appear to have been written by the BHS curators.

The second floor has a surprisingly interesting little display on the journals of Gabriel Furman, an early 19^th-century writer who chronicled Brooklyn. There are some rather timely excerpts, including a piece he wrote about “those crazy fanatics” the Mormons in a journal entry titled “American Superstitions.” Furman had been a prominent citizen who died in poverty and obscurity after becoming addicted to opium after an 1832 cholera outbreak. Furman (wrongly) believed opium prevented contracting the disease. This exhibition was put together by college students through the Historical Society’s Students and Faculty in the Archives (SAFA) program.

Also on the second floor is a small room with 18^th and 19^th century paintings of Brooklyn, including a map from 1770. All the information from this room is on a printed card that does not make it at all clear which painting is which. On the plus side, there are lovely views of St. Ann’s tracery from the windows. 

It is rather odd for such a small museum to allow three-fourths of its exhibitions to be curated by people between the ages of sixteen and twenty. And it does create a sense of something being wanting. Fortunately, not to the point where it’s not worth the effort to take one of eight different subway lines that stop in Brooklyn Heights. On a final note, the tiny gift shop located in the vestibule is surprisingly interesting. It’s filled with books specific to several different Brooklyn neighborhoods filled with history and walking tours. The register also has a few local walking tours visitors can snag for free. 

www.brooklynhistory.org

Lefferts Historic House Museum

Prospect Park

Brooklyn

New York was settled by the Dutch in the 17^th century and the area is still filled with surviving 17^th and 18^th century Dutch homes. Some have been renovated and continue to serve as residences, others are run down but still standing, while a few, like the 23 sites under the care of the Historic House Trust, have been preserved and are open to the public. 

The Lefferts House is one of the best-known of NYC’s restored Dutch homes. The Lefferts Historic House Museum is located in Prospect Park’s “Children’s Corner” next to the zoo and the carousel. As such, one would imagine it sees a bit more traffic than the sites located way out in Queens, Staten Island, and the Bronx. It follows that it sees more donations and gets more attention. The Museum's website boasts that 40,000 people visit it every year. Given its location that number seems impossibly low. Despite its apparent best efforts, the Lefferts House is a rather drab, lackluster place. This leaves me little hope for visiting the Hendrick I. Lott House or Pieter Claesen Wyckoff Farmhouse.

The building was built by Pieter Lefferts in 1783 to replace the family’s 17^th century home that burnt down during the Battle of Brooklyn in 1776. It was constructed with both freed and slave labor. The building was inhabited by Lefferts descendants until it was donated to the City of New York in 1917 on the grounds that it be moved to Prospect Park. It first opened as a museum in 1920 under the Forte Greene chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

The exterior and ground floor of the homestead has been designed with school and family oriented environmental education in mind. Perhaps it is this push toward child-level education that makes it a bit boring for the average visitor. The Museum attempts to touch upon American Indian (specifically the Lanape, the tribe that inhabited the region), Black, and Dutch experiences, as well as the changing landscape. To this effect there is a reconstructed wigwam, wooden cart, and garden with local and Dutch-import crops.

One of the more interesting outdoor features is the presence of a plank path and toll house. One of the way the Lefferts family made money was by building wooden roads on the muddy streets on Flatbush and charging people money to ride on them. The sign doesn’t mention it, but “Flatbush” is an Americanization of the Dutch “Vlacke Bos,” meaning “wooded plain.” Also outside is the kitchen hearth and brick oven. The curators decided to transplant it to the yard so it could be used for cooking events and demonstrations without fear of burning the house down. As a result, the interior kitchen is now largely made up of rather silly trompe l’oeil paintings. 

 

The first room upon entering the house is designed to occupy children while their parents look at other things. It has books and vintage toys like wooden blocks and checkers, and a game known as Nine Man Morris. Outside children can play hoops and graces. The most developed exhibition is dedicated to the process of making fabric. This is in the painted kitchen and includes fabric samples. This is also the only place in the museum that has any sort of real didactics. The rest of the place is set up but there’s no information. That always bothers me. For example, near the kitchen fabric display is a desk with school materials. There’s also a table with random American Indian objects like animal hides and beaded gloves. But you don’t really know what they’re about, or whether you’re supposed to touch them. I got the distinct feeling that one needed to be with a school group to get the full information about the place.

Tours of the second floor are offered to the general public on the weekends, though they’re a bit spotty. The Prospect Park website says they’re offered every half hour, but it’s more they’re offered whenever a group of people express interest in one. The house seems to be run by high school and college volunteers who mean well but who definitely aren’t experts on colonial arts and crafts. 

Only two rooms upstairs are open to the public and the very short tour consisted of a room with three cases of blue and white china, a hallway with a cabinet and case of broken delft tiles from Holland, and a period bedroom. There appears to be no electricity in the building, so things can be pretty dim on an overcast day. A hole had been cut into the wall to reveal the joined-wood construction, but it was too dark in the hall to appreciate it. Adding to the gloominess was a tattered wall didactic that had fallen off its Velcro and lay on the floor of the china room. Our guide informed us that the furniture in the bedroom was original. This room is known as Grandma Femmetie’s room because it was the only bedroom with a fireplace so the Lefferts grandmother got to sleep there. There was no information in the room, but a binder on a table downstairs had pictures and information of Grandma Femmetie’s room. The text in the binder explained that the furniture was not original to the house, but rather appropriate period pieces. 

All of the didactics hung in the downstairs foyer address the changing land and the moving of the home from its original location to the park. There is absolutely nothing about the period room on the ground floor, which is annoying to say the least, especially since it contains two portraits. Who are these people? Lefferts? Or just random “period” portraits to give the room an authentic air? And where were the exhibition developer and historian? The Lefferts House is open only on weekends and holidays. Surely it can’t be safeguarded at all times by minors?

The museum will be closed in January and February except for holidays. Right now if you visit you can see the 21^st Annual Quilt Show. I’ve seen other quilt shows in the Lefferts House and the one this year seems smaller than in previous years. There are a few nice pieces, despite the show’s vague theme of “cool.” I have to admit I rather admire the craft of quilting; particularly fetching are Ruby Horansky’s A Drop of Rain and Michele Kucker’s Snow/Crocus.

Despite all my grumbling, the exterior of the Lefferts House is rather pretty. The entranceway is in the rear of the home so be sure to walk around to the front which faces Flatbush Avenue. There you can admire the American Gothic dormer windows and Dutch door. As an added bonus the front lawn has a small rusty Revolutionary War canon that was found on Governor’s Island and moved to Prospect Park.

Perhaps I like the idea of Dutch homes better than the actual homes themselves. However, I am not ready to give up just yet. I will continue to explore the various Dutch homes that New York has to offer. I am determined to find one that is more than mildly amusing. The Lefferts Historic House Museum is not the answer to this quest. One down, twenty-two more to go.

http://www.prospectpark.org/visit/places/lefferts

http://www.historichousetrust.org/item.php?i_id=19

Dia:Beacon

Beacon

New York

In my last post I wrote about Storm King Art Center as one of two places where large-scale sculpture go to retire. Storm King suffered very little damage from Sandy and will be open as scheduled for the next month. The other place to see monumental sculpture that threatens to topple and crush you à la Richard Serra or Christo and Jeanne-Claude is Dia:Beacon. 

Dia:Beacon is more accessible than Storm King (well, not right now, as Metro-North trains are still being repaired). It is settled in the middle of a picturesque town and is a mere 80-minute train ride from Manhattan. Because of its location in a town with food and shelter as opposed to Storm King’s more remote status, it can make for a more comfortable day-trip, or even be extended into a weekend mini-break. 

Thanks to Dia, which opened in Beacon in 2003 as an extension of its Chelsea location, Beacon has been experiencing a renaissance. Just a decade ago Beacon was a shabby sleepy place with a couple of cafés and more than its fair share of antique/junk shops. Now it boasts a growing arts scene, waterfront development, cupcake bakeries, and multiple bed and breakfasts.

I first visited Beacon in 2006 when there still weren’t many galleries and the first B&B had yet to open. My boyfriend and I had to stay at a motel in nearby Fishkill, and, because the local car service stopped running at 5pm, we had to get there early. It was a pretty amazing place: A $50-a-night classic motel run by a young couple who decorated the check-in area with their own pen-and-ink tattoo drawings. Sadly, this place is now closed. As is the delicious soul food restaurant that was once run out a woman’s house on Main Street in Beacon. The Cup and Saucer Tea Room is still there, but it’s not very English anymore. Six years ago you could get scones, crumpets, and bangers and mash. Now the fair is your basic quiche and salad. But, considering how seedy much of Beacon looked back then, I’ll admit most of the change the development has brought has been positive. However, as the four or five places you can stay in Beacon will cost you $150 to $300 a night, I still recommend heading over to Fishkill, which has a Days Inn for $68 a night, plus breakfast with make-your-own Belgium waffles. Perhaps the increased tourism has also extended the car service hours. 

Dia:Beacon occupies a 1929 Nabisco box printing factory and lights as much of the work as possible with natural lighting from the space’s many windows and skylights. Because of this, it is open for a shorter time in the winter. It is also open Friday through Monday in the dead of winter as opposed to its normal opening days of Thursday through Monday. Year-round the museum opens at 11am. You, however, want to get there before 10:30, because every day it's open they allow a group of people to enter early for a private close-up viewing of Michael Heizer’s North, East, South, West. This piece is basically a series of geometric shapes cut into the concrete factor floor. Normally viewers have to stand a good twenty feet back because of obvious safety concerns, but during the morning tour you get to walk right up to the edge and peer into the abyss. The catch: no one under 18 is allowed on this special viewing tour. Again, for obvious safety concerns. 

The Dia Art Foundation has made it its mission to support works that are not easily accommodated by most conventional museums. Along with its Beacon and Chelsea locations, Dia safeguards such large-scale outdoor works like Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty and Joseph Beuys’ 7000 Oaks. It also has several small spaces around NYC with long-term installation pieces by artists like Dan Flavin and Walter de Maria.

Unlike Storm King, most of the works at Dia are found inside, but the surrounding Beacon area offers plenty for those itching for more time outdoors. Follow the Riverfront Trail from the train station to a mile-long loop around Denning’s Point. Closer to the train station is Beacon Point Park with a sculpture pier created by Dia-funded artist George Trakas. There’s also Waterfront Park which boasts a 20-foot floating pool in the middle of the Hudson. 

Then there’s Main Street, which still has plenty of antique shops, but now you can also get a decent cup of coffee and a microbrew. Every second Saturday of the month galleries and shops stay open late for art openings, music, and other special events. Of note is Hudson Beach Glass which offers glass blowing classes and sells some glass works that aren’t completely awful (something difficult to do with glass art). I’m not saying everything is amazing, but there are some nice items on offer. The more adventurous can visit Mountain Tops Outfitters which runs kayaking tours on the Hudson, including some to the Bannerman Castle ruins (something on my list of things to do) near Breakneck Ridge. They can also provide you with hiking maps of Mount Beacon, which includes streams, falls, old casino ruins, and the Mt. Beacon Fire Observation Tower which marks the highest point in Hudson Highlands.

In short, there’s plenty to occupy an entire weekend if you so desire, or head up for just a day to take in the art. However, a word of warning about the art before you go: The vast majority of the Dia:Beacon collection was acquired in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s. This, of course, means that the rooms are chockfull of minimalist and post-modern high-concept works. Think Sol Lewitt, Donald Judd, and Agnes Martin. It is not for everyone. It’s something that vaguely interested me in college, but to be perfectly honest, I wouldn’t go up to Beacon for the art alone. One can see only so many white boxes and florescent lighting tubes in their life before they become a bit tedious.

http://www.diaart.org/sites/main/beacon

Storm King Art Center

Mountainville

New York

Just an hour north of Manhattan are two places where large-scale sculpture go to be put out to pasture. One is accessible by train, Dia:Beacon, and the other by bus, Storm King Art Center. Both make for wonderful daytrips, but Storm King’s 2012 season ends November 25^th, so I’m going to focus on it first, just in case anyone reads this and thinks, “By Jove! I simply must go to there!”

Short Line Bus offers a package ticket deal of $45 for transportation to and from Port Authority and entrance to Storm King. I’ve done this trip three times and find it gives you the perfect amount of time to explore the Art Center’s some 500 acres. The bus leaves at 10am and returns a little after 6pm, leaving you a little over five hours with the art and landscaped hillside. When you board the bus at 10am, you will be surrounded by Italians from New Jersey who are carrying numerous suitcases. Do not be alarmed. They are going to the Woodbury Common Outlet Mall. Their suitcases are empty (for now). Only you and two other vaguely artsy-looking couples wearing glasses, flannel, and straw hats will stay on the bus to Storm King after everyone else gets off in Woodbury.

Just in case you’re thinking five hours sounds like an awfully long time, allow me to reiterate that the grounds are 500 acres and there are over 100 sculptures scattered about them. There’s also a Museum Building that exhibits smaller works and drawings. Daily tours are offered of Museum Hill (the area surrounding the Museum Building) at 2pm and family programming is offered every 1pm on Sundays. Every time I visit Storm King I find something that I missed last time. You simply cannot see the entire place in one day, even if you ride the tram or rent a bike. You cannot bring your own bike, but there are some to rent. 

The best thing to do, though, is to hoof it. A great deal of the art is tucked away beyond paved surfaces, so if you do bike or tram only, you’ll miss some of the best works, like the manmade wall designed by Andy Goldsworthy (a personal favorite of mine). There’s an entire section that is almost untouched woodland—no riding your bike in there. Maya Lin’s epic earthwork Wavefield is on a hill tucked behind a row of trees. Walking really is the best way to experience Storm King. It gives you time to experience your surroundings rather than just whizzing past them.

Storm King Art Center was founded in 1960. It began with thirty acres and was initially going to be a museum dedicated to the Hudson River School. Thankfully, that never manifested because by 1961 the founders had become more interested in modern sculpture—the first purchases are clustered around the exterior of the Museum Building. Then in 1966, one year after the passing of David Smith, the founders purchased thirteen works from Smith’s estate and decided to begin placing works in the landscape around the building. The rest is history. Now the Art Center covers hundreds of acres and even owns the rights to 2100 acres of Schunnemunk Mountain in order to preserve the views of the lands from Museum Hill.

One other note before you go: there is absolutely no eating anywhere other than the designated picnic area near the entrance of Storm King! Seriously, not even in the parking lot. The Storm King po-po will see you and stop you and shame you. This helps maintain the pristine conditions of the Art Center and prevents unsightly trashcans from being sprinkled amongst the art. A few years ago Storm King finally wised up and opened a café where you can buy sandwiches, salads, and snacks. Before that, it was bag your own or go hungry. 

Now, hurry up and get there before it closes for the winter! Or, wait until it reopens in the spring. Better yet, do both. Or, if you’re very adventurous, Storm King offers special winter walks once a month for members only. A membership is only $50, less for students or families, so if you like art and snow, it could be the choice for you.

www.stormking.org

Floyd Bennett Field

Marine Park

Brooklyn

If you’re looking for something way out of the way to do, Floyd Bennett Field is for you. It’s located at the very end of Flatbush Avenue at the part of Brooklyn that is a bridge away from becoming Queens. I’d ridden my bike past the Field several times on the way to Breezy Point Beach; from the street all that’s visible is some soccer fields and a couple of severely unkempt airplane hangers. But I’d heard rumors that air shows still take place there in the summers, and then I heard about the Historic Aircraft Restoration Project (H.A.R.P.) and decided I definitely had to get a closer look at this place.

Floyd Bennett Field is a bike rider’s dream. It opened in 1931 as New York City’s first municipal airport but couldn’t compete with LaGuardia Airport when it opened in 1939. Even on a busy-ish Saturday there is very little car traffic and wide-open runways free to bike on without fear of getting hit. There are few bike racks, but we left our bikes unattended for hours and they were untouched. Its distance can make it intimidating for some bikers, but you can take public bus or drive if you prefer. 

The ex-airport is loaded with amazing history. When it opened on May 23^rd, it was one of the most modern airports in the world. Because of this, it was the site for many record breaking flights during the 1930s, including Jacqueline Cochran’s P-35 flight which made her the first female pilot to break the sound barrier and Wiley Post’s flight in the Winnie Mae which was the first solo flight around the world. Howard Hughes later broke the record for shortest flight around the world, taking off from and landing at Floyd Bennett.

The U.S. Navy bought the airport in 1941 as a way to expand its aviation capabilities when it became apparent America would not be able to stay out of World War II. It was at Floyd Bennett that the Navy developed the helicopter as an aircraft for use in air-sea rescue operations, demonstrating the first use of the helicopter rescue winch in Jamaica Bay in 1944. It remained a Navel Air Station until 1971, and became part of Gateway National Park, one of the nation’s first urban national parks, in 1972. 

Over the forty years that Floyd Bennett has been a national park, some buildings have been left to fall into disrepair, while a rather fancy Aviator Sports Complex has been constructed near the Ryan Visitor Center along Flatbush. This is where most visitors congregate. The Sports Complex is filled with ice-skating rinks, rock climbing walls, an arcade, and a self-serve café that specializes in all things deep-fried.

The good stuff, however, is away from the main entranceway and along the shorelines of Jamaica Bay and Mill Basin. This is where you’ll find Hangar B, which is hands-down one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen in New York City. Since 1995, H.A.R.P. volunteers have been working to preserve the aviation history of Floyd Bennett Field by restoring vintage aircraft. Hangar B is open Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays from 9am to 4pm. Tours are given every Sunday at 2pm or you can call to arrange a tour on another day. You don’t really need to attend a tour, however, as there are park rangers on duty to answer questions and you can always talk to the one of the many volunteers (mostly middle-age and aging men); they are more than happy to share their knowledge with you. 

I would advise you to call before going to ensure the Hangar is open, but we did that and the operator had no idea what she was talking about. First she told us they didn’t know if it would be open. Then she said it would be open from 1pm to 3pm with a tour at 1pm. Turns out it was open at 9am and there was no 1pm tour. So, best just to go during the open hours. 

The aircraft being restored cover the history of flight from the early 1900s through the late 1960s. They represent the different eras of flight at Floyd Bennett, from airport to Naval Air Station, as well as cover the different services that flew from the field: U.S. Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, Air National Guard, and the NYC Police Department. There’s also two models of the gliders used by the Wright brothers and a couple of Army ambulances thrown in for good measure. The walls are comprised of mostly windows, but the little solid wall space that exists is decorated with authentic recruitment posters and aircraft decorations. 

Other points of interest at Floyd Bennett Field are the Model Flying Field, Model Racecar Track, and North Forty Natural Area. The Model Flying Field is pretty amazing: dozens of middle-aged men (I was the only female in sight) flying relatively large remote control airplanes. These planes are loud and fast—the best fliers can maneuvers their planes to twirl, dive, and fly upside down. Less exciting but just as loud is the Racecar Track near the Park Administration building. The walking paths along the northern end of the Field provide a change of pace from all the machinery. 

Floyd Bennett Field is also one of only two places where camping is allowed in New York City (the other is at Fort Wadsworth on Staten Island—review below). This is basic stuff—no electric or water hookups, no showers, just a few port-a-potties and picnic tables—but they sell out fast during event weekends.

So, come one, come all. Marvel at the planes of all ages and sizes. And even if you drive or take public transit, bring your bikes. 

http://www.nps.gov/gate/historyculture/floyd-bennett-field.htm

http://www.nyharborparks.org/visit/flbe.html

http://www.aviatorsports.com/

http://www.nyharborparks.org/events/index.html#harp