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

Roosevelt Island

Upper East Side

East River

New York

In my over eleven years as a New Yorker, I have been to visit Roosevelt Island four times. The first was about ten years ago, the most recent was early this spring. There has been some pretty big changes going on about the island, but I can’t say they’ve all been good. Somehow, while cleaning up the area, it also began to lose some of its charm. It’s not entirely gone, however; there are still some packets of glitter here and there. 

You can get to Roosevelt Island on the F-train, but anyone who’s anyone takes the Tram from 59^th Street and Second Avenue. Don’t worry, if it falls, Spiderman will save you. The Tram ride over is the main reason most people go to Roosevelt Island in the first place. Many people get off and take the next car back over to Manhattan. Which is a shame as they’re missing out on lovely views of Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens from a magnolia tree lined path that circles most of the island. 

Ten years ago there were wonderful signs that led visitors on a self-guided walking tour. These signs are now either all gone or ruined by weather/vandals and the Roosevelt Island Historical Society’s solution seems to be to ask people to help replace them rather than to replace them themselves. Today your best option is to download a hard-to-read map with insanely tiny type put out by the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation. A small visitors center has been restored and reopened by the RIHS. It is rarely open and sells a nondescript map with no didactics of the historical structures on the island. Perhaps the RIHS is hoping to draw more people to its occasional walking tours by refusing to replace the guided-tour signs or offer a more informative map.

Has lost some charm: Strecker Laboratory. It used to be one had to view this crumbling 19^th-century Romanesque Revival structure made from rusticated local stone from behind a rusty, weed-laden fence. It had a spooky aura about it, like the pathological and bacteriological work done in it was à la Island of Dr. Moreau. Now its been cleaned up and has fresh paint on the doors and windows. It’s part of the shiny new F.D.R Memorial Park at the southern tip of the island. On the plus side, there are now public toilets for visitors. My first few visits were laden with incidents of public urination.

Still has its charm: Smallpox Hospital. After the tram ride, this is the second coolest thing about Roosevelt Island. This Gothic Revival structure is something straight out of The Mysteries of Udolpho. It was open in 1856 to accept charity cases. Despite the development of vaccinations, NYC continued to be plagued by smallpox epidemics as late at the 1870s. It was later turned into a housing unit for the nurses of the Charity Hospital Training School opened just to the north. Because generally poor individuals were treated for free on the island, it got the name Welfare Island. The Smallpox Hospital is beyond repair and is tucked safely behind a fence. Wooden and metal support beams keep the standing walls from collapse. It looks particularly spooky lit by floodlights at night and can be seen from Manhattan.

Has lost some charm: Blackwell House. Not that this 18^th century Dutch farmhouse was ever that charming. Or maybe it’s just sour grapes. New York is filled with 17^th and 18^th century Dutch houses that are closed off to the general public. I find it annoying to not be allowed inside preserved historical structures. Blackwell House is used as a community center for meetings and the whatnot. In my four visits to the island I have never seen nor heard anything about it being opened to the general community. Nor can one properly look inside the windows to see anything of interest. Humpf!

Still has its charm: The Lighthouse. I mean, who doesn’t love darling little lighthouses? And this one has a great story to go with it: In the 19^th century, John McCarthy, a patient from the Lunatic Asylum was granted permission to build a fort because he feared the invasion of the British. When the plans to build a lighthouse were formulated, they had to bribe the patient with fake funds to get him to demolish his fort. McCarthy later claimed to build the lighthouse himself and even carved an inscription near the foot of the lighthouse taking credit for the work he never actually did.

Has lost some charm: Octagon Tower. Like the Strecker Laboratory, I liked the Octagon Tower better when it was a vine-riddled crumbling structure behind a fence (that was very easy to crawl through). It once served as the main entranceway for the New York Lunatic Asylum; now it is part of a new residential building that boasts Adirondack chairs, a community garden, and a gallery that features Roosevelt Island themed exhibitions. I will grudgingly admit that the restored spiral staircase looping up through the foyer is awfully nice. 

Everything else: The Chapel of the Good Shepherd—like most churches—is lovely, but rarely open to the public outside of worship hours so you have to admire it from the outside. Across the street from it is the cheapest (both in price and quality) Salvation Army I have ever seen. The Tom Otterness statues along the Western Promenade are typical of his cutesy but bland Monopoly style works. The Meditation Steps are falling apart and the pier in the form of a boat prow is covered in graffiti, but that’s the best part about it. There’s an extremely sparkly statue in the F-train lobby, which seems to be a metaphor for Roosevelt Island’s recent hit-and-miss efforts to spiffy itself up.

One of my favorite things about Roosevelt Island is its Automated Vacuum Collection System, which is also found in Disney World. You can’t see them, but there are tubes all over the island that suction residents’ waste to the AVAC building where it is compacted. This is just one of the little gems of information provided on the now-missing self-guided walking tour placards. 

Roosevelt Island can be a nice place to visit if you’re looking for something a bit different and out of the ordinary to do. Note, however, that the island can give off a bit of a sad, dejected air. My boyfriend became quite depressed while visiting the place and has no desire to return, so if you’re prone to melancholia, it’s perhaps best to avoid Welfare Island. I, however, think it’s a nice place to take a stroll every few years.

http://rihs.us/

http://rioc.com/

New York Transit Museum

Brooklyn Heights

Brooklyn

My last posting was about a museum that doesn’t allow visitors under the age of twelve. So this week I am writing about a museum that has them in spades. 

Most New Yorkers with children in their lives are familiar with the New York Transit Museum. But did you do know you don’t need to have children to visit this museum? And, did you know it’s actually fun for adults, too? Granted, it WILL be crawling (and I mean this literally) with children, and you’ll have the pleasure of listening to wealthy Brooklyn Heights parents calmly explaining to their tantruming children that, no, they can only get one toy at the gift shop, but if you time things properly, you might get to enjoy some of the exhibits in relative peace.

When to visit the Transit Museum is tricky: during the week it is filled with school groups and it has family programming nearly every weekend. Schools, however, can’t bring groups after three, so you can swoop in during the last hour the museum is open mid-week. Or, as most of the weekend programs begin at 1:30, you can try to get there first thing on a Saturday or Sunday. Check the calendar, though, as there are occasional morning programs on the weekends. There are, however, some special adult-only programs. Though, those cost extra and require advance reservations.

If you decide to go first thing on a weekend, go to lower level first. The entire museum is on a lower level—it’s housed in a 1936 subway station—but there’s an even lower level that is the old subway platform. On the now-unused tracks is an almost complete history of subway car design in NYC, from the R-1 to the R-160. This is the coolest exhibit in the Museum. The old cars have been perfectly preserved, including vintage advertisements (including a movie poster for Marlon Brando in The Wild One), leather straps, and straw seat covers. The open space of the vacant subway platform, however, it too great a temptation for most children to resist running up and down it at full speed, so get there before they do. 

Another favorite is the Fare Collection exhibit, which shows collection devices throughout the subway’s history, including the first paper ticket choppers used in 1904. It also explains why our designs changed and how the current turnstiles are supposed to help deter fair evaders. I write “supposed to” because we all know how easy those things are to jump. You can gaze longingly at the lovely fifty-year history of the token and for a pretty penny can buy some at the gift shop. This exhibit is generally not overrun with kids as they are too busy fighting over who gets to pretend to drive the various buses and trolleys in the On the Streets exhibit near the back of the Museum.

To enter the Museum, all visitors must pass through the dimly lit Building New York’s Subway exhibit. This section is fairly text heavy so most families move through it quickly, but take time to stop and look at the old photographs and documents of the men who physically built the original subway tunnels. It’s amazing how much work can be done in a very short period of time when human life is not considered important. People gripe about how long the Second Avenue line is taking to finish, but these things take time and money when the workers are paid a living wage and their safety is taken into consideration.

Other rooms contain rotating displays of posters and city-themed artworks, some more interesting than others. 

For anyone out there who thinks I have something against kids since I spent a large portion of this posting telling people how to best avoid them, let me state that I have been to the New York Transit Museum twice: once with my thirty-four-year-old boyfriend, and once with my eight-year-old niece. Both times were just lovely. I’m just acknowledging that depending on who you go with you will likely focus on different aspects of the Museum. If you do go with a niece, nephew, or even your own little ones, by all means, let them spin on the subway poles to their hearts’ content and don’t let other kids cut in front of them when they’re waiting their turn to drive the vintage 12-seat bus.

http://www.mta.info/mta/museum/

Neue Galerie

Upper East Side
Museum Mile
Manhattan

When people think of New York City museums they think of the Met, MoMA, the Guggenheim, the Whitney, perhaps even the Museum of Natural History, the New Museum, or the Frick. Few people think of the Neue; even fewer know how to pronounce it.

 

It’s easy to overlook or decide to pass over the Neue Galerie. Housed in a townhouse, it’s a fraction of the size of the big Manhattan museums yet costs the same for admission. I urge locals to check this place out. Because of its small size, the curators at the Neue understand something that is all too often forgotten by big museums: how to edit an exhibition. You’ll never encounter filler images or visual fatigue at the Neue; every single piece is drop-dead gorgeous. Bonus for people who don’t like going to the Met because it’s filled with screaming running unsupervised children: no one under the age of 12 is allowed in the Neue (for the best as some exhibitions would cause permanent scarring) and teens need adult supervision at all times.

The Neue was the brainchild of art dealer Serge Sarbarsky and art collector Ronald S. Lauder who shared a passion for early twentieth-century German and Austrian art and design. The building housing the museum had been built in 1914 by the same architects who designed the New York Public Library. It was once owned by Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt III and was purchased by Lauder and Sarbarsky in 1994. Sarbarsky died in 1996, but Lauder continued the project as a tribute to his friend.

While the building is four stories, the galleries occupy only the second and third floors. The basement level, however, is like a bonus gallery—it houses a permanent display of Vienna Secessionist exhibition posters and wallpaper design. The ground floor holds a German-style café and the most expensive gift shop I’ve ever seen. The permanent exhibition is found in two rooms on the second floor. One room is filled with cases of exquisite industrial design from the Bauhaus, Werkbund, and Vienna Workshops. For only several thousand dollars visitors can purchase reproductions in the gift shop. 

The other room displays the Neue’s main attraction: four large paintings by Gustav Klimt, including a 1907 portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer, which, when purchased by the museum in 2006 was the most expensive painting to have ever sold at auction. Pollock, Cézanne, and de Kooning have since broken Klimt’s record, but it was still a pretty big deal at the time. Along with costing $135 million, the painting also has a turbulent history. It was confiscated by the Nazis when they took over Austria, and when it was returned to the family’s estate was part of a protracted court battle over whether the painting could leave the country.

The third room on the second floor houses rotating exhibitions, mostly works on paper, of various Austrian artists associated with Vienna circa 1900, the best known being Egon Shiele and Oskar Kokoschka. The third floor galleries focus on German art from the early 20^th-century, notably artists associated with the Blaue Reiter, the Brücke, and the Neue Sachlichkeit. The works on this floor rotate regularly, but one small, dimly lit room is often dedicated to fragile early photographs.

In the summer of 2012 the third floor galleries focused on Dresden photographer Heinrich Keuhn, one of the first photographers to experiment with early autochrome images—decades before the color photography technology became readily available. He was associated with Alfred Stieglitz and was influenced by the pictorialist movement. The surfaces of his gum bichromate images were so velvety soft and luscious they literally made me cry. Literally. Despite regularly having work reproduced in Stieglitz’s Camera Work, and having well-known early color photographic images often included in art textbooks, Keuhn’s name and larger oeuvre is relatively unknown outside of Germany and Austria. This is a tragedy! It’s also a tragedy that these images aren’t still on display, but you can find some of the images on the Neue Galerie’s website.

Right now there is an exhibition of Ferdinand Hodler, a major Swiss artist who was admired by the Vienna Secessionists. Sadly, the curators have chosen to remove the second floor industrial design cases, but rest assured, they’ll return in January when the Hodler show closes. View to Infinity is considered to be Hodler’s masterpiece, and the exhibition takes this piece as its title, but the real stars are his portraits and landscapes. While his technique can be painterly at times, it never crosses into Impressionism, and his landscapes are pure celebrations of color. Several paintings are not under glass, which allows viewers to really see the works—and not their reflections looking back at them. 

The only thing that struck me as a bit lacking was the smaller second floor room. It is completely overhung with dozens of photographs of Hodler taken by photographer Gertrud Dübi-Müller. I’m all for some images of the artist at work, but Dübi-Müller took over 400 photographs of Hodler and the Neue seemed intent in cramming as many of them as possible salon style in one room. The Neue makes up for this on the third floor with a room dedicated to Hodler’s emotional, almost merciless drawings of his lover, Valentine Godé-Darel, on her deathbed as she slowly died from cancer shortly after the birth of their child. The theme of capturing the death of loved ones became popular among gay artists at the beginning of the AIDS epidemic, but there was no such precedent in 1914 and Hodler was exploring uncharted, heartbreaking territory. 

This is the largest American exhibition ever devoted to Hodler, which is something the Neue is known for doing—staging exhibitions by underappreciated artists you won’t see in other museums. Museums need to make money and the best way to bring in visitor dollars is by having yet another exhibition of works by Andy Warhol or the Impressionists or Salvador Dalí. The Neue has enough funding thanks to the Estée Lauder fortune Ronald S. Lauder inherited from his mother to put forth shows of lesser-known artists.

If $20 seems like a lot for such a small museum (no, it’s not suggested donation) and you didn’t finish school recently enough to use your old ID (yeah, I still do that), you can get in free on the first Friday of the month from 6pm to 8pm. This might be a good first-time visit option. Because the Galerie is so small, I often leave the museum feeling like I barely spent any time there at all and know I wouldn’t want to pay full price for such a short visit. Also, when the Neue is between exhibitions and only the two rooms with the permanent exhibition are open, the museum is pay-what-you-like.

Despite it’s small size and fairly steep price, you won’t regret visiting the Neue. It may even become your new favorite.  

www.neuegalerie.org

Fort Wadsworth

Shore Acres
Staten Island

Not too long ago I had a rather disappointing visit to the Alice Austen House Museum located near the Verrazano-Narrow’s Bridge on Staten Island. Determined that the day wouldn’t be a bust, my boyfriend and I decided to head over to nearby Fort Wadsworth in time for the 2pm weekend tour. As it turns out, the Visitor’s Center is closed for renovations until an undisclosed date, so the tour didn’t happen, but that did not stop Fort Wadsworth from saving the day.

I don’t even know where to begin with this place. While walking around Fort Tompkins—the main building at Wadsworth—looking for any signs of a tour group meeting, Ben and I began seeing signs directing visitors not to feed the goats. That’s right: goats. Several small herds of goats are employed with the task of clearing away unwanted invasive vegetation. Fort Wadsworth is one of the oldest military installations in America, first fortified by the British in 1779 before being developed further by the United States after 1807. The main structures of Fort Tompkins and various batteries came into disuse in the 1960s, so when the Navy turned over Wadsworth to the National Park Service’s Gateway National Park in 1994, the Park Service had a great deal of unchecked plant growth to deal with. The goats are a green solution that doesn’t use any fossil fuels.

Then there’s the park rangers, who are awesome (at least the one we talked to). Determined to get some semblance of a tour, I stopped a passing ranger to ask if the 2pm tours were still running. He gave a long explanation about the renovations at the Visitor’s Center then decided to find someone to let us into Fort Tompkins. He insisted he was a preservation ranger, not an interpretive ranger who gives tours, yet he seemed to know a lot more about Wadsworth than the two young rangers who let us into Fort Tompkins. Some other visitors followed us into Tompkins and when one man asked one of the young rangers if it had been a barracks, the ranger responded, “Barracks?” in a manner that indicated he had no idea what a barracks was. Mr. Well-Informed Ranger answered that yes, it had been, and he also answered all my questions about the goats, though he personally would prefer job creation by the hiring of groundskeepers over green goats.

Some of the buildings are eerily rundown and overgrown. It was a bit creepy visiting them in the middle of the day; I can’t imagine how eerie the nighttime lantern tours that are occasionally offered would be. The grounds of Battery Weed are well-maintained, but the nearby Torpedo Shed that was destroyed in a fire in the 1980s has been allowed to run completely wild. If you plan your visit correctly, you might get a glimpse of  Mont Sec House, which was built in 1889 and has been restored to how it looked in the 1890s. Fort Wadsworth prided itself on providing comfortable living quarters for officers and their families. This was at a time when many officers’ families had to settle for sparse conditions along America’s western frontier.

If you have your heart set on a guided tour that will take you inside the buildings at Fort Wadworth, be sure to call ahead to avoid disappointment. If it’s not such a big deal, print out a map and guide yourself—there are plenty of historic placards around the Fort to inform the biggest of military nerds. Fort Wadsworth is also one of only two places in New York City where camping is allowed (the other is Floyd Bennett Field near Rockaway in Queens).

http://nyharborparks.org/visit/fowa.html

http://www.nps.gov/gate/historyculture/ftwad.htm

Wave Hill

Riverdale
Bronx

When I began thinking about this posting about Wave Hill, I became a bit stumped as to what to write about it. Wave Hill is a very pretty garden and cultural center located in the Riverdale area of the Bronx along the Hudson River. I’m trying to think what makes it different from the other botanical gardens in New York and worthy of a visit instead of heading over to the New York Botanical Gardens (also in the Bronx) or to the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens.

Wave Hill occupies 28 acres compared to BBG’s 39 and NYBG’s 250, and it’s only slightly cheaper, plus all three of the gardens offer similar free days. One thing Wave Hill does offer is stunning views of the Palisades, something the more inland gardens can’t provide. All three places offer classes, workshops, and family programs, but Wave Hill seems to offer more free programs as well as more casual one-day workshops. BBG and NYBG are the place to go for serious classes—you can earn your certificate in floral design at BBG or get a degree in horticulture at NYBG. 

One thing that is definitely different about Wave Hill is its exhibition program. Wave Hill commissions contemporary artists, often local, to create site-specific works that explore relationship between people and nature. Yes, this sort of work can often be poncy and annoying, but the galleries are small, so it comes in small easily-digested portions. And there are the occasional artists who do this sort of thing well. I personally prefer the exhibitions of 18^th-century botanical drawings and contemporary bonsai that can be found at BBG and NYBG, but it’s still nice that local plant-themed artists have a venue. 

Despite its small size and the fact that it’s not really that different from the other gardens in NYC, I like Wave Hill. This is partially because of its location, partially because it is less crowded, and partially because of its architectural features. BBG and NYBG were both designed at the turn of the century specifically to be botanical gardens. Wave Hill, however, was built in 1843 as a country home for a jurist named William Lewis Morris. It was later rented by Theodore Roosevelt, Sr. and Mark Twain and then purchased in 1903 by George W. Perkins, a partner of J. P. Morgan.  It was the Perkins family that deeded the property to the City of New York. Because it had originally been a private residence, there are lovely Greek and Georgian Revival style buildings and landscaping features.  

A major perk of Wave Hill is that because it’s smaller and less accessible (free parking for drivers, but if you’re on public transportation you need to wait outside a Burger King for the hourly shuttle bus) than the other gardens around the city, it’s also more relaxed. Sure, the Roosevelt Rose Garden at New York Botanical Gardens is lovely, and the Cherry Blossom Festival at Brooklyn Botanical Garden is quite the spectacle, but they’re also so filled with people you may as well be trying to relax in the middle of Bryant Park during lunch hour. 

You can easily meander through the gardens and exhibitions in a couple of hours, so if you’re coming from far away (like Brooklyn) it’s a good idea to time your visit so you can also check out the Van Cortland House Museum. I, however, did not manage to do this as the hours at the Van Cortlandt House Museum are a bit limited, so I need to make it back up there one of these days to see if the man dressed like Ben Franklin’s slightly slimmer brother stays in character when you ask him questions. I’ll let you know how it goes.

www.wavehill.org