A Lesson Plan

New York is a massive city, and one that couldn't possibly be fully explored in a single class. The final assignment in my class is to write a lesson plan, showcasing areas that were not covered in the weekly lessons. I thought about this for a while, and chose six different places that I feel will give a diverse and interesting perspective on what New York City is.

Fashion Avenue

The area of 7th Avenue between 26th and 42nd Streets is well known for its fashion. Fashion is an overlooked area of American art, with only one landmark in the entire country dedicated to it: the Fashion Walk of Fame, which is featured close by.

Fashion Avenue is a very unique location. There are stores lining the street on both sides dedicated to all things that one can wear to make themselves more aesthetically pleasing. Some are more common, with most of the typical clothes one can find in any clothing store, but others are more specialized, such as a store dedicated entirely to zippers. Many of the nicer ones may be far out of the typical price range, but they are still worth a look.

Perhaps the most notable landmarks here is Bergdorf Goodman's. Bergdorf feels less like a store and more like a museum dedicated to fashion, and each item for sale has a price tag to match. Ranging in the thousands of dollars, the purses and dresses and coats on the racks each feel like a painting in an art museum, and so much as touching it makes one feel as if an alarm will go off!

This degree of luxury is something that needs to be seen in person to be understood, and the different displays and articles of clothing for sale are works of art in their own rights. Because of that, Fashion Avenue is not a location to be missed.

Museum of Natural History

The Museum of Natural History is to history museums what the Metropolitan Museum of Art is to art museums. It's just an unbelievably massive collection of different models and specimens of the entire history of the known universe.

First opening its gates in 1869, the Museum was the result of a collaboration between more than twenty people, including the father of US President Theodore Roosevelt. Opening up to around five million visitors every year, the Museum boasts a collection of over 32 million different specimens of "plants, humans, animals, fossils, minerals, rocks, meteorites, and human cultural artifacts". These specimens are divided up into different halls. The Mammal Hall (split up further into "old mammals" and "new mammals" features models and stuffed mammals from different parts of the world on display with a set that resembles their original habitats. The Bird, Reptile, and Amphibian Hall is similar to the above, but focuses on organisms outside of the mammal class. The Biodiversity and Environment hall is home to models of different plant life and terrains, with a section dedicated to marine biology (with a well known life-sized model of a blue whale, the largest known creature to currently populate the Earth). The Human Origin and Culture hall features artifacts from different cultures throughout the world, as well as models representing early homo sapiens and their slow evolution into the modern day human. The Earth and Planetary Science hall hosts exhibits of meteorites that have fallen to the Earth, as well as different minerals and gemstones. Nearby it is the Hayden Planetarium. Lastly, the Fossil halls are home to the fossils of dinosaurs and early mammals.

The Museum of Natural History is absolutely vital to visit because it is a collection of all knowledge about the world around us all. It would be impossible to walk through this museum with a bit of curiosity and manage to learn nothing new. The sheer size and diversity of its collection makes it a must-see part of New York City.

Prospect Park

Everyone always thinks of Central Park as the big, must-see park in New York City. This is easily understandable, as Central Park is quite massive and very beautiful. But there's something about natural beauty that just can't be replicated perfectly in man-made beauty. It's hard to explain what it is, but Prospect Park embodies it perfectly. It makes a very nice change of pace from the usual city flair.

Originally opening its doors in October of 1867, Prospect Park is 585 of beautiful landscapes and scenery. Designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, two of the designers of Central Park, wanted to make the Park look "picturesque" in its aesthetic design. While they removed and planted their own trees in order to form the park's iconic Long Meadow, much of the park is still in a natural state. This unplanned, not man-made style gives the park a very different feel from Central Park, with its much less even terrain and nonuniform trees. Although still considered a popular spot in the city, Prospect Park is a much less popular location, only bringing in around 8 million annually compared to Central Park's 37.5 million.

But, despite being a very different style and location, Prospect Park still very much fits within the city. As written in much greater detail in my previous blog post, Prospect Park is kept in line by a great deal of fences. These fences create a sense of order around the entire park, and remind one that, while they may be surrounded by nature, they are still within the boundaries of a controlled environment.


Port Authority

While Grand Central Terminal is certainly the most iconic part of the New York public transportation system, Port Authority Bus Terminal ranks pretty high.

Opening for business back in 1950, Port Authority is close by to Time Square. A subway station is located directly beneath it, and the building above allows for buses to enter and exit. Much like Grand Central, Port Authority is filled with small convenience stores and gift shops. More than 65 million people pass through the terminal every year, a number equal 20% of the population of the United States.

Although the building itself was listed as one of the "Top 10 Ugliest Buildings", it is home to some exquisite art. I wrote about the rolling ball sculpture 42nd Street Ballroom to great lengths in a previous blog post, but I still think it is a must-see work of art, especially for someone with or someone who knows someone with autism. There is another work of art, called The Commuters, which features several statues traveling through a doorway with a clock next to it signaling the next departure time.

Outside the station is the Triple Bridge Gateway, a work of art made of lights beneath a bridge. It's absolutely beautiful to see at night, and one of the many reasons I feel "Top 10 Ugliest Buildings" is a massive overstatement.

14th Street

It's important to get familiar with the different subway stations in New York. For one, they all have a very different feel from something like Port Authority. Besides the darker lighting and the very uncomfortable temperatures, most of the people around you in the subway just feel less friendly.

14th Street Station in particular stands out because of its famous set of sculptures. All around the station, some out in the open and some hidden, are bronze statues. They stand only a few feet high, and have some exaggerated traits, such as money for heads. Sculpted by Tom Otterness and finished in 2001, the figurines were designed to represent "the impossibility of understanding life in New York". They all represent social classes, and many of them have a theme of crime and the legal system. The richer figures often appear corrupt, but the cops exclusively go after those who are not as well off.

My personal favorite depicts a few people attempting to climb beneath the fence to get on the trains for free as a cop waits to catch them on the other side. One of the most popular ones shows an alligator climbing out of a sewer, attacking one of the rich statues, as another rich statues pretends to not notice.

These figures are important to see in person because of how they are set up. No attention is drawn to them because they are supposed to represent the faceless nobodies around us all. They represent the different parts of life in the city of New York, the life the people passing through the station are immersed in daily.

Brooklyn Public Library

I was told in our class that Manhattan was where money was made, and Brooklyn was where people were made.

The Brooklyn Public Library rests outside of the Prospect Park area, and can be clearly seen from the plaza entrance to the park. The sight that stands out the most is the massive bronze gateway. The initial plan for the building was to look entirely different, featuring a giant dome and a style similar to the Brooklyn Art Museum. However, the Great Depression ensured that wouldn't happen. Instead, Alfred Morton Githens and Francis Keally were commissioned to create a more cost-efficient building. This caused them to remove most of the plans for decorations and the removal of the entire fourth floor. The end result was toned down a bit, but the gate still remained in the design, and it is absolutely beautiful.

The decline of bookstores demonstrates the sad truth that paper books are slowly going to die out. However, while bookstores may one day be a thing of the past, libraries are one thing that will probably never go away. They are more than merely places to find books. Libraries are centers of information. They promote learning and working with others to gain knowledge. Libraries can be a private place of study, and a social place of mutual understanding. They are something that all people should find the time to visit, and should make the effort to understand.

As a monument to knowledge, free knowledge for everyone, the Brooklyn Public Library is worth stepping inside of.