30 in 30: #21

The current home of The Skyscraper Museum was completed in 2004. Designed by verti-meisters SOM, the small museum is located in a ground floor space of a hotel/residential tower in Battery Park City. It's right across the street from Machado + Silvetti's Wagner Park pavilion.



The exhibition space is raise above sidewalk level by a few feet. A stair provides access behind the cashier, though the intended route is via a ramp (above) that creates a more controlled and processional experience for the visit. From the ramp, it is clear that the interior architecture and exhibition design rely upon images, light, and reflections. That might not sound different from other exhibition spaces, but here the effect is saturated more than others.



The above image of the main corridor -- adjacent to a ramp that rises further to the museum's office space -- illustrates the primary means of reflection: the floor and the ceiling. Both are created from mirror-polished stainless steel, though the floor has a small square pattern for traction and sense of stability.



The architects admit that the floor and ceiling surfaces, "create the impression of an infinitely vertical space, with the reflections of the exhibit display vitrines appearing as soaring volumes representative of a skyscraper skyline." The above image most clearly illustrates this effect. Though something fishy is going on in those sidewalls, like a funhouse was inserted into the serious, business-driven world of building tall. Whatever the architects were thinking, the result is a refreshing addition to the straightforward reflections and refractions of the rest of the space.



Directions:
The museum is located at 39 Battery Park Place in Lower Manhattan. It can be reached by the 4,5 to Bowling Green; the 1 to Rector St or South Ferry.

Previously:
#1 - Church of the Crucifixion
#2 - 40 Mercer Residences
#3 - Dichroic Light Field
#4 - Juan Valdez Flagship
#5 - IAC/InterActiveCorp
#6 - South Court of NYPL
#7 - Louis Vuitton Store
#8 - Ironworkers Local 580
#9 - Korean Presbyterian Church
#10 - Roosevelt Island
#11 - Stabile Hall (Pratt)
#12 - Terian Design Center (Pratt)
#13 - Higgins Hall (Pratt)
#14 - Broken Angel
#15 - Alessi Store
#16 - Irish Hunger Memorial
#17 - Issey Miyake Tribeca
#18 - Stuyvesant Town
#19 - Shake Shack
#20 - Socrates Sculpture Park