Day 3 - Flatiron & MoMA

While I was in NYC I missed my family a lot, especially my sweet little Bean. I have never been away from her for so long before. Every time I would spot a child about her age I would just marvel at how wonderful their joyous little souls are and miss my daughter even more. In a way, I was almost surprised to see so many kids in NYC. I tend to think of the city as lots of big buildings, traffic and serious business going on, not a place where people are raising families. But of course there ARE families in NYC. In fact, I saw lots of kids. Some were walking to the neighborhood playground with a group that I assumed to be kids in day care. They were adorable all walking in a line with a few adults hovering very closely to assure their safe passage. Often they were holding a tow rope down the middle to ensure everyone stayed together. Also I saw plenty of rather fancy looking kids in strollers being taken for a walk by a woman who was obviously their nanny.

The Pork Store.

The Flatiron Building
The Flatiron Building, or Fuller Building as it was originally called, is located at 175 Fifth Avenue in the borough of Manhattan, and is considered to be one of the first skyscrapers ever built. Upon completion in 1902 it was one of the tallest buildings in New York City. The building sits on a triangular island block at 23rd Street, Fifth Avenue, and Broadway, anchoring the south (downtown) end of Madison Square. The neighborhood around the building is called the Flatiron District after its signature building, which has become an icon of New York.
The Flatiron Building was designed by Chicago's Daniel Burnham as a vertical Renaissance palazzo with Beaux-Arts styling. Unlike New York's early skyscrapers, which took the form of towers arising from a lower, blockier mass, the Flatiron Building epitomizes the Chicago school conception: like a classical Greek column, its facade of limestone at the bottom changing to glazed terra-cotta as the floors rise) is divided into a base, shaft and capital. Since it employed a steel skeleton it could be built to 22 stories (285 feet) relatively easily, which would have been difficult using other construction methods of that time. It was a technique familiar to the Fuller Company, a contracting firm based in Chicago with ties to Burnham and considerable expertise in building such tall structures. At the vertex, the triangular tower is only 6.5 feet wide; viewed from above, this ‘pointy’ end of the structure describes an acute angle of about 25 degrees.
The Flatiron Building has become an icon representative of New York City. It was the subject of one of Edward Steichen's iconic atmospheric photographs, taken on a wet wintry late afternoon in 1905, as well as a memorable image by Alfred Stieglitz. Stieglitz reflected on the dynamic symbolism of the building, noting that it "...appeared to be moving toward [him] like the bow of a monster ocean steamer—a picture of a new America still in the making," and remarked that what the Parthenon was to Athens, the Flatiron was to New York.
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Pete, Brian's roommate works in the Flatiron building so we were very lucky to have the opportunity to venture inside the building and actually look at the offices in the "point".

My favorite photo from the whole trip......The Empire State building taken through the front, curved, window of the Flatiron Building.

View of the park below.

This is one of the original window frames that has been converted into artwork and hung in the conference room. As best I could tell, all the flat windows have been upgraded and the curved windows in the very front of the building are still original. We also figured out you can open the windows. New building certainly don't have that option.

Photo I took up the stair well in the Flatiron Building.

After our amazing time IN the Flatiron Building, we went to the Shake Shack for lunch. It is another touristy spot that I just had to see for myself.

The line was VERY long.

But we finally got our burgers and shakes. They were good, but not something I would wait in line for again.

We walked by Radio City Music Hall.

The next big adventure was the MoMA.

The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been singularly important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world. The museum's collection offers an unparalleled overview in modern and contemporary art, including works of architecture and design, drawings, painting, sculpture, photography, prints, illustrated books and artist's books, film, and electronic media.

This photograph was on display and I deemed it my favorite.

Dummy me, didn't know the "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon" was even in the United States, much less the MoMA. So, when I rounded the corner to see this I was totally blown away. I admit that I got a little choked up. I studied art history a lot in school and have done more than one paper on Picasso, so I am very aware of the significance of this painting.

AMAZING that I saw it in person!!!

The museum architecture itself is a very interesting.