The Met launches its new expanded art website

by Sean McLachlan on


One of the best art museums in the world now has a world-class website.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City has redesigned and expanded its website. The Met’s site now offers access to all of its more than 340,000 works of art.

There hasn’t been a major overhaul of the site since 2000, the cyber equivalent of the Late Bronze Age. Each of the almost 400 galleries at the museum and The Cloisters now has its own description and photograph on the interactive map and there are thousands of zoomable art images to explore. Students and aficionados will find the Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History handy. It’s searchable by date, period, style, region, and theme. First-time visitors will want to check out the suggested itineraries to the Met.

As museums and galleries strive to attract real visitors in a virtual age, they’re hard at work developing their online presence. The Smithsonian Archives is another of many institutions to spruce up their Web profile.

[Photo courtesy morrissey]

The Bowery House: part museum, part hotel

by McLean Robbins on


It’s half hotel and half museum. The Bowery House at 220 Bowery is one of New York City’s oldest names. Purchased in 1927 as a manufacturing building, the hotel served as a temporary lodging for soldiers returning home from World War II in the 1940s under the name The Prince Hotel. The rooms or “cabins” became so popular that many soldiers never left and lived in the building all the way through the 1990s.

Today, the property has been re-launched as The Bowery House, a trendy hotel meets museum meets hostel that effortlessly blends historic charm with luxe modern amenities.

Owners Alessandro Zampedri (an Italian race car driver) and Sanford Kunkel (a former real estate broker) re-imagined the property as a new destination for cost-conscious visitors, attempting to preserve much of the property’s original spirit with upgraded amenities like 300 thread count sheets, Ralph Lauren towels, high-end custom mattresses, and more. Items such as dog-tag key chains and specialty posters in each room, pay tribute both the soldiers who once lived there as well as various periods in Bowery history, such as Skid Row and the Bowery Boys street gang. All of the artwork, lighting and furniture are manufactured by independent artists.
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Adding to the property’s museum-like charm, the varied room options highlight the building’s origin and its neighborhood’s culture. Like the actual quarters of the WWII soldiers, majority of the cabins, which start at $59 per night, have just enough room for a bed and essential belongings. They are available in single, twin- and full-sizes. Bunks range from the Museum Bunk which provides direct views of the New Museum (which is located across the street), to the Peppers Bunk, named after one of the most colorful longtime residents of 220 Bowery – Charlie Peppers.

The Bowery House’s original, communal bathrooms have been updated with items like Carrera marble sinks, heated floors and bath products from the its local Prince Street neighbor, Red Flower. Other amenities include a landscaped roof garden, a private living room, The Bowery Bodega where guest can get snacks, toiletries and drinks, Dutch-inspired Bowery Lane Bicycles which are available for daily rentals, etc.

While we’re not sure that staying in a teeny tiny room fits our idea of a “fun” hotel stay, the price is certainly right for cost-conscious travelers who don’t want to utilize a traditional and dubiously-clean hostel.

Low Line may become New York’s first underground park

by Grant Martin on

The High Line park in New York City has received widespread acclaim for its excellent reuse of old, elevated rail. Formerly a freight line that ran along part of the west side of Manhattan, a slice of track was recently seeded with plant and parklife to create a stretch of elevated public space running through the city, and the High Line is now a must-see for many visitors to the city.

So how else can old space be repurposed for the public good? By creating underground parks, of course. New York Magazine released renderings of a proposed Delancey Underground or “Low Line” this weekend that shows a potential plan to turn an abandoned trolley station in the lower east side into a public park, complete with piped in light from the surface above.

The community is set to start discussing the project later this month, and depending on their outcome, the park could begin development soon thereafter.

Check out the full spectrum of renderings over at the NY Mag website.

Remembering 9/11 ten years later: Where you can pay respect

by Melanie Renzulli on




Everyone remembers what he or she was doing on September 11, 2001. From the moment American Airlines Flight 11 struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center (8:46 a.m. EDT) to the horrific realization that the United States was under attack, every person has a story to share, whether of what they were doing on that fateful day to memories of personal survival or tragic loss.

Ten years have passed since the terrorism attacks of September 11 changed the world forever. From the war in Afghanistan to airline regulations, we live with the legacy of 9/11 on a daily basis. But while 9/11 is at the forefront of our minds, many of us have lost sight of the thousands of lives that were lost on that fall day. A decade later, there are three memorials – at the World Trade Center site, the Pentagon, and Shanksville, Pennsylvania – where we can remember the dead, honor the survivors, and reflect on the events of September 11, 2001.National September 11 Memorial and Museum
New York City
Located at Ground Zero, where the two towers of the World Trade Center were destroyed and 2,753 lives lost, the National September 11 Memorial and Museum, known simply as the 9/11 Memorial, will be inaugurated in an official ceremony on September 11, 2011. The 9/11 Memorial will not open to the public until September 12, 2011, and its museum, to be located in a plaza underneath the memorial, is not scheduled to open until September 2012.

Like the Twin Towers, the 9/11 Memorial is huge in scale. Set on eight acres and filled-in with 415 trees, the memorial is comprised of two fountain cascades that are the exact size of the footprints of the two buildings. Lining the edges of the fountains is a bronze strip engraved with the names of the victims from the World Trade Center, Pentagon, and United Flight 93, as well as the names of the seven people who died in the World Trade Center bombing on February 26, 1993.

Admission to the 9/11 Memorial is free, but visitors must reserve a time to visit. You can request visitor passes here, but note that as of this writing, the first available time available is on September 14. There are also 9/11 family member visitor passes for those who are related to victims listed on the memorial.

Pentagon Memorial
Arlington, Virginia
Open since September 11, 2008, the Pentagon Memorial is a quiet reminder of the 184 men, women, and children who died when American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the southwest edge of the Pentagon. The memorial contains a series of benches, each etched with a name, laid out on the western side of the Pentagon Reservation. Benches pointing towards the Pentagon refer to those who were inside the Pentagon when the plane struck; benches pointing in the opposite direction represent the airline passengers and crew who perished. The Pentagon Memorial is free and open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Guided tours are not available.

Flight 93 National Memorial
Shanksville, Pennsylvania
Maintained by the National Park Service, this memorial to the victims of Flight 93 is located in the field where the hijacked plane crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, on September 11, 2001. The Flight 93 National Memorial has had several temporary memorials and is still under construction. But the official dedication ceremony of the first phase of construction for the permanent memorial will take place on September 11, 2011. Similar to the other two memorials, the Flight 93 memorial will contain a Memorial Wall of Names inscribed with the names of the 44 people who died. Admission to the Flight 93 National Memorial is free and the memorial will officially open to the public at 2 p.m. on September 12, 2011.

Image from Wikipedia

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Sotheby’s: the museum where you can buy the art

by Sean McLachlan on

Have you ever looked at a work of art hanging on a museum wall and thought, “That would look great in my living room”? Well, at one of the best “museums” in London you really can take it home with you.

Sotheby’s is London’s oldest auction house, and has been a London institution since 1744. They sell everything from fine art to vintage wine to antique furniture. While most items are beyond the means of the average visitor, the galleries and auctions are open to the public. There are branches in London, Paris, New York, and Hong Kong.

When I lived in London I visited the Sotheby’s galleries regularly. They host constantly changing exhibits of art and antiques. Since the items mostly end up in private hands, this is your only chance to see them. I was a bit worried the first time I went in that I’d be given some cold English upper-class attitude. It was painfully obvious I wasn’t there to buy anything. Surprisingly, I was treated with respect, which is more than I can say about a certain antique shop I visited in Islington.

On one visit a few years ago there was going to be a major auction of Russian art–some medieval icons and a lot of Neorealism. As usual the items that would be going under the gavel were put on display. As I wandered around admiring the art, I found the crowd to be equally interesting. Hordes of Russians in Armani suits were on their cell phones calling buyers in Moscow, describing art and getting instructions on maximum bids. Watching all these rich Russians and their multimillionaire bosses I realized just how much the world had changed in the past twenty years.

So check out Sotheby’s. It’s not only a lesson in art, it’s a lesson in sociology.

[Photo courtesy Claus Hoppe]