Queens Museum of Art | The Panorama of the City of New York | lengthy, tight view up Manhattan, together with the dual towers of the World Trade Center, the Empire State Building, the Brooklyn, Manhattan, & George Washington Bridges; Statue of Liberty
Image by Chris Devers
A couple of years in the past, I got to see a 1:1500 scale mannequin of London on the Building Centre there. It is a big scale mannequin of the center of town in three dimensions, with representations of most buildings, landmarks, parks, the Thames, and the (on the time but to be constructed) Olympic Park.
It’s extraordinarily spectacular.
And it’s as nothing in comparison with The Panorama on the Queens Museum of Art.
Here’s two panorama images to offer a way of the size:
• view from the “west”
• view from the ”south”
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Quoting from the Museum’s web page on the The Panorama of the City of New York:
The Panorama is the jewel within the crown of the gathering of the Queens Museum of Art. Built by Robert Moses for the 1964 World’s Fair, partially as a celebration of the City’s municipal infrastructure, this 9,335 sq. foot architectural mannequin consists of each single constructing constructed earlier than 1992 in all 5 boroughs; that may be a whole of 895,000 particular person buildings.
The Panorama was constructed by a workforce of 100 folks working for the good architectural mannequin makers Raymond Lester Associates within the three years earlier than the opening of the 1964 World’s Fair. In planning the mannequin, Lester Associates referred to aerial images, insurance coverage maps, and a variety of different City materials; the Panorama needed to be correct, certainly the preliminary contract demanded lower than one p.c margin of error between actuality and the mannequin. The Panorama was some of the profitable sights on the ‘64 Fair with a each day common of 1,400 folks making the most of its 9 minute simulated helicopter journey across the City.
After the Fair the Panorama remained open to the general public, its initially deliberate use as an city planning instrument seemingly forgotten. Until 1970 all the adjustments within the City have been precisely recreated within the mannequin by Lester’s workforce. After 1970 only a few adjustments have been made till 1992, when once more Lester Associates modified over 60,000 buildings to deliver it up-to-date.
In the Spring of 2009 the Museum launched its Adopt-A-Building program with the set up of the Panorama’s latest addition, Citi Field, to proceed for the continued care and upkeep of this beloved treasure.
The Queens Museum of Art has a program providing you with the chance to “purchase” NYC actual property on The Panorama of the City of New York for as little as . To learn how you can become involved click here.
We hope that you’ll take time to benefit from the Panorama of the City of New York.
The Panorama of the City of New York is sponsored by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and New York State Assembly members Mike Gianaris, Mark Weprin, Audrey Pheffer, Nettie Mayersohn and Ivan Lafayette, The New York Mets Foundation and the supporters of the Adopt-A-Building Program.
View the winning pictures from our Gala 2011 Panorama Picture Contest!
View pictures from our Gala 2011 Photo booth, May 12, 2011!
View pictures of the Panorama on its Flickr page
Add your own pictures to our Panorama Flickr Group!
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Quoting now from The Panorama part in Wikipedia’s Queens Museum of Art article:
The finest recognized everlasting exhibition on the Queens Museum is the Panorama of the City of New York which was commissioned by Robert Moses for the 1964 World’s Fair. A celebration of the City’s municipal infrastructure, this 9,335-square-foot (867.2 m2) architectural mannequin consists of each single constructing constructed earlier than 1992 in all 5 boroughs; that may be a whole of 895,000 particular person buildings. The Panorama was constructed by a workforce of 100 folks working for the architectural mannequin makers Raymond Lester Associates within the three years earlier than the opening of the 1964 World’s Fair. The Panorama was some of the profitable sights on the ’64 Fair with a each day common of 1,400 folks making the most of its 9 minute simulated helicopter journey across the City. After the Fair the Panorama remained open to the general public and till 1970 all the adjustments within the City have been precisely recreated within the mannequin by Lester’s workforce. After 1970 only a few adjustments have been made till 1992, when once more Lester Associates was employed to replace the mannequin to coincide with the re-opening of the museum. The mannequin makers modified over 60,000 buildings to deliver it up-to-date.
In March 2009 the museum introduced the intention to replace the panorama on an ongoing foundation. To elevate funds and draw public consideration the museum will enable people and builders to have correct fashions manufactured from buildings newer than the 1992 replace created and added in alternate for a donation. Accurate fashions of smaller condominium buildings and personal houses, now represented by generic fashions, will also be added. The twin towers of the World Trade Center might be changed when the brand new buildings are created, the museum has chosen to permit them to stay till development is full somewhat than representing an empty gap. The first new buildings to be added was the brand new Citi Field stadium of the New York Mets. The mannequin of the outdated Shea Stadium will proceed to be displayed elsewhere within the museum.
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Quoting now from the explanatory sign at the exhibit:
THE PANORAMA OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK
The Panorama of the City of New York, the world’s largest scale mannequin of its time, was the creation of Robert Moses and Raymond Lester. Presented within the New York City Pavilion as town’s premiere exhibit on the 1964/65 New York World’s Fair, it was supposed afterwards to function an city planning instrument. Visitors skilled the Panorama from a simulated “helicopter” journey that travelled round perimeter or from a glass-enclosed balcony on the second flooring, whereas information commentator Lowell Thomas supplied audio commentary on “The City of Opportunity.” One of the “helicopter” automobiles is now on view within the Museum’s everlasting exhibition, A Panoramic View: A History of the New York City Building and Flushing Meadows Corona Park.
Constructed on the Lester Associates workshop in Westchester, New York, the Panorama comprises 273 separate sections, a lot of that are four-by-ten-foot rectangular panels. They are composed of Formica flakeboard topped with urethane foam slabs from which the typography was carved. Lester Associates’ workers consulted geological survey maps, aerial images, and books of City insurance coverage maps, to precisely render the City’s streets, highways, parks, and buildings. Once the Panorama’s modules have been accomplished at Lester Associates’ workshop, they have been assembled on website within the New York City Building. It took greater than 100 employees, three years to finish the mannequin.
Built on a sale of 1:1,200 (1 inch equals 100 toes), the Panorama occupies 9.335 sq. toes and precisely replicates New York City together with all 320 sq. miles of its 5 boroughs and 771 miles of shoreline, in addition to the constructed setting. It consists of miniature automobiles, boats, and an airplane touchdown and taking off at LaGuardia Airport.
The majority of the City’s buildings are offered by standardized mannequin items created from wooden and acrylic. Of greater than 895,000 particular person buildings, 25,000 are custom-made to approximate landmarks similar to skyscrapers, massive factories, schools, museums, and main church buildings. The quantity of element potential on most buildings is proscribed; at a scale of 1 inch to 100 toes, the mannequin of the Empire State Building measures solely 15 inches. The most correct buildings on the Panorama are its 35 main bridges, that are finely manufactured from brass and formed by a chemical milling course of.
The mannequin is shade coded to point varied varieties of land use. The darkish inexperienced areas are parks. Parkways are additionally edged in darkish inexperienced. Mint inexperienced sections are associated to transportation together with practice and bus terminals. The pink rectangles that dot the City present the areas of leisure areas together with playgrounds and tennis and basketball courts. Clusters of pink buildings are indicative of publicly sponsored housing.
Red, blue, inexperienced, yellow, and white coloured lights have been put in on the floor of the Panorama in 1964 to determine buildings housing City businesses regarding safety, training, well being, recreation, commerce, welfare, and transportation. Overhead lights have been designed to run in a daybreak to nightfall cycle, and the nighttime impact is enhanced by ultraviolet paint, illuminated by blacklight.
In 1992, the City started a renovation of the Queens Museum of Art and the Panorama. Using their unique strategies, Lester Associates up to date the Panorama with 60,000 adjustments. In the present instalation, designed by Rafael Viñoly Architects, guests observe the course of the unique “helicopter” journey on an ascending ramp that permits them to expertise the Panorama of the City of New York from Multiple Perspectives.
