Frommer's EasyGuide to New York City 2018 by Pauline Frommer

Author:Pauline Frommer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: FrommerMedia
Published: 2017-10-11T04:00:00+00:00

Note: MoMA has installed a museum-wide Wi-Fi network so that visitors can access audio tours and commentary on their wireless devices; this includes specialized versions for children, teens, and the visually impaired.

11 W. 53rd St. (btw. Fifth and Sixth aves.). www.moma.org. 212/708-9400. Admission $25 adults, $18 seniors, $14 students, children 16 and under free if accompanied by adult. Free admission Fri 4–8pm. Sun–Thurs 10:30am–5:30pm; Fri 10:30am–8pm. Subway: E or M to Fifth Ave.; B, D, or F to 47th–50th sts./Rockefeller Center.

Rockefeller Center ARCHITECTURE Gotham’s splendid “city within a city” was built in the 1930s at the height of the Depression. Thanks to the jobs it gave construction workers, it was the second-largest employer in the city at the time, surpassed only by the federal Works Progress Association (WPA). And it remains a marvel of elegance and aspiration, a several-blocks-wide collection of 19 buildings that, despite their mass, create a space that is airy and light, a welcoming haven for both tourists and residents. No matter how many times I come here, I still get goose bumps on the walk from Fifth Avenue through the gardened central path—called “The Channel,” as it runs between the French and the British buildings.

Follow this boulevard down to the ice-skating rink (the first commercial one in the world), and the golden statue of Prometheus, or “Leaping Louie,” as wits have called him over the years, his prone position under the soaring vertical of the RCA building making him look like he just jumped. The rink is open October to early April, Monday through Thursday 9am to 10:30pm, Friday and Saturday 8:30am to midnight, Sunday 8:30am to 10pm.

There’s much to see at the Rock. Directly behind the statue is where the yearly 70-plus-foot Christmas tree is set on November 20 each year, a plaque marking the space. Take a left and walk toward 49th Street to the small side street with the glassed-in TV studio on the corner. This is where NBC’s Today Show is taped, the street area where sign-waving crowds gather every weekday morning, as early as 4am, to attempt to get their faces on TV. (When the show has musical performances, people line up days before and guests play on a stage in this narrow alley. It looks much bigger on TV, doesn’t it?)

Stroll over to Fifth Avenue between 50th and 51st streets, where Prometheus’s brother, mighty Atlas, the finest piece of art in the complex (by artist Lee Lawrie), hoists a giant globe on his shoulders, muscles rippling. From the back, Atlas looks a bit like a Christ figure, especially superimposed on St. Patrick’s Cathedral across the street. Go into the lobby directly behind the Atlas statue for a peek at one of the most magnificent public spaces in the city, the walls bedecked with a rare, swirling Greek marble, the gold “curtains” at the side creating an ever-changing dance of shadows on the ceiling.

Although I don’t recommend the Rockefeller City tour (it doesn’t go anywhere you can’t go yourself, and the guides are a dull lot), the Tour at NBC Studios (www.

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