Big Apple Greeter

A Free Welcome-Visitor Service from NYC Volunteers

A Free Welcome-Visitor Service from NYC Volunteers

OCULUS: FABULOUS!

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Oculus NYC

After the Eataly breakfast, we were offered a tour of the nearby Oculus. This is the new complex at the rebuilt World Trade Center at 185 Greenwich Street in Manhattan.

Maxwell Majewski, Concierge Specialist for the Westfield World Trade Center, which is known as the Oculus, had much to tell us.

Designed by architect Santiago Calatrava, the Oculus is a train station, a plaza, and an extraordinary shopping mall – Starbucks, Victoria’s Secret, Sephora and Boss are just a few of its almost 100 shops and restaurants. 300,000 to 400,000 people pass through it every day and thirteen subway lines whisk travelers to their destinations.

Oculus NYC

It is glorious and it is huge: 800,000 square feet of steel and glass, with windows at the very top through which you can see the sky.

The Oculus is also a memorial. Every year on September 11th, the roof of the Oculus opens up and a wedge of light appears on the floor. It is always a powerful and emotional day.

The building is in the shape of a dove, symbolizing peace. But inside, there is much activity: art exhibitions, a Farmer’s Market, Holiday Celebrations, Light Shows on Walls, and coming soon, a Beer Garden.

The word “Oculus” is Latin for “eye.” Once you are there, the striking architecture and amazing shops will be a feast for both your eyes.

Oculus NYC

South Street Seaport Reborn!

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In 2012, Hurricane Sandy heavily damaged the South Street Seaport, a designated historic district in Manhattan. Tidal waves of up to 7 feet ravaged most of the area. Many businesses closed, and the remaining businesses suffered severe losses. 

The Howard Hughes Corporation, the Seaport’s owner, announced it would tear down its most prominent shopping area, Pier 17, as part of a broader redevelopment. The new pier includes retail shops, restaurants, and a rooftop performance space. It reopened in July 2018 and its glorious rebirth was ours to enjoy.

The Beer Garden

We were guided by Samantha Duffy, Marketing Coordinator — and great, great granddaughter of architect Cass Gilbert! Keeping the integrity of the Seaport’s history was paramount in its restoration, but shopping, eating, concerts and even ice-skating in the winter would ensure the Seaport was teeming with fun.

Poster outside SJP Shoes

Our first stop was Bowne & Company Stationers. Founded in 1775, it is the oldest continuously running business in New York City. Inside, they make and sell hand-printed cards and stationery. As we continued walking outside, Samantha spoke of the Summer Concert Series, which will feature such shining stars as Stray Cats, Sheryl Crowe and Ringo Starr, among many others.

Speaking of stars, Sarah Jessica Parker owns a high-end shoe store at the Seaport, one of 49 stores. Aptly enough, her partner is a former CEO of Manolo Blahnik Shoes. The IPIC Movie Theatre is also high-end: not only do your seats recline, but a server will come directly to you with food and drink.

As Samantha described some restaurants, our mouths started watering. The Fulton, one of eight restaurants, specializes in succulent seafood. An unusual store from Milan, Italy, 10 Corso Como, sells apparel, has an art gallery, and its own restaurant – recently awarded “Best parmesan and pepper sauce in the city.”

The Fulton Restaurant…
…and its fishy friends.

The seaport has one of the most spectacular views of the Brooklyn Bridge. Equally spectacular is the rooftop of the re-built Pier 17, a space that holds up to 3000 concert go-ers, as well as Seaport Fit for fitness classes.

This is truly an uplifting experience. It is a wonderful example of a wise old saying: Out of the muck…comes a rose.

To plan a visit, go to www.seaportdistrict.nyc or call 212-732-8257.

His Pencil Is His Therapist: Artist Neo Rauch at The Drawing Center.

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Man sucking on unattached udder

When Brett Littman, former Executive Director of The Drawing Center at 35 Wooster Street in Manhattan, visited Neo Rauch in his Leipzig, German studio, he asked the artist to show his drawings for the first time in the U.S.

Rauch protested: “I have paintings, I don’t have drawings!” Littman picked up a pile of random drawings from the floor and so FROM THE FLOOR was born – an exhibit with thumbnail sketches, doodles, figures, and landscapes – over 150 rarely seen drawings, on view at the Center since April.

Development Associate Tiffany, our affable and knowledgeable guide, shared gems likes these throughout our visit.

She explained that Rauch’s work defies definition. Informed by classical and science fiction elements, the drawings have an overriding haunted and ominous quality attributed to his subconscious. “I don’t think about what I do. I just let ideas stream through my pencil.” Yet if pressed for interpretations, Rauch couldn’t give them.

Parents holding Rauch

But Tiffany could. Rauch’s 21-year-old parents died in a train crash just after he was born. The sinister quality of his works speaks to the alienation he felt growing up. There is a large drawing of his parents holding him in their arms as they would a baby, and yet he appears as an adult. Looming in the background is a gargantuan conductor who caused the crash. It is both heartbreaking and grotesque, as Rauch gets his toxicity out on paper.

Men with plants growing out of their heads

Many of his drawings have a strange humor about them: a man sucking on an unattached cow’s udder; a doodle of a man’s hand up a woman’s skirt; two somber fellows with plants growing out of their heads.

Downstairs an exhibit called As If: Alternative Histories from Then to Now, also shows different artists imagining events from their past. But the tonality has gone from somber to spirited. Especially joyful were the brilliantly colored silkscreen comic book prints by Jack Kirby and Mark Englert. Although these are extremely rare, the Center received them from friends in high places at the Desert Island Comic Store.

Both exhibits close on July 28th . They are too weird, wild and wonderful to miss. Go to drawingcenter.org or call 22-219-2166.

Silkscreen comic book print

It’s Contemporary! It’s Provocative! It’s Traditional! It’s Emotional! It’s Art at The Queens Museum.

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Surrounded by blossoming cherry trees in Flushing Meadows Corona Park, the vast Queens Museum takes up 105,000 square feet. Inside we met our guide Gregory, who was warm, welcoming and as eager to answer our questions as he was to share his knowledge.

Gregory’s goal was to give us a “taste” of the extensive exhibits, so we could get a good overview.

He started with the building’s rich history. Originally created for the 1939 New York World’s Fair, it was also the first home of the United Nations, an ice skating and roller rink, a pavilion for the 1964 World’s Fair, and finally, the Queens Museum in 1972.

Alien Love from Mundos Alternos exhibit

And oh, the collections. Our first stop was Mundos Alternos: Art and Science Fiction. We saw a sensual painting of an astronaut in love, and a tapestry with a QR code at its center – a digital/traditional combo.

Next was a contemporary painting on a 40-foot tall wall near the museum’s entrance. Pulsing with color and life, it is the work of Liz Phillips and her daughter, Heidi Howard, called Relative Fields in a Garden. You can hear as well as see the piece: there are sounds of birds, a river, even bamboo (Who knew bamboo had a sound?)

Dropped Dragonfly Tiffany Lamp

Brilliantly colored Tiffany lamps proved that Tiffany is truly a Queens experience. While most glass lamp artists worked in Brooklyn, Louis C. Tiffany moved his factory to Queens in 1878. Here, for the first time, color was embedded in the glass, not painted on the glass, which is why Tiffany lamps are so exquisite.

The Panorama of New York City’s five boroughs is the museum’s beloved jewel. This 9,335-square foot scale model (one inch equals 100 feet) was created for the 1964 World’s Fair. The 895,000 individual structures include everything from the Brooklyn Bridge to Nathan’s Hot Dogs in Coney Island, from Grand Central Station to Yankee Stadium, and even a moving airplane that lands at LaGuardia Airport. The museum chose to keep the Twin Towers to pay homage to them. Best of all, you can walk around the entire model.

Not the real NYC skyline, it’s The Panorama.
Courtesy of Queens Museum

The “taste” we experienced with Gregory made us want second and third helpings. Do not miss this satisfying experience. Call 718-592-9700 or visit queensmuseum.org/

United Palace: Extravagant, Luxuriant, Exuberant. No Wonder It’s Called a Wonder.

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United Palace is one of five “Wonder Theatres” built by visionary Marcus Loew. Located at 176th Street and Broadway, no single word can describe its grandeur.

United Palace exterior

Mike Fitelson, Executive Producer of the theatre, escorted us through the orchestra, mezzanine, foyer, balcony, and men’s smoking lounge – peppering his talk with spicy stories.

We learned about Marcus Loew, a poor New York Jewish boy whose family was originally from Austria and Germany. At the turn of the twentieth century, Loew bought a penny arcade, a vaudeville theatre, and finally he created what would eventually become an empire of Loew’s Movie Theatres.

There was no TV or radio at the time, so movies were a fantastical and affordable escape from reality – especially the reality of The Depression. The theatre opened on February 22, 1930; it took only 13 months to build since there were few city regulations. In 2016, it earned Landmark Status.

The interior is an exuberant mixture of styles: Byzantine-Romanesque-Indo-Hindu-Sino-Moorish-Persian-Eclectic-Rococo-Deco – which is why it’s called “The Kitchen Sink Masterpiece.”

All that glitters…

In the 1950s, America fell in love with what Mike called “The idiot box: television.” This led to the end of single screen movie theatres and by the 1960s, the United Palace was in financial trouble. 1969 saw the divine intervention of the New York City minister Reverend Ike. His United Christian Evangelistic Association bought the building for their church for half a million dollars. He started renovations and basically saved the theatre.

Every Palace needs a Mermaid

Today the United Palace is a church and a non-profit performing arts center. From spiritual and religious programs to classic movie screenings (My Fair Lady and Rear Window) to concerts (Bob Dylan and Adele), there is something for everyone to love.

The theatre also is rented out for filming TV programs and movies, magazine photography and fashion shows. In 2016, Lin-Manuel Miranda, who grew up in the neighborhood, helped raise $100,000.00 to benefit the theatre.

The “Wonder Organ”

Because it’s been given meticulous care, the Palace looks today as it did in 1930. And the Robert Morton- designed “Wonder Organ” is the only one of five that’s still in its original “Wonder Theatre.”

See the wonder of it all. Go to unitedpalace.org or call 212-568-6700.


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