Field visit #2: Queens Museum of Art "Panorama of New York City" Exhibition.

When I first walked in to the exhibition room, I almost screamed!! It was one of the best exhibitions that I have ever seen. A huge map was lying down on the floor in a dark room. I walked closer to the panorama and saw all these small buildings lined up in each street. Planes were arriving and landing from the airport. The lighting would mimic the sun was rising and setting, letting me imagine what Manhattan looks like in the morning and the evening. All these details were amazing.

As a foreigner here in America, I never really grasped the whole picture of New York and its surrounding areas. This exhibition showed me not only Manhattan, but also Brooklyn, Staten Island, Queens and Governor Island as well. I had no idea Staten Island is that large and how small and densely packed Manhattan is compared to other parts of New York. All the tall buildings were in Manhattan while all the and small buildings are far from the city. I had seen a map of Manhattan many times even before, but I was amazed again how well every single street and blog was constructed in this city.

Some people think that one of the problems with Manhattan is that it has too many high buildings on such a small island. I think, however, that the tall buildings and skyline is what makes New York City beautiful. Manhattan is such a small island that the city's different cultures can interact with each other giving it a very unique environment. Some parts of the city are very modern such as the financial district. Other parts still have older buildings such as Soho and East/West village.

One of the reasons why I like this class is that it is very well organized. Visiting Museum of the City of New York and Panorama of New York City exhibition was the perfect beginning of this class, Architecture of the City. That gave me much better idea of what I was going to learn and talk about in the class.