Skyscraper Museum, plus "Where do you live in New York?" (Part 6)

In case you did not already know, New York City has a LOT of museums.  The app NYC Museum catalogs nearly 150 museums in NYC.  Surely, there are more.  (Don't call me Shirley.)

Obviously, there are museums of all sorts, from art to history to science to culture to the absurd.  We doubt we will visit all of the museums in NYC, but we are having a wonderful time visiting many of them. 

One museum that we found fascinating was the Skyscraper Museum in lower Manhattan.  While it might be a relatively small museum, it covers a mighty subject very well.  We learned about skyscrapers throughout history and how they are measured (there are several competing methods).  Displays showed the tallest  structures that exist today and those that are still under construction, as well. 

One exhibit catalogs "supertall" buildings around the globe, buildings that are taller than the Empire State Building (1,250 feet).  Can you guess how many supertalls are completed or in process?  If you guessed 50+, you are correct. 

The tallest of the supertalls is the 2717 foot Burj Khalifa in Dubai.  The building is a half mile tall.  Now, that's a skyscraper.

Burj Khalifa, 160 stories, 2717 feet, Dubai

Another exhibit was especially interesting.  A model maker from Arizona thought it would be a good to carve scale wooden models of Midtown Manhattan and Lower Manhattan, showing all the skyscrapers and other buildings in those sections.  Amazingly, he did this without ever having visited NYC.  He used photos and other resources to create the models.  He then drove from Arizona to NYC to present the models to the museum.  The scale models are accurate and detailed.  We even located our building in the Midtown model.

Photo of scale model of Midtown Manhattan (North is to right).  The green space near the center is Bryant Park, behind the New York Public Library main branch.  Madison Square Garden is the circular building near bottom right corner.

Photo of Midtown model.  Bloomingdale's is in the bottom right corner and the Bloomberg Building is the very tall building next to Bloomie's along the right side of the photo.  Our building is the small building in the bottom center of the photo.

Photo of Midtown model, looking down Third Avenue.  Where we live is the somewhat circular building in the foreground (with the box on top).

P.S.  In case you want to learn more about NYC skyscrapers, a recent National Geographic article is worth reading.  Some of the photos and graphics might take your breath away.  Seeing the buildings in person certainly does.  Thanks to our friend Mark Chmielarksi for sharing the article with us.