Queens Museum: The NYC Panorama and How to Get There

The Queens Museum (formerly the Queens Museum of Art) is one of the standout attractions inside the enormous Flushing Meadows Corona Park.

Its main draw is a huge scale model of New York City: the Panorama (did you see Scorsese's «Pretend It's a City«? That's where Fran Lebowitz walks over the panorama while spinning out her memories).

What to see at the Queens Museum

The museum refreshes its traveling exhibitions every six months. Always top quality and always relevant to contemporary art.

Here's a rundown of the permanent collections:

1. The Panorama of the City of New York

The Panorama of the City of New York is the crown jewel of the Queens Museum's collection. It draws thousands of visitors from all over the world.

Some say it's the only way to see all of New York in a single glance, and others say it's a beautiful dinosaur in the age of Google Earth.

The panorama is a detailed scale model designed by urban planner Robert Moses for the New York City pavilion at the 1964/1965 World's Fair.

It was the fair's most visited attraction, sold as an indoor «helicopter tour over New York «. In fact, cars built to mimic helicopters were installed so visitors could ride around it.

Later on, it was used as a tool for planning the city's urban growth.

Mind-blowing facts about the Panorama

The model takes up the equivalent of three tennis courts, making it the largest architectural model of an urban area in the world.

More than 100 professionals worked on it. The cost came to $5 million in today's dollars.

It includes every one of the 895,000 buildings standing in the city as of its last update in 1992, which is why you'll spot the Twin Towers in the model.

Every 15 minutes, nightfall is simulated over this miniature New York with a modern lighting rig installed in 2006.

It has charming, decidedly pre-digital details, like the tiny airplanes that fly over the city and land every minute at LaGuardia Airport.

Don't miss the chance to see the largest scale model in the world in person.

2. Tiffany Gallery

The Queens Museum is home to The Neustadt Collection of Tiffany Glass, a hugely important private collection that has been gathering the stained glass of the celebrated artist and manufacturer Louis C. Tiffany since 1969.

Tiffany is the leading figure of the American Art Nouveau movement, and you'll find his designs in the country's major museums (including the Met), but the most important collection is at the Queens Museum of Art.

The display includes gorgeous pieces, like the stained glass lamps with their floral inspiration and geometric shapes, plus one-of-a-kind glass mosaic windows.

The exhibition also walks you through the manufacturing process, the materials, and the historical context behind this virtuoso work in glass mosaic.

By the way, it's no accident that the Tiffany collection ended up here: his factory was located barely two miles from the museum.

3. World's Fair Gallery

The Queens Museum of Art is deeply tied to the 1939 and 1964 World's Fairs, and it holds a collection of more than 10,000 objects from the two expositions.

Posters, memorabilia, artifacts, photographs, press clippings, textiles, film and audio. On the museum's second floor, you'll see how the world imagined the future decades ago.

But the most impressive survivors of the '64 fair are outside, in the grounds of Flushing Meadows park: the Unisphere and the Philip Johnson Towers.

Don't settle for looking at them through the museum's windows. Head out and explore this enormous Queens park!

The Queens Museum building

The Queens Museum building has a very rich history:

• It was built as the New York City pavilion for the 1939 World's Fair
• It then became the first home of the UN General Assembly
• It served as the NYC Pavilion again at the 1964 World's Fair
• In 2013 it became the Queens Museum of Art, today known simply as the Queens Museum.

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Address:
Flushing Meadows Corona Park
Across from the Unisphere

How to get there
Subway line 7. Mets-Willets Point station

Prices:
Adults $8 / 65+ $4 / Under 18 free
Admission included with the New York Pass

Hours:
Wednesday to Sunday, 11 am to 5 pm
Closed on national holidays

Map
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