“From coastal resiliency and sustainable green practices to the preservation of affordable housing, world-class public art, and vibrant, year-round programming in award-winning public spaces, Battery Park City leads the way in many of the measures that makes cities livable."

Raju Mann

President & CEO

SKYSCRAPER MUSEUM

In 2004, the Skyscraper Museum opened a permanent home in a building at the southern tip of Battery Park City. The facility occupies ground-floor space in a mixed-use project that includes the Ritz-Carlton Hotel and a 38-story condominium tower. The Museum owns its space, which has been generously donated by Millennium Partners, the building’s developers.
 
The distinguished firm of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) is the Museum’s architect, with award-winning partner Roger Duffy as lead designer. SOM has provided its services pro bono. Tishman Construction Corporation, which has been building New York since 1898, has served as Construction Manager pro bono.
 
The new facility contains two main galleries: one for the core exhibit Skyscraper/City on the evolution of New York’s commercial skyline, another for changing shows. With a permanent home, the Museum has begun to collect and preserve important artifacts of high-rise history, to organize an active education program, and to celebrate New York’s rich architectural heritage.
 
With the skyline of Lower Manhattan as its immediate backdrop and the panorama of New York harbor at its front door, the Museum enjoys a site of breathtaking beauty and an unmatched location for cultural tourism and serves as a vital element in the changed landscape of downtown. A short walk from the historic skyscrapers and canyons of lower Broadway and Wall Street, and minutes from the embarkation point of boats to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty, the Museum stands at a nexus of past and present that attracts over 10 million tourists annually. Other nearby attractions include the New York Stock Exchange, the Museum of the American Indian, Trinity Church, the Museum of Financial History, and the neighboring Museum of Jewish Heritage. Of particular relevance is “ground zero”, which will continue to command global interest in Lower Manhattan.

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