Bookable
An Apollonaut travel guide
A museum in Midtown.
An introduction to West 53rd Street in Midtown Manhattan, where MoMA stands between Fifth and Sixth Avenues.
On this page
Read the city from 53rd Street
MoMA’s entrances are on 53rd and 54th Streets, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, in the middle of Midtown Manhattan.
A city guide can give context without turning a neighbourhood into a backdrop. Notice how a museum addresses its street, and how its buildings have grown over time.
Glass, stone and light
The 1939 building by Goodwin and Stone was designed in the International Style; later additions bring in large areas of glass.
Begin with a detail and ask how it was made and maintained. A photograph alone cannot tell you who fitted a glass wall or laid a garden path, or the conditions in which they worked.
A MoMA chapter
MoMA shows how a museum grows within a dense city block: from rented rooms on Fifth Avenue in 1929 to galleries that now reach across to 54th Street.
Look at the meeting of old and new: the street front of 1939 and the glass of the later wings.
Make room for context
Pair this city reading with MoMA’s history and the Journal. This is an introduction for visitors, not a claim that our team manages these places or represents the people who made them.
Read at the source
Sources & further reading
Links lead to the original publishers.
