Night at the Skyscraper Museum & the China Institute

It hadn't been on my radar, but I saw the sign and it opened up my mind, as they say.  I decided to try two new museums this year.

I was very encouraged by the sidewalk art promoting the Skyscraper Museum:

American Surety

The commentary on this photo of the American Surety building was interesting: "Price conceived of his skyscraper as a campanile, in the spirit of the tower of San Marco in Venice. Classical in its references, the form and facade was organized as a column, with a base, shaft, and capital, or, as Price noted, as pilaster, with 'the seven flutes being replaced by seven rows of windows.'"


But overall, I was underwhelmed by the photographs and models on display.  I was expecting something more like David Macaulay's work, which tends to make architecture intriguing and accessible to the untutored.  So this miniscule museum about big buildings was wasted on me.  (Other people, clearly not as ignorant as I, seemed to be enjoying the displays immensely.)  In any event, it was pretty much on my way to the China Institute...

The first room of "Dreams of the Kings: A Jade Suit for Eternity" was not very exciting.  But once you enter the second room, WOW!  It was like a suit of armor made of mahjong tiles.  Each tile is connected to its neighbors by tiny gold wires; the red ribbon seams are presumably where the pieces got sewn together.  My own pictures did not do it justice, so I took photos of the posters outside.

They had some other interesting items as well, but the jade suit was extraordinary.  Definitely worth a visit.