Coolest iphone App Yet? It Might Be The Museum of the Phantom City

This is New York, so you can go on pretty much any kind of walking or bus tour in the city you can dream up, from "Sex and the City” venues to lower east side foods. But a tour of places that never were?
Welcome to the very cool new iphone app “Museum of the Phantom City.”
The app examines 50 architectural sites in New York that never got off the drawing board, from Buckminster Fuller’s plan for a “Mini Earth”—a miniature globe suspended by cables across from the United Nations Building—to a heliport on top of Bryant Park that could have doubled as an air raid shelter. A number of the proposals from the mid-twentieth century, in fact, show unease over the Cold War and potential attacks.
Got some time on your hands? You can walk around the city and actually check out the sites where the projects would have been, if you want, using your phone like a museum audioguide of sorts.
The plan was developed by Irene Cheng and Brett Snyder, founders of a design studio, in conjunction with The Van Alen Institute, a nonprofit architectural institute.
Don’t have an iphone or can’t borrow one? Check out phantomcity.org.
So are these things-that-never-were a missed-the-boat alternative future? Lost opportunities? Monstrosities that are better relegated to the drawing board?
Whatever they are, this intersection of architecture and technology is whole lot more interesting than apps for finding the nearest deli.

Frank Lloyd Wright's Spiralling Legacy: The Guggenheim Turns 50

New York’s legendary, can’t-miss-it, doesn’t-look-like-anything-else-in-the-world Guggenheim Museum turned 50 last week. If you missed the glowing red lights on top of the Empire State Building in honor of the event, don’t worry--great stuff is happening all year long.
For starters, the Guggenheim highlights the paintings of Vasily Kandinsky, whose work has been an intrinsic part of the Museum’s history. Kandinsky’s work, which focuses on non-objective painting, represents a kind of abstraction in which no recognizable imagery can be seen; before the Guggenheim was, well, the Guggenheim, it was The Museum of Non-Objective Painting, in large part due to its focus on Kandinsky’s work.
As you travel up and down the famous spiral ramp in the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed building, you can also catch a sculptural installation by Indian-born artist Anish Kapoor, who has had a profound impact on modern sculpture with his fresh approach to material, color and scale. “Memory,” which was commissioned by the museum, is on view through March 28.
While you’re there, take a moment to stand on the ramp and gaze upwards at the extraordinary views and use of space. Wright was not a fan of New York or cities in general, so the museum was built near Central Park to take advantage of its proximity to nature. We can only be glad that it was.
The museum is located at 1071 Fifth Avenue at 89th Street. Call 212- 423-3500 for more information.

El Museo del Barrio Reopens to the Public

After completing the first phase of extensive ongoing renovations, New York’s El Museo del Barrio has just reopened to the public in the first phase of their ongoing redevelopment. (It’s located at 1230 Fifth Avenue at 104th Street; 212 831-7927.)
The city’s only Latino Institution on Museum Mile (a group of Museums on Upper Fifth Avenue) is also marking its 40th anniversary, with a year-long display of exhibitions, performances and public programming.
The Museum was founded in 1969 by artist/educator Raphael Montanez Ortiz and a group of parents, educators, activists and artists who wanted more focus on Latin artists by mainstream museums. It now houses more than 6,500 objects that span more than 800 years of Caribbean, Latin American and Latino art, including pre-Columbia Taino objects; contemporary prints and photographs; and documentary films and video.
With Phase 1 complete, the Museum showcases its new Carmen Ana Unanue galleries that will host its permanent collection. The next phase will concentrate on the 104th Street lobby of the Heckscher Building as well as work in El Teatro.
The Museum reopens with an exhibition titled “Nexus New York: Latin/American Artists in the Modern Metropolis,” which focuses on the Caribbean and Latin American artists who lived in New York pre-World War 1, and were instrumental in shaping the American avant-garde.

New Museum of Chinese in America Opens in Soho

One of the great things about New York is all the small, undiscovered museums and galleries that lurk in unlikely places, or that you may never have even heard of. Take the Museum of Chinese in America, which moved to a new home in Soho this week.
Thirty years ago, Charles Lai and John Kuo Wei Tchen, who wanted a place to preserve the memory of Chinese-American immigrants, founded the museum. Located on the second floor of a building in Chinatown, it featured photographs and documents, many of them discarded by locals.
The new museum (known as MOCA, not to be confused with the one in LA) has quite a distinguished pedigree: it was designed by Maya Lin, best known as the architect of the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, DC.
The new space, which was unveiled to the public on Tuesday, features memorabilia of the Chinese-American experience from the 1850s to the present; it’s five times the size of the original space.
Lin has said that the two entrances (one on Centre Street; one on Lafayette) have symbolic meaning: Chinese Americans have a background in the east, but have made their home in the west.
Current exhibitions include “Here & Now: Chinese Artists in New York,” which examines the work of 12 New York artists of Chinese descent.
The museum is located at 215 Centre Street; call (212) 619-4720 for more information.

The Guggenheim and Frank Lloyd Wright Celebrate a Golden Anniversary

Quick, how many architects can you name?
No, neither can we.
Well, except for Frank Lloyd Wright, and this summer marks the 50th anniversary of his design of New York City’s extraordinary Guggenheim Museum, which is celebrating with an exhibition called “Frank Lloyd Wright: From Within Outward,” running from mid May to August 23.
Co-organized by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, the exhibition features 64 projects, ranging from private homes, religious spaces, and government buildings, to designs for buildings that were never created; it also includes some original drawings that have not previously been on public view.
Renowned for creating a form of architecture in which form and function meld seamlessly, Wright’s love of nature and tranquility are highlighted here, as is his elegant use of simplicity.
Displayed on the winding ramps of the Museum, one of the most recognizable buildings in the world, the exhibition highlights the artist’s 72-year career through a range of mediums, such as new 3-D models and digital animation.
The exhibition also includes lectures, children’s programs, and an audio tour.
The museum is located at 1071 Fifth Avenue at 89th Street.
For hours, directions and more information, log onto their website: www.guggenheim.org; or call 212 423-3618.