Skyscraper Museum Lands a Home

 by Barry Owens

Carol Willis is no stranger to concrete and steel. The architectural historian has made the study of skyscraper construction her life's calling. But it wasn't until she watched workers convert 5,800 square feet of space into a home for her Skyscraper Museum tucked into the ground floor of the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Battery Park City, that she developed her fullest appreciation of the process.

Carol Willis, the museum's director, in her new space. Photo: Carl Glassman

"When it comes to building a skyscraper, most of the story, I've learned, is really in putting in the pipes, the water and the electricity," the museum's director explains.


But the real draw for skyscraper enthusiasts at her museum, Willis knows, isn't in the bit of backstory preserved in the concrete foundation, it's in the visions of glass and steel towering overhead and gleaming under foot. From floor to ceiling, stainless steel plates and mirrors reflect light, sky and skyline in the galleries' new home, making the space an exhibition in itself.

After a half-dozen years of unfurling exhibits in borrowed space in various vacant banking halls, the Skyscraper Museum opens April 2 in its permanent home at 39 Battery Place.

The museum's spectacular space-donated by the developer, Millennium Partners, and the Battery Park City Authority-has a 67-year rent-free lease. Skidmore, Owings & Merrill's Roger Duffy designed the space gratis, with the proviso that he would have free reign over the design. The result is stainless steel floors and ceilings that create an illusion of space, throwing towering vertical reflections of skyscrapers up the mirrored walls. For example, a graphic along a section of wall depicting workers perched on a single story of One Liberty Plaza becomes a six-story reflection.

"No one ever seems to notice that the workers on the upper floors are upside down," Willis said.

The exhibits themselves are displayed in tall glass cases on casters and can be arranged in rows like city blocks, "lined up like soldiers, or pushed together to create a canyon effect," Willis said.

The opening exhibit, "Building a Collection," offers a broad overview of the history of skyscrapers. Among the items set for display are photographs (many from the museum's unique 500-photo archive of the construction of the Empire State Building) along with drawings, models, blueprints, old city maps, even historic postcards that Willis said she hopes will illustrate not only the history of the New York skyline, but also the museum's mission.

"Anyone can just put out an album of photos of the Empire State Building and say, 'here it is.' But our mission as a museum is to preserve, collect and interpret information that tells the story. I think interpreting is something that we are especially good at," Willis said.

This summer, about one third of the exhibit space will give way to a retrospective on the World Trade Center and a look at plans for the site's future, including a model of the Freedom Tower currently on display at the Center for Architecture.

Willis founded the not-for-profit museum in 1997. Aside from exhibitions, the museum finds an audience through its website (www.skyscraper.org) and through collaborative projects, such as the trade center site's "Viewing Wall" on Church Street.

A post card from the museum archives envisions skyscraper-filled New York of the future. Image: Skyscraper Museum
Before finding a permanent home in the Ritz Carlton building, Willis put on periodic exhibits in donated space at 44 Wall Street, 16 Wall Street and at 110 Maiden Lane.

"I always thought we should be Downtown" said Willis. "Here, Downtown, you have the greatest archive of American architecture, and all within a one-mile radius. There is no more logical place for the museum to be."