PLEASURES and TREASURES in NEW YORK CITY,

DURING the PANDEMIC

by David Christopher

(Part Four)

Chapter 20	Dia Beacon Museum
Chapter 21	East River Ferry & Hudson Ferry
Chapter 22	Grand Concourse & Brooklyn Botanical Garden
Chapter 23	Museum of Art & Design
Chapter 24	Battery Park City & Hudson River Park

Chapter Twenty: Dia Museum, Beacon, NY

It’s a beautiful train ride up the Hudson to Beacon, NY to see the Dia Museum.

We took the Metro North, out of Grand Central, to Beacon, NY for two reasons. First to see the Massive Art Museum, Dia, and second to cross the Hudson, to Wallkill, NY, to visit my brother Jonathan and his family. The train ride up the Hudson was gorgeous, but long. We had visited the Dia before, but by car, so we had no idea how to get to it from the town of Beacon. Just the walk from the train station to the downtown (looking for lunch) was a much more of a jaunt than we expected. Once we’d had a (mediorcre) lunch, we looked at Google maps and decided to take an Lyft to the museum, and am I glad we did, because the Dia was much farther than I imagined. This museum is literally called “Massive” because all the rooms are huge and the art work displayed fit perfectly into each room. The most famous artist on show there is Richard Serra, and his enormous steel works are like no one else’s. Walking in and around these works is thrilling, no matter how many times you see them. My brother picked us up at the museum to take us to his home, and we had a delightful family reunion.

Chapter Twenty-One: East River and Hudson Ferries

I have talked about the East River Ferry in my chapters on Dumbo and Rockaway Beach. But I want to tell you further about the joys of the ferry system in NYC. Over the course of these months, we had the pleasure of riding them several times, including on the Hudson. The views of Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx, and New Jersey were always spectacular. For the price of a subway fare, they took us to many destinations. Twice we also took the Hudson River ferry across to The Chart House Restaurant in Weehawken, to have dinner with New Jersey friends. One trip we got off the ferry at East 90^th Street and walked along the East Riverfront Promenade, passing Gracie Mansion, the home of the mayors of New York (the yellow house behind the fence). The building with the 4 red and white smokestacks is “Big Alice”. It is Con Edison’s electrical generating plant, which also produces the steam which heats much of Midtown, including our building. The building with the two bent towers (and the Empire State Building in the background) is at the East 34^th Street pier, where we often debarked for home.

Chapter Twenty-Two: Grand Army Plaza and Brooklyn Botanical Garden

This Brooklyn adventure required a couple subway and bus rides, taking us to Junior’s Restaurant, The Grand Army Plaza and ending at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden.
First, to give you a sense of the enormity of this area, note the size of the Prospect Park, that begins at the Grand Army Plaza. not quite as big as Central Park, but extremely impressive. (And in reference to a Chapter 8 and the Green Wood Cemetery, you can see on this map, how huge it is; we barely scratched a tiny corner.)
On this trip, we took the C train to Jay Street/Borough Hall, because we wanted to lunch at the famous Junior’s Restaurant. There are 2 branches of this place in Manhattan, one on Theater Row, and one on 49^th St. (near our place). But they were both closed, so going to the original Brooklyn location was a treat. (Our favorite meal there is splitting a huge hot dog and a slice of cheesecake.) After lunch we took a bus down Flatbush Avenue to Grand Army Plaza. You can see on the map that the Botanic Garden surrounds the Brooklyn Museum, and is next to Prospect Park Zoo. We have been to the former, but never the latter. It’s a fine garden, but would have been better when more flowers were in bloom. After walking down to the lower section, we took a bus back to Grand Army Plaza, for the subway home.

Chapter Twenty-Three: Museum of Art and Design (MAD)

On Columbus Circle (at the downtown-western corner of Central Park), is this small museum devoted to Art and Design.
This museum is walking distance to our condo, but we didn’t go there until the last week of our stay. I’m always tempted to go into their gift store on the ground floor, because they have beautiful stuff. The museum had three exhibits on show on this visit, but all quite interesting. One of gorgeous, stain-glass screens, and one of general art pieces, and one of far-out jewelry design. At the gift store we purchased a vase, which looks quite nice in our window.

Chapter Twenty-Four: Battery Park City & Hudson River Park

This day’s walk began at the World Trade Center and from there we visited these charming parks.
When we walked to the Hudson River, we came to Battery City Park. This newly renovated park had some beautiful walkways, lawns, and ponds. In the middle of the park is the Irish Hunger Memorial, commemerating the Great Irish Famine. It’s a rocky structure, with weeded lawns, and a tunnel leading to the steps, wer very odd, but moving. Moving north up the Hudson, we came to 2 pier parks on the River Walk. These piers have been completely designed and built to be recreational facilities.

Public Art Interlude #4

At the end of each Part of this book, I will share photos of Public Art. Here are more examples of “Street” and “Public” Art that I’ve seen around the city.

Click here for Part One

Click here for Part Five