1970's RI Concept Designs at MOMA

Jennifer, a former Roosevelt Island resident (mid 1970's through mid 1990's) was at the Museum of Modern Art and came across the current exhibition "Dreamland: Architectural Experiments since the 1970s" which included two works focusing on Roosevelt Island and thought we'd all find them interesting. The exhibit runs through March 16, 2009.

Thanks Jennifer !

Jennifer states in her e-mail that:

As you can see from the photos I've attached from the exhibit, these were not examples of actual built projects, but are interesting nonetheless. The first is an overall view of the artist's idea for the area of the island south of the 59th Street bridge. The second photo is a detailed view of his envisioned development. I've also included a photo of the placard detailing information on the designers

Roosevelt Island & The NYC Transit Museum

On Sunday, we visited the NYCTA Transit Museum located on Schermerhorm Street in Downtown Brooklyn for a birthday party. It was a lot of fun. It was quite amusing as the birthday boy and half the kids / families were from Roosevelt Island.

The only reference to the Roosevelt Island Tram is within an exhibit of toys dealing with transportation as noted below. The toy tram pictured is obviously not our tram.

Overall it is one of my very favorite museums for kids and adults. Kids love it as almost everything in their collection can be touched by kids. The track level has vintage subway cars everybody enjoys walking through, sitting down in, and reading the vintage subway ads and maps. The exhibition level in addition to various permanent historical pictures and objects includes cut away buses and trains that children can play on and in.

To get there we took the F train to Jay Street / Borough Hall and walked for about 10 minutes to the NW corner of Schermerhorm and Boerum Place. For info re hours, directions, phone numbers, etc. click HERE.

The Transit Museum On-Line store includes a section where the visitor can choose their subway line and their station and personalize various gift items including shirts, mugs, etc. This stuff can be great for birthday gifts etc. As party favors for guests it appears a bit pricey. Unfortunately the virtual “Roosevelt Island Station” seems perpetually under construction. So we don’t get a lot of respect in this venue as we don’t get any relief in the real world.

I first notified the on-line store of this problem back in February 2007 and the issue still exists. Back then I was told if anyone is interested in ordering merchandise with the Roosevelt Island station logo etc that they should call 1-866-Buy-NYTM (1-866-289-6986).

To get a feel for the Museum the below YouTube video gives you a great idea of what it is all about.