NYC arcitecture

By Mariam Lobjanidze

If you’ve ever been mocked by native New-Yorkers for walking slow because you were too busy admiring skyscrapers, you are not alone. In fact, you have plenty of reasons to be mesmerized by a city that makes one feel so tiny. Aside from how fascinating they are (duh!), a lot of iconic buildings in New York City have a rich architectural history. Here’s your guide to sounding smart during a NYC history trivia. Pro-tip: just wear comfortable shoes if it’s your first time in the city and step aside in case you would like to take a picture.

1. The Statue of Liberty

Statue of Liberty 3D Model

The torch symbolizes enlightenment

The statue of Liberty was designed by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, and Richard Morris Hunt in 1875.

Lady Liberty was built to represent the friendship between France and the United States as well as the end of slavery.

When she was first assembled, she was more of a brown-ish color and stayed that way for about 35 years. However, after a while she started to oxidize and turn the green color we know today.

Although the Statue of liberty symbolized the end of slavery, Jim Crow laws were still ubiquitous in the South and less explicit but still present in the North.

Lady Liberty is a magnet for lightning bolts— so far it has been hit by 600 bolts of lightning.

2. Guggenheim Museum

Nestled by the concrete shore of the fifth avenue is a spiraling cascade of modernity, otherwise known as Guggenheim. The museum was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1943 after he received a request for a museum so that Guggenheim's art could be housed.

Wright’s vision was different—he wanted to create a design that was unlike any other museum in the world. This resulted in a a spiral-ramped open space topped by a large skylight.

Since both the interior and exterior of the museum is white, it gets painted every day as it's prone do dirt.

Both Wright and Guggenheim passed before the museum even opened.

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