Skyscraper Museum

The Skyscraper Museum is an amazing museum! If you are into architecture, tall buildings, New York City history, urban history and urban planning this is the place for you! The museum fairly small, but the material is rich and you can spend hours there. The museum puts a lot of time into thoughtful exhibitions that you will learn a lot from. The museum also offers free programs including seminars with architects and book talks.

A small museum located at the southern portion of Manhattan. If you’ve lived here your whole life, consider this your undiscovered gem of New York City — if you’re just visiting or are here for the first time, consider this a spot that should be on your list of under-​the-​radar things to see and do if want to stay away from the tourist traps. The museum hosts a wide array of historical and temporary artifacts, models, photographs, and videos on skyscrapers, its construction, and their technological advances. The whole gallery would generally take you about 30 minutes or so to get through, but for an avid historian and architectural buff (like me) — you’d want to spend a bit more time delving into all the immaculately phrased details and original architectural models. I brought a sketch book: sketched, took notes and learned a thing or two from its content.
I would recommend coming in with little ones as well, kids dig anything big — including skyscrapers and they’ll get a kick out of starring up at the mirror on the ceiling (made to emphasize verticality in a small space about skyscrapers, but they’ll tell you that they’re really walking on the ceiling) and they’ll love the little people and cars in the original «Freedom Tower» by architect Daniel Libeskind and the original model of the Twin Towers. If you’re looking for something that is a little more tot friendly (and engaging for the older kids as well!) the museum hosts family programs every other Saturday Morning from anything like designing your own Skyscrapers, Building Bridges, and Scavenger Hunts (check website for more details on varying programs for different ages and topics).
If you’re in town an evening that the museum is hosting a book talk, lecture or skyscraper seminar I would make it a point to come down. The talks usually fall under the category of skyscraper design and construction but often they’re also on NYC history and there is no better way to get acquainted with a city then to hear intellectuals speak and discuss the great island of Manhattana. They programs are free (did I mention free!?) and open to the public. You just need to RSVP to secure your spot, easy.
$ 5 per adult, $ 2.50 for students/​seniors, and kids under 12 years old are free — can’t go wrong with that. If anything you’ll enjoy a nice stroll through Battery Park City afterwards.

Given the very specific subject mater, this is a small museum but admission is only $ 5 anyway. This place details the history of skyscrapers from around the world. It is interesting to learn about the evolution of the skyscraper and how the designs have evolved. Here you will see old articles, architectural plans, 3D models, photos and more about all the famous skyscrapers. I was well informed and felt like it was worth the admission price.

This small museum is OK but not great.
I found it not really interactive neither educational.
I wish they would really explain about what is a wind tunnel? about those amazing building were build? about key numbers, key facts…
Something like: ‘follow the construction of a skycrapper in 10 steps.’ Using technology, 3D etc to make us understand the beauty of skyscrappers.
I felt like the info I found in the museum are the same than on Wikipedia if you look for: ’ the 10 tallest building of the world’…
Well on the other hand, I guess their budget is limited, entry is only $ 5, they have some nice model of towers that kids always like.
Not what I was looking for… Especially in 2015

A great museum for architecture fans who want to learn more about the venerable skyscraper. Scale models (including wind-​tunnel models), interesting videos, and some cool displays tell the story of the skyscraper in New York and throughout the world. This small yet information-​packed museum is definitely worth checking out before heading over to One World Trade for those of you who really get into engineering and architecture.

Woman at ticket desk was rude and disinterested. Museum is a hot box of suffer. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone that values their time.

It’s something to do?! Super cheap to get in! You can visit on the downtown culture pass too. Takes about 10 minutes to walk through.

Quite small, poorly designed, and not particularly engaging, this place is barely a museum at all.
We went last weekend because we were in the neighborhood. The exhibit, about Times Square, was almost entirely text based and consisted of placards mounted on the walls. Really a missed opportunity, considering how visually compelling the subject is.
Not very welcoming, with no air conditioning and no place to sit.
Admission is only $ 5. I wish I could think of something positive beside that, but … nope.

I expected this to be my favorite Night at the Museums stop, and it was close to my least favorite. The building seems to have recently been renovated, and they were amidst changing of exhibits, but the tour was dryer than most museum tours (exactly), this coming from someone who finds architecture and the physical history of Manhattan endlessly fascinating.

«Museum» is definitely a bit of a stretch as this museum is not much more than just one small-​ish partitioned room with a long hallway and a gift shop. With that said, though, there’s a decent amount of information and is well worth visiting if you have an hour to kill while you’re on the southern tip of Manhattan.
We saw the «Sky High» exhibit which is the current exhibit (as of this posting) of the sky high luxury residential buildings. It was a pretty neat exhibit and was cool to learn about the history and the future of the high rise building. We live in Manhattan and have been watching the construction of the various new high rises around the city and it’s pretty cool to see them discussed in the museum.
Definitely set your expectations before you go here. It’s an interesting place, but don’t expect to spend more than an hour.

This qualifies as the worst museum in NYC (unless you are an architect). The staff is not very welcoming or friendly. The museum is basically a storefront and is super small.
I am a lifetime New Yorker and have seen many museums, big and small. This is the worst

The Skyscraper Museum is tucked away right at bottom of Manhattan and around the back of the Ritz Carlton Hotel, almost an after thought to the building. This could be seen as a metaphor for the museum itself.
I had to go solo to this due to a general lack of interest amongst friends. After paying a $ 5 entrance fee, I walked into this tiny museum immediately knowing this wasn’t going to be the most detailed of tours.
The initial exhibition on Park Row and the birth of the modern skyscrapers is right on the money — tons of information, trivia and timelines of how the newspaper giants deliberately headed skywards in the 1880′s. But then it kind of loses momentum and very little is provided as to how and why the skyline continued to soar, or about the men and vision behind it. I was expecting much more on the history, architecture and stories behind the Singer Building, the Met Life Tower, the Woolworth and the Chrysler Building and how the skyscrapers continued to rise and rise in the early 20^th century.
That’s not to say it’s all bad, the Twin Towers are treated with due respect with an exhibition on them as well as excellent detailed models of the Manhattan skyline in general. There is also an interesting timeline of the world’s skyscrapers, though info on Dubai and Shanghai’s grand plans aren’t really what you want in NYC.
Overall, an ok museum for the price — but it had the potential to be so much better.

Came here knowing the museum was small, and I’m not especially interested in skyscrapers, so I had low expectations (needed to ‘kill’ about 1 hour before leaving hotel to head to Penn Station to catch a train so decided to stop by). Decided I would be willing to spend at most $ 5 to see the museum and luckily that’s exactly what it cost.
I was very impressed and found the exhibit interesting. Spent about 1 hour here. Clearly a museum that has great potential and hopefully will be supported as it continues to grow. And I now have a new appreciation for skyscraper design.
If going to see the Statue of Liberty and if you are interested in skyscrapers then you should consider a quick stop here.

I wasted an hour of my life, but I had nothing else to do. Bad ventilation and the place smelt of everyone’s BO.
Never again

The Skyscraper museum holds an interest for me as an engineer to see the evolution of the NYC skyline. Yes, the museum is not large, but is filled with a lot of historical information. An interesting feature is that the ceilings are mirrorred to give an illusion of height.
The Woolworth building on Broadway is celebrating its 100^th anniversary this year and the Skyscraper museum is hosting a special exhibit and other events. A friend of mine was invited to do a lecture on the structural design of the Woolworth building and I was interested to attend. It might have been dry for others, but fascinating to an engineer and I learned quite a bit about the way buildings were designed and erected at the turn of the century.

I’ll start with a little expectation setting. You will enjoy this museum if you enjoy learning about history & architecture, and if you have an interest in the development of a city’s skyline. This is not really a museum for kids. You’ll do a lot of reading, and it’s all fascinating. I honestly knew almost nothing about the Woolworth Building until I visited this place. I’m giving it 4 stars because I can’t think of another place that specializes so heavily in such a technical area and covers it in a way that is interesting to someone who is not an architect. It’s very easy to take for granted how enormous and complex it is to build a skyscraper. How many times are you on the street and you don’t look up? And even if you did, you might not be able to see anything.
After visiting this museum, I now pay more attention to the details of a building and think about how complex it is to build something so huge, yet it is just a piece of the overall skyline. Amazing. We are so accustomed to having all these buildings today, but never think about how crazy it was to build it all in a time when technology was nowhere near what it is today.
I think this is a worthy stop for anyone interested in learning more about the buildings we admire, and especially for anyone who is visiting NYC and lives somewhere where there are no skyscrapers at all!

OK so a museum probably isn’t the best way to describe the size of this place but it still is a really neat setup with lots of details about the history of different buildings around the city.
It doesn’t take long to go through but if you love architecture or just want to see some history about NYC and it’s amazing buildings then this place is a must visit.

I am giving it one star as its name is suggests something it is definitely not. First of all «museum» is a stretch as its basically one room plus a tiny cashier/​bookstore area. It was clear while I was there that people had come expecting something much more significant in scale and were pissed. Basically its more like a one room exhibit you would see at an actual museum — and the exhibit would be called «Tall Buildings in New York [and a few other places]»
Its tucked behind the Ritz hotel and again clearly people had trouble finding it.
If you want to see a small exhibit on the history of NY skyscrapers this is fun. Probably takes 15 to 30 minutes depending on your frame of mind

First of all, this is no monstrosity of a museum, like the MoMa or something. This is a very small museum literally at the bottom of Manhattan in Battery Park City. However, if you are like me, I am not only interested in the arts, culture, people and food, I am also very interested in the architecture — especially skyscrapers, something that is distinctly American and New York.
I am a huge skyscraper junkie so a place like this is heaven to me. I went there for a talk with some guy who runs a construction company that has built some iconic NYC buildings over the years. It was great to hear the ins and outs of the NYC skyscraper building scene from a guy who has spent his life in the business.
If you are expecting a massive museum like the Met, don’t bother. However, if you geek out over skyscrapers like me, you will love this place.

For $ 5 you can get probably just as much information if you felt like googling it but I thought this small museum was quite interesting. The current exhibit is titled «The Rise of Wall Street» and gave a lot of historical information regarding the financial district.
There are also a lot of architectural models of buildings and facts regarding NYC skyscrapers as well as other cities across the world. Having studied in Hong Kong, I thought it was cool to see the difference between the population density between HK and NY. There is tons of information regarding the Twin Towers and the future plans for the freedom tower etc.
It is really pretty, when you walk up the long glass ramp on the left, you enter the main exhibit hall with really tall ceilings and brightly lit shadow boxes and photographs etc.
Overall, I think it’s a fun experience and I’d like to come back to see what other programs they will offer.
P. S. — Went on a rainy Sunday and admission was ½ off