Before Yesterday We Could Fly: An Afrofuturist Period Room is a multi-artist exhibition whose narrative is generated by the real, lived history of Seneca Village, a vibrant community founded predominantly by free Black tenants and landowners that flourished from the 1820s to the 1850s near The Met’s current site.

The Temple of Dendur is an Egyptian religious temple that was rescued from the floodwaters during the construction of the Aswan Dam and reservoir. It was donated by the Egyptian government and has been on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art since 1978.

The museum built an extension to its north wing to house the temple. It connects the Egyptian art wing to the American wing of the Met. It is one of the most striking and visited installations at the museum. It was featured in several films, including When Harry Met Sally. A recent addition to the exhibit is a projection depicting the original white surface and brightly colored decorations that would have adorned the temple.

Washington Crossing the Delaware is a life-sized oil-on-canvas painting by Emanuel Leutze depicting General George Washington’s crossing of the Delaware River during the Revolutionary War. This large-format painting hangs in the Gallery of American Painting in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC. This painting is 1-of-2 existing versions; the other hangs in the Metropolitan Marine Museum.

This painting is famously used in many American History textbooks. What was surprising to me was the size of the painting, at 12ft x 22ft. The figures are life-sized.

The Fifth Avenue Apple Store is Apple’s flagship store in Manhattan. Opened in 2006 and with its iconic glass cube installed in 2011, this store was built on the site of the General Motors Gardens. It still contains potted trees which are carefully illuminated by sunlight and artificial lighting.

The store was originally designed by Bohlin Cywinski Jackson. Its renovation in 2011, which included the construction of its iconic glass cube entrance, was by Foster + Partners and Apple’s chief design officer Jony Ive. It visually harkens to I.M. Pei’s Louver pyramid. The Apple Store sits at the corner of Fifth Avenue opposite Grand Army Plaza at the corner of Central Park.

The Oculus is the architecturally stunning transit hub next to the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan in New York City. It houses the NJ PATH station with connections to 12 NYC subway lines. It also houses dining and stores managed by Westfield. It connects to the NYC Fulton Street subway station, One World Trade Center Tower and Observatory, Brookfield Place, and the Ferry Terminal in Battery Park City.

Designed by famed Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava. In utility, function, and aesthetics, it is one of the finest transportation structures in the world and certainly the best transit building built in the United States this century.

I got rare access to the Sky Lobby at One World Trade Center (aka Freedom Tower) in lower Manhattan, New York City. This commercial lobby is not accessible to the general public, used by tenants and clients of the building. I was invited by a friend at NY Life Insurance to tour the Sky Lobby.