The Skyscraper Museum

About the Museum

Located in New York City, the world’s first and foremost vertical metropolis, The Skyscraper Museum celebrates the City’s rich architectural heritage and examines the historical forces and individuals that have shaped its successive skylines. Through exhibitions, programs, and publications, the Museum explores tall buildings as objects of design, products of technology, sites of construction, investments in real estate, and places of work and residence. For a description of the gallery and for photos of the space, please visit our Photo Slideshows page.

The Skyscraper Museum is located in lower Manhattan’s Battery Park City at 39 Battery Place. Museum hours are 12-6 PM, Wednesday-Sunday.

General admission is $5, $2.50 for students and seniors, children under 12 are free. Free for members of the military, police, fire departments, veterans, and for visitors who are disabled and their caregivers. Click here for directions to the Museum. All galleries and facilities are wheelchair accessible.

The Skyscraper Museum is temporarily closed to the public in order to support New York City’s effort to contain the spread of COVID-19. The earliest date for reopening the gallery is April, pending evaluation. Programs for the Spring will be presented as webinars. For questions contact: [email protected]

Meanwhile, please visit SKYSCRAPER MUSEUM FROM HOME for videos of programs, virtual exhibitions, school lesson plans, and more.

2021 Online Lecture Series

World View

Our 2021 lecture series WORLD VIEW invites architects, engineers, and building industry experts to explain and reflect on the art and science of the supertall skyscrapers they have designed and constructed around the world. Conceived as a semester of talks, the series explores the history of the supertall typology and its evolution in the 21st century, emphasizing the global reach of supertall ambitions and the pivotal role of American firms in exporting design expertise.

Current Exhibition

Supertall! 2020

How tall is Supertall? The Skyscraper Museum sets its benchmark high: 1,250 feet/ 380 meters, the height of the 1931 Empire State Building. Despite an upsurge in Supertalls during the last decade, towers this tall remain exceptional: our survey counts 58.

SUPERTALL! 2020 highlights a dozen of the most extraordinary recent towers, exploring ideas about formal and structural innovation and the place of a signature skyscraper in a master-planned, mixed-use...

Past Exhibitions

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Housing Density

HOUSING DENSITY examines the history of density in New York City from tenements to “towers in the park” through the lens of density and its different definitions. What is density? Does the word describe a condition of people or place? Is it people crowded together? Buildings too tightly spaced, or too tall? The exhibition emphasizes understanding density as a step to meaningful dialogue about the future of the city.

Skyline

SKYLINE examined the emergence of the collective image of the skyline as the brand identity of New York and distinguished five periods in which new buildings grow and take characteristic forms based on economic, technological, and regulatory factors.

Online Projects

Museum from Home

Whether you’re a teacher leading an online class, a parent looking to foster a love of cities, a researcher interested in the archives, or simply curious about NYC, there’s plenty to keep you occupied. Check out our book talk archive, lesson plans (including Tower Tubes!), or virtual exhibitions from the past.

Screenshot of the online project site "World's Tallest Building"

Tallest Towers

World's Tallest Towers is an online project showing a timeline of all skyscrapers holding the title of tallest building in the world from the 1890s to the present.

New York’s Super Slenders

A new form in skyscraper history has evolved in New York over the past decade: the super-slim, ultra-luxury residential tower. These pencil-thin periscopes — all 50 to 90+ stories — use a development and design strategy of slenderness to pile their city-regulated maximum square feet of floor area (FAR) as high in the sky as possible to create luxury apartments defined by spectacular views.

Ten & Taller

TEN & TALLER illustrates every building erected in Manhattan that was ten stories or taller from 1874 through 1900 – a total of 252 structures – and locates them on a historic land map, as well as on a timeline that also represents their height and use.