The best reason to visit is still the astounding Panorama, a giant scale model of New York City.

by Contributor

Building History
The museum has a respectable permanent art collection and often interesting exhibitions--all of which is housed in the New York City Building, used not only for the 1939 and 1964 World's Fairs but also during the late '40s as a meeting place for the United Nations General Assembly.

Highlights
Commissioned in the '60s by public-works czar Robert Moses in order to more efficiently plot his urban-renewal strategies, the Panorama accurately portrays the city as of 1992, right down to the last alley. There is also a permanent installation of 20 Tiffany lamps--including an early lamp shade produced in Corona in the 1890s--geometrically designed lamps, naturalistic Wisteria table lamps, and the never before exhibited Yellow Oriental Poppy.