Natural History Museum

At the end of my trip this summer I was left alone in NY for a couple of days before I flew back, so one day I took myself off to the Natural History Museum. Now, I knew it was going to be impressive but I wasn't expecting to be perfectly happy wandering around there for 6 hours perfectly entertained! It's such a cool place full of dinosaur bones, a full size blue whale, beautiful natural gems and a wealth of other things. What I wanted to mention was the Journey to the Stars exhibit, its a short film in a domed planetarium, so you watch it like your under the sky, I've seen this kind of thing in the past at Joderal Bank in Cheshire but the one in NY has just been remade and voiced by Whoopi Goldberg, so Im sure you can image, its very light hearted and fun, it makes the factual stuff really interesting and keeps your attention, the tone of voice of the piece was great, a really well made little film, I was impressed! 

PawsWay

PawsWay is a bizarre little place on Toronto's Harbour front, a cafe for pets and their owners, combined with a pet accessory store, amazing animals exhibit and a show room for pet shows. 

The exhibition itself was fairly small, but contained a lot of information, and lots of  stories about amazing pets, some funny, some sad and some shocking. I think whoever designed the exhibit did a good job in combining the stories with lots of photographs and larger quotes. It made it easy to read bits and have a quick look round without feeling over faced with information. I think the layout works well, especially for kids, the stories are all short and fairly low on the wall and surrounded by loads of pictures to keep their interest. 

Design It: Shelter Competition

I just came across this competition set up by the Guggenheim and Google SketchUp. 

They asked amateur and professional designers to design shelters. The competition is an extension of an exhibit in the guggenheim which shows work from over 70 years by students who have taken up the challenge of designing building and living in shelters in the environment around the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architectures Arizona and Wisconsin campuses.

Nearly 600 people entered the competition from all over the world and ten finalists have been chosen by students from the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture and it's now up to the public to vote for the winner.

have a look and vote here... http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/education/sackler-center/design-it-shelter

Guggenheim NY

Last year when I visited NY I missed out on seeing the Guggenheim so I made sure I got there this summer. The building was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and built in the late 50's and I just love the way it looks so elegant despite its chunky concrete forms. 

I also think the typeface perfectly compliments the building itself.

Royal Ontario Museum

This bizarre building is a museum in Toronto. The Lee-Chin Crystal is an extention to the original museum building and was only built two years ago. It is composed of five interlocking, self-supporting prismatic structures that co-exist but are not attached to the original building.

Walking past it definatly excited me. I think its a great piece of modern architecture!