Staying Fit
It's not like New York has ever lacked over-the-top entertainment, culture or cool hotels and restaurants — but it's about to get a whole bunch more. This spring and summer (and beyond), the city will be home to some fun new attractions. Here are a few:
The Statue of Liberty Museum
Liberty Ellis Foundation
This 26,000-square-foot museum is scheduled to open in May, with the icon’s original torch and exhibitions on her history and significance. It replaces the often crammed little museum at the base of the statue that turned away (and turned off) many visitors. On top of the new structure you can get a view of the statue, Ellis Island and Manhattan. Entrance is free with the ferry ticket to visit Liberty Island and Ellis Island.
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Kate Glicksberg/NYC & Company
Broadway openings
Among the many shows opening this year is the stage version of the hit ’80s film Tootsie, starring Santino Fontana — known for Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and as Hans in Frozen — in the Dustin Hoffman role (beginning March 29 at the Marquis Theatre). And the Arthur Miller classic All My Sons opens April 4, with Annette Bening starring as matriarch Kate Keller (through June 23 at the American Airlines Theatre).
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Hudson Yards
This massive, splashy development on Manhattan’s West Side (bounded by 30th and 34th Streets and 10th and 11th Avenues) will include more than 100 shops and eateries, including Mercado Little Spain, a Spanish market from chef José Andrés, and a fancy tearoom with daytime pastries and evening tequila — many opening within the next month or two. You’ll also find New York’s Staircase, a climbable network of 154 flights of stairs and, opening in 2020, a 1,000-foot-high observation deck billed as the highest outdoor deck in the entire Western Hemisphere.
TWA Hotel
The much-anticipated homage to the golden age of travel officially opens on May 15 at Kennedy Airport, housed in the former TWA flight center, built in the early ’60s and shuttered since the iconic airline folded in 2001. The old terminal, a historic landmark designed by Finnish architect Eero Saarinen, will become the hotel’s 200,000-square-foot lobby, a sunken lounge/bar carpeted in chili-pepper red. And the 512 guest rooms will be Mad Men-style, with vintage rotary phones and mod furniture. You can book online now at TWAHotel.com.
Museum of Modern Art's expansion
One thing you can't do in NYC this summer: visit MoMA. The museum will be closed from June 15 to Oct. 21 as it undergoes the final stages of its $400 million renovation and expansion. When it reopens in the fall it will have, among other new features, a huge new performance space, 40,000 more square feet of gallery spaces and more frequently rotating exhibitions, including more Modernist art and works from a more diverse range of artists.
And coming to Times Square late next year? A Margaritaville Resort, one of singer/entrepreneur Jimmy Buffet’s “no worries” hotel getaways, this one planned with (among other places to chill) a rooftop pool and a 5 o’Clock Somewhere Bar.
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