By Kit Dillon 12/17/12 5:52pm

Brain Storming

2012-12-13 15.42.32

MoMath No Problems: North America’s Only Math Museum Now Open in Madison Square

For North American math museums, like so much, in the beginning there was nothing.  Then, for a moment, there was one. A good start, but it didn’t last long. Soon, there was nothing again. But on Saturday, The National Museum of Mathematics—or MoMath, as the founders like to call it—opened it’s doors to the public and the intangible becomes tangible once more. Zero becomes one, mathematicians rejoice.

MoMath, the mad dream of founder and executive director Glen Whitney, faces out onto the north side of Madison Square Park with 19,000-square-feet of exhibition space and 30 odd exhibits.  Exhibits like The Hyper Hyperboloid, a spinning swivel chair surrounded by a circle of floor-to-ceiling ropes, which, when turned, allows you to construct and surround yourself in the elegant contours of a quadratic equation. It’s more fun than it may sound. Or, go to the Mathenaeum, the seven-sided, geometric sculpture studio, and transform basic shapes into—sometimes never-before-seen—original objects. It’s something that The Observer, to our surprise, found fun. (We promptly hid our lunch money for fear of the nerd vibes we might put out, though.)

While walking through the exhibits, it’s not hard to see their appeal for all children and not just the mathematically inclined ones either, things light up, lasers shoot out of walls, sometimes when you hit stuff it makes music. Oh, to be a kid again. Read More

By Matt Chaban 12/04/12 2:43pm

Tis The Season

The Madison Square tree through the years.

Merry Centennial: Madison Square Park Celebrates Nation’s Oldest Tree Lighting Ceremony Tonight

The season of light takes on special meaning in a city as bright as New York. It all starts with the lighting of the world’s most famous Christmas tree at Rock Center and closes with the ball drop in the fleshpit of Times Square on New Years.

The tree in Madison Square Park may be overlooked, with all the storefronts to be taken in, holiday fares to wade through and ice rinks popping up all over, but it was here that the season of light arguably began 100 years ago. That is when the first public tree lighting ceremony ever took place, not just in New York, but in the country, based on research by the Madison Square Park Conservancy.

“We’ve been waiting for this moment a long time,” said Debra Landau, director of the conservancy. Read More

By Kim Velsey 4/03/12 7:06pm

The Dead

Be Careful! (timmredpath, flickr)

Grave Errors In Queens: Contractor Disturbs Quaker Cemetary

It can be hard to know where all the bodies are buried in New York (Washington Square Park, Bryant Park and Madison Square Park are just a few of the city’s re-purposed resting places).

Potter’s fields rarely fare well over time (regardless of the surrounding real estate’s desirability), but many of the city’s historic cemeteries have been well-loved—watched over by attentive congregations, descendants and preservationists (see: the Trinity Church graveyard in lower Manhattan).

Unfortunately, even the most attentive caretakers cannot always protect the dead from development, or an errant backhoe. Read More

By Elise Knutsen 12/04/11 4:01pm

Manhattan Transfers

Bob Vila

Forget This Old House! Bob Vila Loses a Million on Madison Square Loft

While home improvement master Bob Vila may be known for giving drab homes D.I.Y. facelifts, around these parts he is better known as a successful flipper of top-of-the-line Manhattan real estate. There was the Tribeca loft—where he was neighbors with Mariah Carey—the Upper East Side townhouse, the two apartments at Museum Tower. Even Mr. Vila’s son Chris has gotten in on the game.

That is why it is so surprising the salt-and-pepper-of-the-earth handyman has had a hard time selling a penthouse at 15 East 26th Street that he bought two years ago. Read More

By Dana Rubinstein 3/10/10 12:03am

In the Shadow of the Boom

Once upon a time, two young men named Ira Shapiro and Marc Jacobs left Rockland County for the isle of Manhattan to build a tower all the way to the sky. Day by day, week by week, their tower at One Madison Park rose. New York’s glitterati took notice. Parties were held. Photographs flashed. Messrs. Read More