NEW YORK CITY 2026: MUSEUM OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK, A BIT OF CENTRAL PARK, AN ART OPENING, AND MOMBAR'S

 May 31, 2026

MoMA is a tough museum to top. With its 708,000 square feet, there is so much to see that you can spend an entire day there, and its eclectic collection has something for everyone. We followed our visit to MoMA with a visit to the Upper East Side Museum of the City of New York, a relatively puny 113,750 square feet. In spite of its small size, it contained one of the most expansive artworks I have ever seen: He Built This City (2004-2025) by Joe Macken, a work that rivaled almost anything in MoMA.

In 2004, New York truck driver Joe Macken began a little project in his basement that he worked on in his free time for the next 21 years: a scale-model of the entire city of New York. He had no prior artistic training, no building experience other than constructing a few miniature models, just a vision of his beloved city in miniature. He began with a single structure--30 Rockefeller Plaza. Using a scale of 1 mm = 10 feet and balsa wood, an X-acto knife, his home ruler, Elmer's Glue, and acrylic paint, he expanded from Rockefeller Plaza to Midtown Manhattan, then to the whole borough, then to Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Staten Island. After 21 years of work, he had created a 1,350 square-foot replica of NYC that includes every street, every building, every park, every bridge. Iconic buildings such as the Empire State Building, the World Trade Centre, the Chrysler Building, and the Woolworth Building are incredibly detailed.

In 2025, Macken's TikTok posts of his project went viral, accumulating over 10 million views. The Museum of the City of New York took notice, and the rest is history.

Mr. Macken's model is simply spectacular. Photos don't do it justice.

View from north end

View from south end

The sheer number of structures is phenomenal.

Not everything is perfectly accurate, however. For example, Macken's city has both One World Trade Center and the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. See them in the bottom right of the photo below.

Step back and see the density.

My son found his street on a map of NYC, then showed me his apartment on the model.

His street is hidden behind some of the tall buildings. This is the best I could do.

Important sites are labeled in white writing in the rivers near to them. For example, see Rikers Island in the center below, the island that contains New York City's infamous prison. Zoom in to see the structures and the single road that connects the island to Queens.

The view from the north end shows how compact the downtown area is. There are plenty of structures north of the city, but no skyscrapers.

Truly, truly amazing. 

Unfortunately, Macken's vision of New York City was just a special exhibit at the museum and has since been dismantled and removed. I tried to find out if Mr. Macken was paid for the honor of displaying his magnum opus. I don't believe he was, but I hope I am wrong. If you ever get a chance to see He Built This City, it's worth a trip to wherever it is. 

The rest of the City Museum has displays that focus on different centuries of New York City's history. I thought the narrative that went along with the displays was unusually good:

There are lots of fun artifacts, including this 1900 shovel designed by Tiffany & Company using wood from a tree planted by Alexander Hamilton in 1803 and metal from a ship that fought in the War of 1812. It was used by Mayor Robert Van Wyck to break ground for the city's first subway.

I love these photographs of models in front of Jackson Pollock's drip paintings in the March 1951 edition of Vogue magazine.

I especially liked the 20th and 21st century Civil Rights Movement displays. There are great color-block murals . . .

. . . and powerful photographs.

Left: Political Women's Liberation in New York (1960-1982) and Right: Racial Justice Today: The Movement for Black Lives (2012 to 2020):

The Museum of the City of New York is located directly across Fifth Avenue from the northern end of Central Park. How could we not take a short stroll through the park's botanical garden? 

Three Dancing Maidens (1910, Walter Schott) adorns the Untermyer Fountain.

One of the many things I love about New York City is how its residents enjoy the ample green spaces. There are always plenty of people in the parks--strolling along the sidewalks, taking pictures, picnicking, and playing games.

Our next stop was the opening night of a group show containing M's sculpture O's, a series of 10 circles made of cement. How she got cement to curve into those circles is beyond me.

By this time we were famished. M needed to stick it out at her art show, but A had planned for the two of us to have dinner at Mombar Restaurant in Astoria. This has to be the most unique place I have ever eaten.The restaurant is designed and run in every way by one man, Moustafa El Sayed, who immigrated from Alexandria, Egypt, to New York City in 1983. Originally an engineer and computer repair shop owner, he turned the shop into a restaurant to showcase his art and his love of cooking.

The night we were there El Sayed served as maître d', chef, waiter, and busboy. He was, as far as we could see, the only person working in the tiny restaurant that seats about a dozen guests total. There is no menu; guests get whatever the chef felt like making that day. In these photos you can see the pitas, beets, and hummus that were our appetizers. 

It had been a good day, and I hated to see it come to an end, but end it did. This is the Manhattan Bridge near my hotel. Goodnight, NYC, The City That Never Sleeps!