If you wish, you may do some projects for
extra credit on your final grade at the end of the semester.
An extra credit paper is good for 1 to 5 extra points on your final grade for the course. You may do as many of these papers as you wish up to 20 points.
You can turn in an extra credit paper any time up to the final exam. Please write "Extra Credit" in the heading of your paper before you turn it in.
Papers should be 3 pages long, double-spaced, with 12 point type.
Handwritten papers will not be accepted.
--A paper on a work of art (painting, sculpture, photo, installation, etc.) from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. You may also do works of art from the Museum of Modern Art, The Frick Collection, The Guggenheim Museum, The New Museum, or the Whitney Museum of American Art. These can be works from the permanent collections, or from special exhibitions.
Write a 3 page paper, typed, double-spaced, 12 point type. Your paper must include a
description of the work of art (it's always good to begin a paper on a work of art with a description), and an
analysis. Tell something about the artist. If you wish, you may give an opinion or make an argument about the work of art provided you make the case for your opinion with evidence. Include a reproduction or photo of the work of art you are discussing plus proof of your visit with museum ticket and receipt with your paper.
Here are links to the websites of all of these museums:
The Metropolitan Museum of Art (pay what you want, even a dime, but you must pay something)
The Frick Collection (Note: The Frick does not allow small children into the museum)
The Museum of Modern Art (you can get into MoMA for FREE with your student ID)
The Guggenheim Museum
The New Museum
The Whitney Museum of American Art (you may have to buy a ticket online in advance; the museum is newly relocated and rebuilt and very popular now)
For those of you who are enterprising, you may also write about a show at a commercial gallery. There are a lot of them in the Chelsea, Lower East Side, and Soho neighborhoods of Manhattan. There are also some notable ones on 57th street and on the Upper East Side. For the really adventurous, there are a lot of galleries in Brooklyn, especially in the Williamsburg and Bushwick areas. I strongly suggest you do some research before you start exploring commercial galleries. A good resource is
Time Out's Gallery Guide; another is
The Gallery Guide.
You can also do a paper on a living artist that you know personally. They don't have to be famous or have work in a museum, but please see me first.
--A building in New York City.
Pick a building from the list below. You are required to visit the building at least once. Walk around the building, go inside, if you can. What is it like to look at it from the street; to see it from a distance? What is it like to enter the building (if you can)? Pay attention to the neighborhood around the building and how it relates to its surroundings (or doesn’t). Do materials like brick or glass or stainless steel or something else make a difference to the overall effect of the building? Does color play a role?
Find out what you can about the building, its history, why it was built, especially why it was designed the way it was.
Write a 3 page typed double spaced paper, 12 point type. Tell something about its history, about the architect, about who ordered it built and why. Above all, why does the building look the way it does? Why do you think this building was designed this way? Describe your experience visiting the building. What do you think of it?
You must turn in a snapshot of yourself with the building as proof of your visit.
You can see pictures of all the buildings
on the list here.
The List
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The Brooklyn Bridge, John, Washington, & Emily Roebling
-The Statue of Liberty, Fredric Bartholdi, Gustave Eiffel, & Richard Morris Hunt (Liberty Island)
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The Empire State Building, Shreve & Lamb (34th Street and 5th Avenue; you are not required to visit the observation deck)
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The Chrysler Building, William Van Allen (42nd Street and Lexington Ave)
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Rockefeller Center, Raymond Hood, Wallace Harrison, etc. (5th Avenue from 52nd to 48th Streets; you are not required to visit the observation deck)
-Saint Patrick's Cathedral, James Renwick, (5th Avenue & 51st Street)
-Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, Ralph Adams Cram (Amsterdam Avenue at 112th Street)
-Trinity Church, Richard Upjohn (Wall Street and Broadway)
-Federal Hall Memorial, Alexander Jackson Davies (Wall Street & Nassau Street)
-Grand Central Station, (Park Avenue & 42nd Street)
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The Guggenheim Museum, Frank Lloyd Wright (5th Avenue at 81st Street; it would be nice to take a look inside, but they will charge you $25 admission, no exceptions; so visiting the inside is encouraged, but not required.)
-
The Seagram Building, Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe (Park Avenue and 52nd Street)
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The Woolworth Building, Cass Gilbert (Broadway at Barclay Street, across from City Hall; the lobby of this building is no longer accessible; the upper 30 floors of what was once a public building are now being turned into luxury housing.)
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The United Nations Buildings, Oscar Niemeyer, Le Corbusier, Wallace Harrison, etc. (1st Avenue and 43rd Street; NOTE, I want a report on the BUILDINGS, NOT the organization).
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MacGraw Hill Building, Raymond Hood, (330 42nd Street)
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Lever House, Gordon Bunshaft & Natalie de Blois (390 Park Avenue)
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The General Electric Building, John Cross (570 Lexington Avenue)
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The Flatiron Building, Daniel Burnham (175 5th Avenue, at 23rd street)
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AT&T Building (now the Sony Building), Phillip Johnson (550 Madison Avenue)
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#1 World Trade Center, John Childs (The lobby of this building is finished and the observation deck is supposed to open later in 2015; I'm still not sure how accessible the building is yet)
-World Trade Center Transportation Center, Santiago Calatrava, (This building is almost finished and scheduled to be open later in 2015)
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The National September 11th 2001 Memorial, Michael Arad (World Trade Center; You are not required to visit the museum; the Memorial is free; I want a paper on the the Memorial and its design, not on 9/11)
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8 Spruce Street, Frank Gehry, (8 Spruce Street in Lower Manhattan just south of City Hall Park)
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New York Times Building, Renzo Piano (8th Avenue between 40th and 41st Streets)
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Bayard-Condict Building, Louis Sullivan (65 Bleecker Street in Lower Manhattan)
NOTE: If you have a building in mind that is not on this list, but you would really like to write about it, please see me.
