Since the post-9/11 precipitous drop in NYC tourism, 85% by most estimates, numbers have gradually risen and finally surpassed the high mark of the Summer of 2001.
We anticipate over 60 million visitors to NYC once 2018 has been tallied.
The fourth largest sector of NYCs economy, in fact we now have the challenge of accommodating tens of millions more visitors in our already stressed venues, some stretched beyond capacity.
And these venues have an added layer of security that takes time and precludes some of the unfettered pre-9//11 access.
But America at its best is the Mother of Invention and some innovators over on Liberty Island have come up with an elegant solution to a troubling situation: How do we make Liberty, mandated and enshrined as it is thus in our founding documents, accessible to all?
More precisely, most people can no longer get into the base of the Statue of Liberty, for a whole host of reasons. No insurer will carry the policy any longer. The second level of security to the pedestal is often time prohibitive. And only a select few are allowed up into the statue itself any longer, making it impossible for groups to do so.
Believe me, we understand your disappointment when you thought you were going in, only to be thwarted. We'd like you to go in, as well, especially as the museum, which includes nothing less than the original torch, is infuriatingly just feet away right there in the pedestal.
While the solution was right under our noses, it was also a minefield for missteps, taking one of the most iconic, treasured, emotionally charged symbols in the nation and rearranging her home turf. But a separate museum on Liberty Island was planned nonetheless, topped itself out last month, and will be ready for business by Spring next year.
And from the moment I laid eyes on the renderings, I was on board 100%.
Instead of occupying the land on which it might sit, it seems to inhabit it; a gently sloping hill looks as natural as if it might always have been part of the original topography, a hill that will be living, living with all the indigenous flora of the island when the native Americans shoaled its shores for oysters.
Instead of occupying the land on which it might sit, it seems to inhabit it; a gently sloping hill looks as natural as if it might always have been part of the original topography, a hill that will be living, living with all the indigenous flora of the island when the native Americans shoaled its shores for oysters.
It elevates itself with all the materials that comprise the Statue itself, iron, bronze, granite, concrete, and, of course, the famous copper which over time will green in a green design gone to great pains to meet the highest standards of sustainability. And like the original torch that was shredded itself to allow for glass plates once electricity became available, that old torch will be visible to everyone, sitting in its lovely glass house and elevated there for you to enjoy whether you enter the Museum or not.
Alongside the torch with be the other wonderful exhibits chronicling the leaps in engineering and metalwork that made this 'new Colossus' possible, including much of Eiffel's original iron skeletal pieces, all replaced with stainless steel circa 1984-1986.
But for me, the most stunning element of the design is its most subtle, and my hats off to the firm FXFOWLE for taking a mandate and making it manifest.
If you look closely at the angles and shapes, and one must grab a little distance to do so, say, those people up on the pedestal, it resembles some abstracted shadow of the Statue, as though Liberty has embraced all of those people not just on top, but on the ground as well, that Liberty is indeed accessible to all, and even extends herself to embrace those who might have thought they were beyond her reach. It is a profound gesture. And I find it very moving.
And I can't wait to bring you there, large enough to hold all of us, no security, no extra fee, and after that hassle getting on the boats, it will feel just like freedom.
