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Tour of Panorama
A class of students tour the Panorama of the City of New York, 1961-64, Queens Museum of Art.
Cleaning Panorama
A conservator cleans he Panorama of the City of New York.
Restoring Panorama
The Panorama of the City of New York undergoes restoration.
Panorama, tip of Manhattan
View of the southern tip of Manhattan on the Panorama.
Panorama with Unisphere and QMA
View of Flushing Meadows Corona Park, with the Unisphere in the center and the Queens Museum of Art slightly to the right of the Unisphere.
Panorama
View of the Panorama of the City of New York from above the Bronx.

The Panorama of the City of New York was the creation of Robert Moses and Raymond Lester. It was originally presented in the New York City Pavilion as part of the 1964/65 New York World's Fair. At the time of its creation, it was considered the world's largest scale model.

Constructed at the Lester Associates Workshops in Westchester, N.Y., the Panorama contains 273 separate sections, many of which are four-by-ten foot rectangular panels. It was built on a scale of 1 inch equals 100 feet (for instance, the Empire State Building measures 15 inches) and accurately replicates the topography of the 320 square miles of New York City. The Panorama occupies 9,335 square feet. It includes miniature cars, boats and an airplane landing at and taking off from La Guardia Airport. There are more than 895,000 individual wooden or plastic buildings on the model; 25,000 were custom-made to approximate major landmarks such as skyscrapers, colleges, museums and major churches. The Panorama also uses various types of color to depict different aspects of the city such as parks, parkways, cemeteries, playgrounds, and basketball courts. The most accurate structures on the Panorama are the 35 major bridges made of brass and shaped by a chemical milling process.

In 1992, the city began renovation of the model. The updating involved 60,000 changes. In the current installation, designed by Rafael Viñoly Architects, visitors follow the course of the original "helicopter" ride around on the model on an ascending ramp, which has glass-enclosed balconies with glass lookout floors in four areas. The buildings of the World Trade Center have been retained as a memorial, and there are commemorative plaques with descriptive information about them on the ramp nearby.

The Panorama offers an opportunity to become more familiar with the geography of New York City and the particular topographical characteristics of each of its five boroughs. An aerial view of the city allows you to see Manhattan is the smallest borough with the greatest concentration of lofty skyscrapers. The vast expanse of the Verrazano Bridge connecting the sprawl of Staten Island with Brooklyn is a powerful image. The Unisphere and The Queens Museum of Art nestled in the center of Flushing Meadows Corona Park are easily located and present a reference to the colorful history of the building and its environs. A walk through the Panorama provides a vivid and informative lesson about the structure and specific physical nature of the City of New York. Take a closer look at the park using the activities suggested in Lesson Web or go to Just Add Ink to recall the various aspects of your own community.