The most visited city park in all of the United States, Central Park has become something of a novelty. Bordered by West 110th Ave., West 59th Street, and Fifth Avenue, Central Park welcomes around 25 million visitors a year. Most of the park is entirely landscaped including a few artificial lakes, numerous walking paths, playgrounds, two ice skating rinks and a wildlife sanctuary.

With a tremendous rise in population in the mid 1800s, New York City became increasingly crowded and loud. The New York people were running out of places to just “get away”. The people were finally given a voice with the poet, Andrew Jackson Downing, who proposed the New York legislature set aside 700 acres for a park. The Central Park Commission decided on a design called the “Greensward Plan”, which was proposed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux.

Before breaking ground on Central Park, the issue of where to move the 1600 inhabitants of that land, needed to be addressed. Most were very poor and immigrants. Using eminent domain as their tool, the city evicted the residents, and torn down most of Seneca Village. Once construction got under way, more than 500,000 cubic feet of top soil had to be transported from New Jersey because the original soil wasn’t good enough to sustain new growth. The park has gone through a few changes throughout its lifespan, but for the most part, has become a landmark in itself. To hear more about Central Park, download Tourcaster’s audio tour of Fifth Avenue and Central Park. You can listen to more of the historical and cultural importance of this landmark in New York City on your iPod or mp3 player. Just visit the Tourcaster website.

The Guggenheim, is one of the best known museums in all of New York. Founded in 1937 as “The Museum of Non-Objective Painting”, the Guggenheim was created to showcase artwork that was classified as avant-garde. In 1959, it was moved to its present location and the corner of 89th Street and Fifth Avenue, across from the infamous Central Park.

The museum is a piece of artwork in itself, as it was Frank Lloyd Wright’s final major project. The trend-setting architect designed the building to look like a piece of white ribbon curling into a cylindrical stack. In comparison to the uniformly boxy buildings of Manhattan, Wright’s design is an attention grabber to say the least. The building has been criticized by many that feel the design overshadows the artwork displayed within. Much of the artwork has to be lit by artificial light, as the niches are shadowed by the stacked walkways. Hanging artwork becomes difficult also, as the walls aren’t vertical or flat, rather concave, and due to limited spaces in the niches, sculptures are usually displayed in the spiral walkway itself.

The Guggenheim foundation decided to supplement the original building with a rectangular tower in 1992, in order to be able to host more artwork. Designed by Gwathmey Siegel and Associates, this addition dealt with its fair share of controversy, as many felt the iconic building should not be messed with. The Guggenheim remains a landmark of the Upper East Side in New York City and is a must-see for anyone traveling through. The Guggenheim Museum, among other museums is covered in the Fifth Avenue and Central Park audio tour which is available at Tourcaster. Download this tour to your iPod or mp3 player, and walk the Guggenheim and most of Fifth Avenue, at your own pace.