Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum - Manhattan, New York

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Designs Galore at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. The Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, located on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, is a subsidiary of the Smithsonian. It is dedicated to the history of design, as well as highlighting contemporary design. The museum is the only one in the United States whose entire collection is based on design.

Part of the Museum Mile in New York City, the museum is housed in the former Andrew Carnegie Mansion. Besides all of the great exhibits and their permanent collections, the museum hosts the National Design Awards.

Guests to the museum can peruse a wide variety of items from the Shang dynasty all the way to the present. You can see several different types of collections at the museum.

Drawings, Prints, and Graphic Design

The Drue Heinz Study Center for Drawings and Prints houses more than 160,000 works of art. They range from Renaissance pieces to modern times. Some of the highlights you can see in this area are architectural drawings by Hugh Ferris, Hector Guimard, as well as many others.

You can also see furniture designs by Frank Lloyd Wright. In addition, you will see industrial designs, textiles designs, kata-gami, and graphic design from contemporary artists. This extensive collection has a lot to offer.

Product Design and Decorative Arts

Here are more than 40,000 three-dimensional objects. They range from antiquity to the modern day. You can see a number of interesting things here, including tsuba (the hand guards on Japanese katana), Irish cut glass, and a collection of Soviet porcelains.

Wall Coverings

You can see Dutch gilded leather wall coverings from the 17th century, German wallpapers from the 1950s, Chinese hand-painted wallpapers, and plenty more.

Getting to the museum is easy, no matter where you are in the city. You can come by bus, subway, or cab. Admission to the museum is $15 for adults, $10 for seniors and students with ID, and children under 12 are free.

The museum is open Monday through Thursday from 10 AM to 5 PM, and on Fridays from 10 AM to 9 PM. Saturday the museum is open from 10 AM until 6 PM and on Sunday from noon until 6 PM. The museum is closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day.