Noguchi Museum

On our list of the best activities in New York.

Isamu Noguchi bought a photogravure plant and a gas station across from his own studio in Long Island City in 1974 and converted them into the museum that opened here in 1985 — the first in the country founded by a living artist. The two-story building holds twelve galleries of his sculpture, architectural models, stage designs, drawings and furniture. Outside, the sculpture garden was built around a sixty-foot Tree of Heaven that stood until 2008.