Donald, Leo, and I were wandering about Manhattan. Born and raised in a big city in China, and having visited NYC a few times, I was sick of the crowds and hustle, and bored. It came to us that it was the city of museums. I had been to the MET at Central Park–there were impressive artworks but still too much hustle. Obsessed with middle-age architecture and history, I decided to drive us to the MET Cloister, a much less popular site in upper Manhattan, a stone castle upon an undisturbed hill surrounded by rivers.
After some research, we realized it was originally a museum built in the 1900s for the purpose of art exhibitions, not an actual ancient castle from the middle ages (it would not have made any sense base on America’s short history anyway). Even though the MET Cloister has a rather short history, its architects were incredibly successful in making it look like an authentic ancient castle, but their genius is much more than just the ancient styling.
What impressed us was how the architects managed to blend real ancient architecture (such as Gothic structures and religious murals, hangings, and windows) seamlessly into this modern construction.
You would have definitely not expected an Asian-styled garden placed within a middle-age cloister. They did. It did not feel intrusive.
