The Cooper Hewitt is a Smithsonian museum located in the old Carnegie mansion overlooking Central Park on the Upper East Side. It’s a spiffy piece of property with a cafe and garden that I’d like to return to in the warmer months.

I admit, I didn’t spend too much time analyzing everything or soaking up the labels in every collection ( it was pretty crowded!), but the gist of the museum was an overview of the basic design elements (eg., line, color, pattern, texture), and some examples. Historical was juxtaposed with contemporary, utilitarian with decorative. The bottom floor is a hands-on “design lab” where you can get your hands dirty by “redesigning” a lamp with tissue paper, chenille stems, and pieces of plastic, or leave your idea on a massive iPad on how to design something better. There was also a huge dry-erase board where people could mark up ideas on engineering a more efficient human. I think a lot of the kids enjoyed it. I also loved that “photos are encouraged” here. I definitely took advantage 🙂

We’ll see what museum is next!