Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art

I. M. Pei concrete building on the Cornell ridge with Asian, modern, and American art

The collection is excellent for a small university museum — strong in Asian art (a noted holding of Japanese woodblock prints and Chinese ceramics), American works from the colonial era forward, and a respectable modern and contemporary wing. Entry is free. Allow ninety minutes, more if the temporary exhibition is good.

The fifth-floor Asian galleries are the high point even without the art: the floor-to-ceiling windows take in Cayuga Lake stretching north for forty miles. Worth a visit just for the view, especially in autumn.

things to do museum architecture cornell
A story
The building was designed by I. M. Pei in 1973, his first major museum and the architectural model he refined for the East Building of the National Gallery in Washington. Cornell students call it the sewing machine for its angular silhouette on the ridge above town. The fifth-floor windows of the Asian galleries open onto what is widely considered the best view in Ithaca.

Other places in Things to Do