Beat the Heat in the Big City

One of the most serene spaces in New York is the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden in the Museum of Modern Art. You can get in free between 9:00 and 10:15 AM or you have to pay for admission to the Museum, but the space, designed by architect Philip Johnson and landscape architect James Fanning in 1953 and revitalized in 2004, is worth it. More at the Cultural Landscape Foundation.