Japanese architect Yoshio Taniguchi's light-strewn temple houses the greatest collection of 20th modern art. Period. You can say that from the atrium of the Tate Moderne and it will still be true.

The impressively large archive houses over 120,000 radio and television broadcasts. In addition to the displays, the Paley regularly hosts special events in its four theaters.

The Beaux-Arts building includes the Rose Reading Room, a city landmark where hundreds of New Yorkers gather to read, research, or write their great American novel.

The United States flagship of the world’s largest fine arts auction house is headquartered at Rockefeller Center.

Overseen by one of the most respected dealers in town, Marian Goodman represents market giants in a number of media, like Gerhard Richter, Jeff Wall, and William Kentridge.

Pace is known for their trendsetting curation of 20th and 21st century art. Having mounted more than 700 exhibitions in the last five decades, Pace is renowned for their evocative, and often groundbreaking, shows.

Clocking in at 16 ½ acres, Lincoln Center is hands down the largest performing arts institution in the world. Whatever you're into -- symphony, opera, chamber music, theater, dance, film or arts education – you'll find it happening here every night.

Home to the New York City Ballet, this newly renovated 2,586 seat theater is reputed to be the premier dance venue in the world.

A staple of Lincoln Center’s performing arts programming, Jazz brings in the best players and composers from around the world for regular shows.

Built as a temple for the Shriners in 1923, New York City Center was transformed into a center for the performing arts; it hosts the wildly popular Encore! Great American Musicals in Concert® series, the Manhattan Theatre Club, and the Martha Graham Dance Company.

Since 1883, the Met has held its title as the nation’s premier opera house, with just about every legendary singer, director, and choreographer having graced its stage at one time or another.

Modern dance paradigm-shifter Alvin Ailey’s company offers classes and workshops where aspiring- to expert-level dancers can hone their movements. Even at the beginner level, classes are taught by pros.

Designed by architects C. Howard Crane and Kenneth Franzheim and constructed by the Theatre Guild, it opened as the Guild Theatre in 1925 with a revival of George Bernard Shaw’s Caesar and Cleopatra.

Commissioned by the Shubert Organization in 1925, this Broadway theater houses the box office hit The Book of Mormon.

The Neil Simon Theatre is a theater of firsts; Ethel Merman, Lucilee Ball and Liza Minelli, as well as the shows Annie, Porgy and Bess, as well as Brighton Beach Memoirs, by Neil Simon, for whom the Theatre was renamed in 1983, had their Broadway start here.

The largest single-screen movie theater in New York, the Ziegfeld hosts the majority of the East Coast Hollywood movie premieres.

Since Marlene Dietrich cut the ribbon in 1948, The Paris has continued to show art films and foreign films in their original languages.

Originally built in 1912 as The Empire, a traditional Broadway venue, the building currently houses a flagship 25-theater cinema.

In 1932, John D. Rockefeller gambled that a luxurious concert venue would help reinvigorate the then struggling neighborhood surrounding Rockefeller Center. With Radio City still going strong more than 75 years later, it's clear that Rockefeller was right. The venue's most famous residents, The Rockettes, have sold out every Christmas show since 1933, and Radio City has hosted some of the world's greatest entertainers, from Aretha Franklin to Elton John. Radio City currently hosts Cirque du Soleil's extravagant Zarkana show.

This retro cabaret spectacularly recreates the halcyon days when 52nd Street was the center of the jazz world.

The Late Show with David Letterman is filmed at the historic Ed Sullivan Theater, which was originally built by Arthur Hammerstein and has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

John D. Rockefeller Jr. originally planned for the site to hold a giant opera house and other arts venues, but when the Depression interrupted his plans, the billionaire decided to make the 19 building complex into a mixed business and retail center. In addition to housing the headquarters of Bank of America, General Electric, NBC and CBS, Rockefeller Center remains a bustling destination with New Yorkers and tourists alike, who flock to the outdoor skating rink, grand plaza, Top of the Rock, the underground shopping and dining concourse, Christie's Auction House and Radio City Music Hall.

An observation deck 850 feet above street-level, Top of the Rock's views are rivaled only by those of the Empire State Building. From the art deco observation deck, you can see the Statue of Liberty to the south and the entirety of Central Park to the north.

The storied concert hall ushered serious classical performance into the U.S. in 1891 with the American debut of Tchaikovsky. While continuing to feature classical music maestros, Carnegie Hall also hosts an eclectic assortment of performers from other genres, from jazz to pop.

The enormous statue of Christopher Columbus was erected in 1892 in celebration of the 400th anniversary of the explorer’s arrival in the New World. Today, Columbus Circle is a shopping and dining hotspot, housing the Time Warner Center, Per Se, and the Mandarin Oriental Hotel within its boundaries.

The seat of New York’s Roman Catholic Archdiocese since 1878, St. Patrick’s is a beautiful example of European Gothic architecture with touches of American styles throughout.

Lights. Music. Action. The heart of The Big Apple is at your doorstep. Times Square has undergone an exciting renaissance with leading Broadway shows, top restaurants and hotels, and now headquarters to some of the biggest corporations in the world.

ARTIST: PHILIP JOHNSON / INSTALLED: 1964 Upon its opening in 1964, it was the most technically sophisticated blending of light and water in the world. Today, after a glorious remodel, it’s just as enchanting as it was back then.

ARTIST: ALEXANDER CALDER / INSTALLED: 1975 Its mixture of fluid lines and sharp protrusions in a vibrant red-orange make Alexander Calder’s Saurien an arresting work of art. An unexpected silhouette amongst Manhattan’s skyscrapers.

ARTIST: JIM DINE / INSTALLED: 1990 This triplicate in verdigris bronze was created by pop artist Jim Dine. It is a juxtaposition of classical painting and modern sculpture of there Venus de Milos.

ARTIST: THIETTY NOIR AND KIDDY CITNY / INSTALLED: 1997 Less of a work of art, more like an art installation, this 12-x-20-foot fragment of the Berlin Wall is a somber memorial to the fallacy of man.

ARTIST: TOM OTTERNESS / INSTALLED: 1997 Whimsical and captivating, this bronze work by Tom Otterness is at once haunting and adorable. For those of us with a sweet tooth, it is available for sale as a cookie jar.

ARTIST: JOAN MIRO / INSTALLED: 1966 Miró made this piece freehand, choosing to design it in raw materials rather than produce any illustrations leading up to its production.

ARTIST: ROTATING / INSTALLED: 1994 This indoor sculpture garden filled with trees and tables is an oasis within the city, inviting you to simply sit and relax while contemplating a rotating gallery of beautiful and impressive sculptural art.

ARTIST: LEO VILLAREAL / INSTALLED: 2013 Comprised of 86,400 hanging LED lights and 900 razor-thin mirrors, Leo Villareal’s installation is a captivating display: lights are run through a specially designed computer program to produce infinitely variable patterns.

ARTIST: JEAN DEBUFFET INSTALLED: 1971 Conceptual, unexpected, and floating, this untitled work embodies Jean Debuffet’s idealistic approach to art, which favored abstract and humanistic works over modern standards of beauty and precision.

ARTIST: ISAMU NOGUCHI / INSTALLED: 1958 Let the sounds of the city slide away as you relax, enveloped by the soothing sounds of Isamu Noguchi’s mixed media installation.

ARTIST: TONY ROSENTHAL / INSTALLED: 1969 Simple and unassuming, don’t overlook Rondo, a meditative exploration of form and movement.