#museum-of-the-city-of-new-york

#museum-of-the-city-of-new-york

Macken began the project in 2004 and stuck with it for the next 21 years, quietly recreating the five boroughs by hand in his upstate New York home. Built from everyday materials like balsa wood, cardboard and glue, the finished model measures roughly 50 by 27 feet and is made up of more than 300 individual sections. It captures the city's skyline, neighborhoods and landmarks with obsessive detail, from Midtown towers to outer-borough blocks.

You can smell it before you see it, the air thickly perfumed with cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg. And then when you do see it, there's a moment of cognitive dissonance: How could a giant everything bagel with crispy, toasted onion flakes smell sweet? That's because this massive, intricately crafted bagel is actually made of gingerbread as part of Museum of the City of New York's annual Gingerbread NYC: The Great Borough Bake-Off 2025.