9. The Twin Towers Are Still Part of the Model
For a time after the fair, in 1967, 1968, 1969 and 1974, Lester & Associates updated the model regularly with new buildings. Throughout the 1980s, a few new buildings were donated including the AT&T (Sony) and Citicorp buildings. Many of the donations at this time were thanks to the firms that designed the structures, such as Emery Roth & Sons, which gave models of 17 of their New York City buildings. The enitre model was brought up to date in 1992. At that time, the museum closed for a two year renovation. The helicopter ride was removed and a cantilever observation deck designed by Rafael Viñoly was installed above the Panorama. The entire panorama was removed from the museum and more than 60,000 buildings were updated, with 35,000 new additions. One of those additions was the Twin Towers.
Since 1992, only a handful of new buildings and facitlites have been added such as Yankee Stadium, Citi Field, Brooklyn Bridge Park, and the Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant. The Twin Towers however remain standing in Lower Manhattan, making The Panorama of the City of New York a representation of the city from different times in history. In 2013, to celebrate the creation of the municpal law which allowed for historic districts, tiny flags were added to the model in historic districts across the five boroughs.
