This park holds a special place in my heart because it has been like a backyard for me over the years. It is also named after the Secretary of State who negotiated the purchase of Alaska. There is even a Togo sculpture that reminds me of home. The bench strip doubles as a downtown runway.

In 1994 Megan Kinney opened her first MEG shop in NYC’s East Village. Her locally manufactured, independently-owned fashion label is designed and operated exclusively by women, and sales often go to support causes that affect the lives of women and girls here at home and also abroad. The shop on N 6th Street in Williamsburg, also serves as Meg’s design studio, so patterns for future garments hang along side current collections—giving the space the warmth and appeal of an artists’ workshop. And it’s not uncommon to discover Meg, a ray of Brooklyn-sunshine, herself working away or chatting with her adoring customers. MEG’s enthusiastic staff will always go to great lengths to make you feel like you’re buying a custom garment. Their trained eyes make certain that every seam sits in just the right place or off to their tailor it goes—and POOF! suddenly you have a little taste of local couture in your closet.

I took this image looking straight up at the barrel-vaulted ceiling which is decorated with constellations. The more prominent stars are lit up by LEDs. This space is one of the most magical in the city. According to legend, the sky was intentionally inverted to show how it would appear from God’s point of view from beyond the celestial sphere.

A New York garbage depot holds a secret collection of weird and wonderful refuse.

Apart from Dia Beacon, in Beacon (upstate New York about an hour away from Grand Central Station) and also the Judd Foundation in Soho, this institution is absolutely one of my favourite places to visit and it is located in Long Island City, Queens. It showcases sculpture in the broadest sense and has an incredible building that used to be a workshop that refurbished and fixed subway cars. It has been running since 1928 and when you visit you will definitely see why that is.