We visited the Massachusetts Museum of Modern Art - Mass MoCA in North Adams MA today to see Xu Bing's giant phoenix exhibit in the largest hall We come here several times a year and I usually walk around with my mouth wide open in amazement but this time I remembered to snap some photos. When I was in Architecture School, I would occasionally break into a gigantic old abandoned factory up the street from my apartment. At night, of course. It was relatively terrifying but also very peaceful. I remember lying on a parapet three stories up for half the night once just chilling out. The spaces, lit only by nearby streetlights, were beautiful. Mass MoCA is a large factory turned into a museum in such a way that much of that old factory architecture has not been lost or covered up or gentrified. Xu Bing: Phoenix The kids were floored Sol Lewitt The celestory - a lovely space where there never seems to be anybody. note the airstream - it's part of a Steam punk exhibit "Michael Oatman: all utopias fell" and you can climb up there and go in it They let you into the old boiler building - unsupervised - I could cut myself on rusty metal! It's actually an exhibit - "Stephen Vitiello: All Those Vanished Engines" complete with eerie sounds from hidden speakers that use some of the old empty rusting tanks as reverberation chambers. Excellent detailing with raw steel - one of my favorite materials A river runs through it. The old building is not at all lost or buried as so often happens. One of my favorite spaces at Mass MoCA is this tall narrow in-between space.

And the cafeteria actually has really good food and not too expensive - a toasted bagel was less than 1$

Well worth a day to visit. Also, drive (or ride your bike) to the top of Mt. Greylock nearby and check out the Clark which has some amazing art as well as a Tadeo Ando building.