Traveling New York to experience the city's many epic museums isn't something exactly affordable, which is why a new online tour of the famed Guggenheim Museum will be a welcome addition to Google Street View.
[seealso slug="buckingham-palace-virtual-reality"]
Captured using tripod-mounted cameras, Street View trolley cameras and even drones, anyone with Internet access can explore the museum's well-known spiral staircase, which has been featured in scores of movies.
By navigating to a special Google-created site, users can virtually stroll through the museum's halls and peer up through the structure's Frank Lloyd Wright–designed circular skylight (known in the museum as the oculus).
Once you begin your virtual journey, you can check out roughly 120 pieces of art, including a special exhibition from last year called "Storylines: Contemporary Art at the Guggenheim." In addition to the 2015 exhibit, users can take a deep dive into the museum's 2013 exhibit "No Country: Contemporary Art For South and Southeast Asia."
A kind of virtual elevator, just beneath the navigation control interface, lets you instantly move from the first floor of the museum to the sixth floor in much the same way as you would via a normal elevator.
Unlike some of Google's more recent virtual tours, this one doesn't feature live video and human curators. But if you're accustomed to exploring locations via Google Maps' Street View feature, the presentation and interface will feel incredibly familiar.
Launched in collaboration with the Google Cultural Institute, later this year the Guggenheim's online presentation will add artists from North Africa, Latin America and the Middle East.