Ravensburger - Seasons of New York 1500 Piece Adult's Jigsaw Puzzle

New York in two seasons at once, 1500 pieces and 80 x 60 cm finished. A composite that splits down the middle: winter on the left, summer on the right, with the join running straight through the middle of Manhattan.

What you are looking at

A rooftop observation deck looking south over midtown, with the Empire State Building standing clear of everything around it. On the left the city is in winter: a violet storm front with lightning in it, snow falling, ice hanging off the parapet and a drift of it across the terrace. On the right the same city is in high summer: blue sky, white cloud, warm gold light on the glass, and the sun low enough to silhouette the Statue of Liberty in the far harbour. Coin operated binocular viewers stand along the parapet, a green polka dot umbrella lies on the wet brick, and a plume of steam lifts from a vent between the towers.

The lightning is not artistic licence. The Empire State Building's antenna is struck roughly 25 times a year, on the National Weather Service's count. It is tall enough and well enough earthed that being hit is routine rather than dramatic, and it has been used as a lightning research site for exactly that reason.

The building went up in 410 days. Ground was broken on 17 March 1930 and it opened on 1 May 1931, rising at about four and a half storeys a week to 102 floors. It is still one of the fastest large builds ever attempted, and it was done in the teeth of the Depression.

What it is like to build

The split is the gift, so use it. Before you sort anything else, divide the box into cool pieces and warm pieces. Violet, blue and grey go left, gold, amber and warm white go right. That single decision halves a 1500 into two manageable 750s, and almost nothing is ambiguous.

Then build the Empire State Building and work outward. It is the one element with a clean silhouette against sky, and it sits close enough to the join to anchor both halves.

The city itself is the hard part and it is most of the picture. Thousands of windows in near identical grids. Sort by grid spacing and by the angle of the facade rather than by colour, because a tower seen face on and the same tower seen obliquely produce very different pieces. The sky, the snow drift and the brick terrace are the easy thirds, so keep them in reserve for when the windows have beaten you.

A 1500 is a project rather than an evening. Give it a table you do not need back.

Why Ravensburger

German made, and the reason people pay for them is the fit. The die is precise enough that a piece either belongs or it does not, which matters enormously on a picture where several hundred pieces look interchangeable. Softclick finish, a linen texture across the face that kills glare under a lamp, and board that stays flat.

Specifications

A little context

Split season and split time of day composites have become a small genre of their own, and they work as puzzles for a reason that has nothing to do with the trick: they hand you a sorting rule in the artwork itself. If you like the format, it is worth looking for the day to night versions of the same idea, which do the same job with light instead of weather.

More like this: our 1500 piece puzzles, Cities and Landmarks, the larger piece counts, and everything from Ravensburger.

Stock is real and it is in Sydney. Free shipping Australia wide over $150, and free same-day delivery inside 6 km of North Bondi with no minimum.

Built it already? Use the Questions section below and tell us how you found it. Which part fought you, how long it took, and whether you would send someone else to it. We answer every one.