April 25, 2020: José, wearing protective gear and controlling entry to the H F Dollar & Up Fruits & Vegetables store, 61-27 Roosevelt Avenue, Queens, N.Y.
Camilo José Vergara. Courtesy National Building Museum April 25, 2020: José, wearing protective gear and controlling entry to the H F Dollar & Up Fruits & Vegetables store, 61-27 Roosevelt Avenue, Queens, N.Y.

In just a few months, COVID-19 has transformed the lives of people around the world, as well as how they experience the built environment. But measuring such rapid shifts in our social, political, and economic landscape poses its own difficulty. In the National Building Museum's (NBM) upcoming virtual exhibition, "Documenting Crossroads: The New Normal," photographer Camilo José Vergara tracks these changes in New York City, highlighting the ways that COVID-19 has disproportionately impacted the lives of minority families and communities of color.

Camilo José Vergara, Courtesy National Building Museum June 7, 2020: Bus traveling along West 110th Street, Harlem, New York, NY.

Featuring 71 images, Vergara's own observations, and an essay from Elihu Rubin, an associate professor at Yale University's School of Architecture and in American Studies, the online-only exhibition aims to reveal how urban life for these communities has been "altered during these last few months, from space adaptations for economic survival to behavioral changes as people seek to avoid becoming ill," according to an NBM press release.

Camilo José Vergara, Courtesy National Building Museum April 29, 2020: Joe, bundled up under the Woodside Subway Station at 61st Street in Queens, NY.

"Documenting Crossroads: The New Normal," is the second virtual exhibition of Vergara's work documenting the social impacts of COVID-19 that the NBM has launched since it closed in March because of the pandemic, just one day before its scheduled reopening following renovations to the museum's great hall. Vergara's first exhibition, “Documenting Crossroads: The Coronavirus in Poor, Minority Communities,” was published online in April.

Viewers can experience the exhibition on the NBM's website.

Camilo José Vergara, Courtesy National Building Museum June 10, 2020: Sister Mary wearing two face masks and gloves on Broad Street at West Market Street in Newark, NJ. One of the pins on her lapel reads: “Jesus is coming soon.”
Camilo José Vergara, Courtesy National Building Museum June 15, 2020: This large display of masks shows an amazing array of designs, East 149th Street at Third Ave, Bronx, NY.