With an apartment in New York�s Museum Tower, Glenn D. Lowry, director of the adjacent Museum of Modern Art, doesn�t literally live above the shop�but just about. �I have a 400-foot commute,� he says. �I love it.� If he burns few calories getting to work, he more than compensates with his spare-time pursuits: This former bike and ski racer still engages in both sports with vigor. Married since the age of 19 to his wife, Susan, a Montreal-born landscape architect, Lowry was enrolled as a pre-med student when he took a freshman course in Islamic and Indian art at Williams College. �The first slide went up, and I never looked back,� says Lowry, who became a scholar of Islamic art before assuming leadership of the Art Gallery of Ontario and then MoMA. �This is an utterly thrilling, enjoyable, engaging job,� he says of his role as head of one of the world�s most beloved art institutions. �It tests all of your skills, all of the time.�

1. Seven Cycles Road Bike (Elium SL)

A well-made bike is a thing of beauty�and less expensive than a midlife crisis.