Events

Residential architecture of the Gilded Age is probably better represented in the area covered on these tours than anywhere else in New York. Join Alan M. Engler, MD for these informative and entertaining walks focusing on the history and architecture - and scandals - of New York in the Gilded Age. See how names like Frick, Vanderbilt, Richard Morris Hunt and McKim, Mead and White have left their mark in this neighborhood. From Huguette Clark to the crime of the century, see what you've been missing when you walk through these streets. And, as always, don't forget to look up! Cost: $30 / $20 Members.

Architectural historian and author, Anthony W. Robins takes us to Midtown Manhattan's major boulevard of Art Deco skyscrapers. Star architect of the walk is crusty modernist Raymond Hood; we will visit three of his four skyscrapers: the Daily News, American Radiator, and McGraw-Hill. The star building, once the world's tallest, is the one and only Chrysler, whose architect, William Van Alen, was once called the Ziegfeld of his profession. We will also visit the Chanin and Paramount Buildings. Mr. Robins's latest bookNew York Art Deco: A Guide to Gotham's Jazz Age Architecture is now available. He was recently honored by the Guides Association of New York City with their Guiding Spirit award. Cost: $30 / $20 Members.

Experience the changing face of Gowanus with architectural historian and guide Matt Postal, from its days as a busy industrial waterway to the more glamorous present moment, viewing the city's oldest concrete structure and oldest retractile bridge (both New York City Landmarks). We'll also see new notable residential buildings and commercial spaces along the way. Cost: $30 / $20 Members.

Poet Elizabeth Bishop spent many years ghosting in and out of New York City. Her travels led her from Europe, to Brazil, to Key West, Florida, and Boston, but time and again she landed back in the city that both enthralled and intimidated her. For her fans, New York is a living reminder of her life and work. In Greenwich Village, Bishop befriended a small circle of writers and academics, among them Louise Crane, Mary McCarthy, Donald Stanford, and later, the renowned poet Marianne Moore, who gave her the confidence to believe in her own work and develop it. It was in and around Greenwich Village that Bishop honed a style full of both lyrical power and sensual acuity that is still widely read and loved today. On Charles Street in 1934 Bishop made her first NYC home in a tiny poet-in-a-garret apartment with a budget that anecdotally allowed for the purchase of one piece of furniture per month. On King Street Bishop kept her longest address in the city and while here published her first volume of poetry, North and South, which was deluged with critical praise and later won her the Pulitzer prize. She also contributed short stories to The New Yorker in this years. Typical of her vexed relationship with the city, she left this home for a physchiatric hospital during the same year she was US Poet Laureate. In a two-story home on Perry Street in 1942 she first met her long term romantic partner, Brazilian architect Lota de Macedo Soares, whom she would follow to Brazil for many years and it was here that the two were staying when Lota committed suicide, in 1967. Join Laurence Frommer on an exploration of this great poet's often tempestuous affair with a city that was so formative to her talent. Cost: $30 / $20 Members.

Bay Ridge is a neighborhood of surprises like no other in New York. The housing stock is as varied as any in the city, with mansions, row houses, suburban cul-de-sacs and humongous apartment blocks, including Ernest Flagg's pioneering model development called Flagg Court. In addition, the shorefront parks, part of Robert Moses' Belt Parkway development in the 1930s, are beautiful promenades with heart-stopping vistas onto the harbor and the great Verrazano Bridge. We will visit the beguiling Owl's Head Park, one of New York's unsung treasures. Francis Morrone leads this tour. Cost: $30 / $20 Members.

What's left of old Dutch New York ? Where were the windmills, the canals, the first church, and the fort? Where did the girls go to do the laundry, and where did the boys go to graze the cattle? In conjunction with the Dutch Days celebration, join Joe Svehlak for a look at New York's Dutch roots in downtown Manhattan over four centuries ago. Walking downtown's old streets and the original shoreline, we'll learn about our Dutch legacy of commerce and tolerance. Hear about the diverse immigrant population, the problems they faced, and the part they played in the foundation of our democratic society. Cost: $30 / $20 Members.

“The Hill” was the preferred neighborhood for the industrialists of late 19th century Brooklyn. Charles Pratt, Brooklyn’s richest man, his sons, oil executive friends and other manufacturers called the neighborhood home. Their houses of worship, charities, schools were shared with less wealthy neighbors, all forming one of Brooklyn’s most eclectic and architecturally significant neighborhoods, populated by some real characters. Join architectural historian Suzanne Spellen and architect Morgan Munsey in exploring its rich and storied history. Cost: $30 / $20 Members.

Last year, Bob Dylan joined John Steinbeck and Toni Morrison as the only winners of the Nobel Prize in Literature and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. His early rise to stardom began in the dynamic atmosphere of New York’s Greenwich Village. Historically, the Village was a magnet for writers, activists, musicians, artists, and outcasts. Its allure attracted creative souls from all sections of the country. Bob Dylan “landed up on the downtown side” in 1961 on the heels of the Beats and the revival of the folkies. This tour with popular Jane’s Walk leader and MAS Grand Central Docent Robert Depczenski will trace Dylan’s footsteps, visiting places he gathered, lived, and performed. Traversing the Village streets, we’ll relive the forces that influenced his formative years. The ghosts of Village past including Poe, Whitman and Kerouac, and the presence of Guthrie, Van Ronk, and Ginsburg nourished Dylan and fueled his work. This synergy between place and genius will be the focus of our journey. Cost: $30 / $20 Members.

Tammany Hall dominated New York City politics for more than a century. The most famous—infamous, really—of America's urban "machines," it was corrupt to a degree almost unimaginable to even the most jaded observer of modern politics. At the same time, Tammany made many positive contributions to New York's civic life, such as helping to assimilate countless poor immigrants and jump starting the careers of several of New York's greatest politicians, such as Al Smith. This tour with Stephen Eide will canvas the highs and lows of Tammany Hall by a stroll through the Civic Center. We’ll make stops at the Brooklyn Bridge, the Manhattan Municipal Building, City Hall, and, naturally, the Tweed Courthouse. In addition to being fascinating and architecturally distinguished in their own right, all have an intimate connection to Tammany and the outrageous political history of New York City. Cost: $30 / $20 Members.

Join architect and licensed NYC tour guide William Gati for this walk of Richmond Hill North in Queens. As Richmond Hill North applies for Historical District status, we'll visit some of the neighborhood's historic parks, churches, houses, schools, and shops. Richmond Hill was developed as one of the first suburb communities in the 1890s: the Hamptons of those days. Victorian house are still preserved, some in their original splendor. We will have a chance to see not only the exteriors of these houses but also the interior. This will be a fun, learning and memorable experience for all. 3 LU/HSW provided for AIA members Cost: $30 / $20 Members.

Residential architecture of the Gilded Age is probably better represented in the areas covered on this series of tours than anywhere else in New York. Join Alan M. Engler, MD for these informative and entertaining walks focusing on the history and architecture – and scandals - of New York in the Gilded Age. See how names like Frick, Carnegie, Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, and the architects Richard Morris Hunt, Warren and Wetmore, and McKim, Mead and White, among others, have left their mark in these neighborhoods. From Huguette Clark to the crime of the century, see what you’ve been missing when you walk through the streets. And, as always, don’t forget to look up! Cost: $30 / $20 Members.

In the second of three tours of historic Flatbush (the last one was Prospect Park South and the Heart of Flatbush, the next one will be Midwood), we will look at greater Ditmas Park, with an emphasis on the planned suburb developed by Lewis Humphrey Pounds beginning in 1902. Clearly influenced by the nearby Prospect Park South development (begun 1899 by Dean Alvord), but homier, Ditmas Park today is one of Brooklyn's most popular neighborhoods. With Francis Morrone as your guide, you will see many splendid houses, a couple of great churches, and, as always in Brooklyn, a host of surprises. Cost: $30 / $20 Members.

The area around Washington Square in Greenwich Village was home for more than a century to many of America’s finest painters and sculptors, among them Winslow Homer, John Sloan, William Glackens, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, Edward Hopper, and Daniel Chester French. With the creation of the iconic Washington Arch by architect Stanford White in 1892 the Square also became the subject of countless works of art, including stellar examples by Gilded Age artists. Artists resided at 3 Washington Square North, the University Building, and the Benedict on Washington Square East, and in the many rooming houses that once lined Washington Square South and overlooked the Square. Sculptors lived and worked in the alley and mews behind the Greek Revival houses and other 19th century mansions on Washington Square North that once housed gardens, carriage houses and the stables of some of the city’s leading citizens, including merchants, statesmen, philanthropists, and art collectors, among them the founding President of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Explore the area with art historian and curator Bruce Weber to learn more. (At the conclusion of the tour, attendees will be given free admission to a special venue, so please plan to spend a little extra time.) Cost: $30 / $20 Members.

The Steinway Family in so many ways created the modern world – sure they made pianos, but their company was one of the first modern multinational corporations – a model still studied in business schools. The Steinways not only revolutionized the world of music, but were perhaps the largest factor in making NYC a world capital of ideas and culture. In transportation they played a large hand in knitting the hamlets of Queens together by their streetcar network, as well as making the modern city possible by their work in subways, rail networks, tunnels and bridges. They assembled land that later became LaGuardia Airport making air travel to NYC possible. On this tour with Bob Singleton, Executive Director of the Greater Astoria Historical Society, we’ll tour Steinway Village, a utopian ‘settlement’ (as they called it) open to employees and the general public alike. The Steinways planned everything: the placement of factories, model housing, retail districts, water and sewers, schools, a post office and a fire company. Their community library became the cornerstone for the Queens Library, the largest public library in the country, and, a before Henry Ford started experiments in his wife’s kitchen their Daimler Works on Steinway Street ushered the Automobile Age to America. Notable points on the tour include walking past the Steinway & Sons factory (it’s closed on weekends) and the unfortunate Steinway Mansion suffocated with 11 warehouses built just four feet from its walls in 2015. Cost: $30 / $20 Members.

In W.H. Auden’s poetry, the house symbolizes and allows the civilizing act of creating a common world. It presents a determined alternative to loneliness and the apocalyptic fears of the 20th Century. Born and raised in England, Auden spent much of his adult life in various parts of New York City. The more village-like enclaves of Brooklyn Heights and the East Village were the most important of these places. In the communal “February House” in Brooklyn he shared art and life with a diverse group of creative people that included Carson McCullers, Benjamin Britten, and Gypsy Rose Lee. Later, in a decidedly shabby building on Manhattan’s Saint Mark Place artists and thinkers visited him and his lover Chester Kallman in droves, including T.S. Eliot, Igor Stravinsky, Allen Ginsberg, Marianne Moore, Christopher Isherwood, and Oliver Sacks. In the Lower East Side, Auden found a kindred spirit in his neighbor Dorothy Day and her Catholic Worker Houses of Hospitality that housed and fed the destitute, and worked for peace and justice. He was also a devoted parishioner at St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery. In this remarkably broader and eclectic sense, Auden, who often spoke of feeling alone, belonged. Join Laurence Frommer in a celebration of Thanksgiving as we explore several of Auden’s “homes” in Brooklyn and Manhattan. This tour will require the use of one metro card trip. Cost: $30 / $20 Members.

In 1997, The Bronx was designated an “All America City” by the National Civic League, signifying a huge comeback from the terrible decline of the 70s and the 80s. The anticipated revival has brought converted lofts, new affordable apartments and great restaurants, particularly on Bruckner Boulevard. This area has been heavily defined by an industrial nature in the past but now is changing rapidly. Join Alexandra Maruri for this great opportunity to learn about the history and cultural movement of the Mott Haven and Port Morris area. This area is expanding with local new businesses and attractive new green spaces. The New York Times chose the South Bronx as one of the 52 places to visit in 2017. Cost: $30 / $20 Members.

Join Matt Postal for a walk through Morningside Heights, often called the "acropolis of New York City." En route, we'll visit various prestigious institutions to consider their recent contributions to the cityscape, including a controversial new apartment building on the grounds of St. John the Divine, the Diana Center at Barnard College, and the Northwest Corner Science building at Columbia University, by Jose Rafael Moreno of Spain. The tour concludes in Manhattan Valley, in the shadow of the IRT viaduct, at the Lenfest Center for the Arts, part of Columbia's emerging Manhattanville campus, Renzo Piano's latest and perhaps most ambitious project in New York City. Cost: $30 / $20 Members.

While socialism emerged in the 1800's European utopian dialogue, New York artists sought to make their mark on the international art scene. This walk with Deborah Zelcer will illustrate how this utopianism was adapted domestically, through the genesis of cooperative living arrangements, originally by and for artists. Their goal was to enhance innovation and collaboration through proximity to an extended creative community. The tour will include a walk along West 57th Street to see the institutions that were originated by some of these dynamic individuals - Carnegie Hall, the Art Students League, and beautiful classic co-operative buildings along the way. We'll also visit the West 67th Street Artists Colony; a string of well designed and appointed cooperative residences that to this day are peopled with creative individuals. Cost: $30 / $20 Members.

Why 48th Street? On the east side there's Beekman Place and Turtle Bay Gardens and the Shelton Hotel. At Fifth Avenue, the former Scribner Building. On the west side, Rockefeller Center and Father Duffy Square. Few streets, in other words, tell us as much about midtown Manhattan. Join Francis Morrone for an exploration of this street from one end to the other. Cost: $30 / $20 Members.

From the nation's first public Christmas tree in Madison Square Park to the first written mention of St. Nicholas, many of our modern-day holiday traditions can trace their roots to New York City. Join 6sqft senior editor Dana Schulz for a walk around the Flatiron and Gramercy neighborhoods to explore the local history of Christmas. Other stops will include Pete's Tavern, where O. Henry penned "The Gift of the Magi" and Rolf's German Restaurant, which boasts a display of 15,000 ornaments and 10,000 lights, and the Union Square Holiday Market. Cost: $30 / $20 Members.

Fort Greene’s history begins with the Dutch in the 1600s, touches on the American Revolution, includes the Abolitionist Movement and the Underground Railroad, and continues through Spike Lee and the Barclays Center. It’s got elegant mansions, beautiful row house blocks, historic churches, a major park and the Brooklyn Academy of Music, too. Join architectural historian Suzanne Spellen and architect Morgan Munsey on a new tour, highlighting this small, but mighty neighborhood whose people and institutions still shape Brooklyn. Cost: $30 / $20 Members.

Residential architecture of the Gilded Age is probably better represented in the areas covered on this series of tours than anywhere else in New York. Join Alan M. Engler, MD for these informative and entertaining walks focusing on the history and architecture – and scandals - of New York in the Gilded Age. See how names like Frick, Carnegie, Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, and the architects Richard Morris Hunt, Warren and Wetmore, and McKim, Mead and White, among others, have left their mark in these neighborhoods. From Huguette Clark to the crime of the century, see what you’ve been missing when you walk through the streets. And, as always, don’t forget to look up! Cost: $30 / $20 Members.

SoHo today is home to the world's greatest trove of cast-iron buildings. Cast-iron architecture began as a mid-19th-century cheap imitation of stone, in which the glories of the world's past could be offered in modern times in mass-produced, ready-to-build versions. But cast-iron soon developed into a remarkable technology expressive of the industrial revolution, capable of entirely new architectural effects. Threatened by a proposed Lower Manhattan Expressway, SoHo was rescued from near obliteration in 1973 by designation as one of the city's earliest historic districts. This tour with Anthony W. Robins, former Landmarks Preservation Commission Survey Director, considers the district's original architecture as well as new Commission-approved additions. Cost: $30 / $20 Members.

New York City is the art capital of the world! Join art historian Sylvia Laudien-Meo and visit 6 to 8 of the most interesting shows – some by one artist, others are group shows. There are always interesting connections and comparisons to be made on this tour that will spur our lively discussions. Please note that this tour is limited to 20 people. Cost: $30 / $20 Members.

Fort Hill is located at the ‘intersection’ of the former Staten Island villages of New Brighton, Tompkinsville, and later St. George. The neighborhood contains a ‘who’s who’ of Staten Island architecture reflecting the area's rich and historic past and development. Historic Westervelt Avenue was created in part from the driveway of the original Dr. John S. Westervelt (1799-1869) estate. Westervelt was the first health officer of the port of New York, who had married Daniel Tompkins's daughter Hannah. Mr. Tompkins was Vice President under James Monroe and established the village of Tompkinsville. Along this avenue, architectural styles from the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries can be found within this one square mile neighborhood including mansard roofed mansions to shingle style Victorians to brick townhomes to split level houses. John Kilcullen of the Preservation League of Staten Island leads this tour. Cost: $30 / $20 Members.

Step off the sidewalk and back in time to the glamorous twenties. Explore the backdrop of that romantic and high-living era by joining tour guide Deborah Zelcer to view magnificent period lobbies in buildings on or near Park Avenue including 30 Rockefeller Plaza, the Fred F. French Building, the exuberant Chanin building, and the iconic Chrysler building. These opulent landmarks are local place markers in the chronology of architectural taste. Learn about the frenzied one-upsmanship that bred the 1920s race to build the tallest building in the world, and the colorful characters that competed in it, forever transforming the skyline of New York and creating a vivid new language of architectural style. Cost: $30 / $20 Members.

With the MTA and NYCDOT releasing their preliminary L train shutdown plan (for Manhattan) there has been much in the way of public discussion about various options, community based plans, and supplemental & alternative proposals. With the current estimated start of the project being Spring 2019, it is important these proposals and likely impacts be comprehensively fleshed out and assessed. Certain challenges present themselves. It's likely any plan may fail without prioritizing buses on the Williamsburg Bridge and both sides of the East River. Current projections indicate ferry options being discussed may only fulfill a small capacity of projected need. Bicycle infrastructure will need to be sufficiently increased, yet level of demand may be hard to predict. On 14th Street, advocacy groups have proposed the car-free “PeopleWay” where buses, bicycling and walking take precedence, a concept that the MTA and DOT say is on the table. (DOT is also “looking at” a car-free transitway for Brooklyn’s Grand Street). However, questions about where displaced traffic might go, pedestrian flow and impacts on 14th Street businesses are of concern to people connected to the affected area. In the shadow of local elections this season, join urban planners Zeke Mermell and Laurence Frommer as we visit Manhattan’s 14th Street to examine these impending issues. Use of a single MetroCard fare will be required. Cost: $30 / $20 Members.

The streets along the Queens Boulevard spine have something of the character of the Upper East Side of Manhattan, with lots of white-brick high-rises, every chain drugstore known to man, masses of people on the streets, restaurants and movie theaters. There's even one of Costas Kondylis's most Costas Kondylis-ish apartment towers. And then you pass under the L.I.R.R. viaduct into the Gardens, and the effect is overwhelming, utterly unlike anything else in New York, as you enter what a character in Sinclair Lewis's 1920 novel "Main Street" calls "the fairy-book suburb of Forest Hills on Long Island." Begun in 1909, laid out by Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. (a more talented designer than his celebrated father), with the great Grosvenor Atterbury as its original architect, Forest Hills Gardens (built on 108 acres of Newtown farmland) has been hailed by some as the finest planned community in the United States. Let's see why. Francis Morrone leads this tour. Cost: $30 / $20 Members.

The blocks that surround the Brooklyn Academy of Music, between downtown Brooklyn and Fort Greene, are teeming with new architecture -- theaters, public plazas, and a varied collection of slender apartment towers. Join architectural historian Matt Postal for a tour of this transformed neighborhood, including works by Cook + Fox, Hugh Hardy, Enrique Norten, and SHoP. Cost: $30 / $20 Members.

Residents of the Italian-American neighborhoods along Arthur Avenue in the Bronx are the guardians of what some would call New York's "real Little Italy". Home to Doo-Wop music and authentic Italian restaurants and shops, many of the area's businesses has have been family owned and operated for generations. The neighborhood is especially charming and festively decorated for the holiday Christmas season! Join guide Alexandra Maruri to explore the history of this vibrant Bronx neighborhood and warm up from the cold with visits to long-standing neighborhood delis, pastry shops, restaurants, the Arthur Avenue Market and more. Cost: $30 / $20 Members.

When the grid of numbered streets and avenues for Manhattan was originally planned in 1811, it ended at 155th Street. But Manhattan does not stop there, as Francis Morrone will show us. We'll look at the Morris-Jumel Mansion (a splendid colonial house that was briefly the home of Aaron Burr), and Audubon Terrace, the unexpected complex of grand museum buildings developed by Archer Milton Huntington--and adorned by the works of his wife, the great sculptor Anna Vaughn Hyatt. The preeminent institution of the Audubon Terrace complex is the astonishing Hispanic Society of America. The Hispanic Society closed in 2017 for a major renovation (guided by the recently appointed chair of its Board of Overseers, Philippe de Montebello), and is scheduled to reopen in fall 2019, one of the most eagerly awaited dates on the New York cultural calendar. We'll pass by the Church of the Intercession (by Goodhue) and Audubon Cemetery (where, at John James Audubon's grave, we will consider the life of that great New Yorker); and we’ll visit the Audubon Theatre and Ballroom, where Malcolm X was assassinated in February 1965. Cost: $30 / $20 Members.

Join MAS Director of Tours Ted Mineau for a special nightime tour of the 34th Street corridor. You may think you know 34th Street, but you will be surprised. This area of midtown Manhattan has played an important role in so many industries: retail, transportation, hotels, journalism, and entertainment, to name a few. And with plans for a new Penn Station, and the huge development of Hudson Yards, the one thing constant about this neighborhood is change. It's the perfect time of year to explore here as the holiday lights illuminate the nighttime so festively. Cost: $30 / $20 Members.

Join architectural historian Anthony W. Robins for this popular annual Christmas Day tour of Rockefeller Center, the private real estate venture that has evolved into the public square of midtown Manhattan and an urban wonderland during the holiday season. Discover the surprising history, remarkable art and stunning architecture of the development conceived as a new home for the Metropolitan Opera, but built instead as Radio City. Cost: $30 / $20 Members.

From the Victorian style townhouse that was the childhood home of Virginia O’Hanlon (whose letter to a New York Sun editor prompted the most famous treatise on Santa Claus), to the fairy-tale-like Pomander Walk, to stunning churches such as St. Michael's and West End Presbyterian, The Bloomingdale Blocks on Manhattan's Upper West Side are bursting with holiday cheer straight out of a Currier and Ives print! Join urban planner and guide Laurence Frommer to tour these quiet tree-lined streets near the Hudson River from West 96th Street to West 110th Street, that boast some of New York’s finest remaining turn-of-the-century row-houses, apartment buildings, institutional structures and public monuments, often designed by leading architects. From its prominent role in the Revolutionary War, to its much acclaimed reputation for grand estates and popular country inns - where New Yorkers went sleigh riding in winters in the 19th century! - to its emergence as a kind of Parnassus on the Hudson in the 20th century, the Bloomingdale Blocks have played a critical role in New York’s history. Until recently, much of this area had no historic protection, and some very tall developments have caused alarm. Recent historic district extensions hold promise but areas left out have caused concern. Join us as we explore this postcard holiday village on Manhattan's Upper, Upper West Side. Cost: $30 / $20 Members.

When Francis Morrone led his first tours of Greenpoint (which were surely among the first tours anyone ever led of Greenpoint), it was hard to imagine that the neighborhood would one day become one of Brooklyn's trendiest places to live. That's just what happened, as more and more people found out about the superb row house stock and extremely pleasing scale of the neighborhood. Adjacency to Williamsburg's ultra-fashionable Northside did not hurt. And then came the rezoning of the waterfront. Our walk will trace Greenpoint's changes up to today, but with a definite focus on the neighborhood's industrial past, as we walk mainly through the Greenpoint Historic District and along an East River waterfront that was once among the busiest industrial complexes in the nation. Cost: $30 / $20 Members.