Events

Crown Heights South, Part 2, led by Suzanne Spellen and Morgan Munsey, takes us to the eastern side of the neighborhood, concentrating more on residential architecture and history. Encouraged by the new subway lines, residential developers began building entire blocks at a time, filling them with a wide variety of styles representing row house architecture of the early 20th century. Prominent Brooklyn architects such as Montrose W. Morris, Axel Hedman, J. L. Brush and Slee and Bryson designed one and two family houses in the Revival styles of the day: Renaissance, Colonial, Flemish, Tudor and more. Cost: $30 / $20 Members.

Two days before what would have been his 161st birthday, we'll join tour guide Deborah Zelcer to prowl the local haunts of the mad genius Nikola Tesla. Tesla brought us the induction motor, current wars, power distribution, a deluge of patents, and a fantastic deserted monument (designed by the eminent architect Stanford White), meant to generate wireless power, graphic images, sounds, data and maybe even a focused Death Ray into the ether toward an unwitting recipient! Backed and then deserted by the robber barons of the last century, Tesla's musings, inventions, and rantings predicted and gave form to our modern technological era. Follow the footsteps of this eccentric and colorful resident who left a "charged" impression on our fair city. Cost: $30 / $20 Members.

In honor of Bastille Day, join urban planner/ cultural historian Laurence Frommer on this first part of a two tour exploration of New York's once legendary French Quarters of old. After the fall of the Paris Commune (called by many "the Fourth French Revolution") in the early 1870s, the area stretching south from Washington Square to Grand Street between West Broadway and Broadway became home to 20,000 French refugees, transforming the area into a noted French Quarter for three decades. Cost: $30 / $20 Members.

Join tour guide Joe Svehlak, who has been coming to Coney Island since the 1940s and still swims here, to see how America's first great seaside resort and amusement area is coming back after hurricane Sandy swept over its shores. Once known as "Sodom by the Sea" for its risqué "honky-tonk" flavor, change has always been part of Coney Island's colorful history. View the new Thunderbolt Rollercoaster, along with the older landmarked rides, the new amusement park, the popular ballpark with the memorial to Jackie Robinson and Brooklyn's 9/11 memorial. Stroll the boardwalk and enjoy the panorama of the ocean, as we discuss Coney Island's future and reminisce about its past. Wear your bathing suit if you want to go for a swim after the tour. The walk will end at the world famous Nathan's. Cost: $30 / $20 Members.

Mayor LaGuardia renamed Sixth Avenue in 1945 to help in his friend President Roosevelt's outreach efforts among the Latin American nations. This was shortly after the dismantling (1939) of the Sixth Avenue El. When the war ended, the avenue was poised for massive redevelopment, which took the form of, among other things, an extension to the west side of the avenue of Rockefeller Center. Among the row of gigantic office buildings counted several of the largest office buildings ever built. And the architects fitfully sustained the Latin theme: in the enameled plaques hanging from streetlamps, in Wallace K. Harrison's Ipanema-inspired pavings, in the long lost La Fonda del Sol restaurant, and, especially, in the grand climax of Bolivar Plaza, with its three dramatic equestrian statues. With guide Francis Morrone, we'll explore the buildings, plazas, and artworks of the avenue. And remember: For today, it is "Avenue of the Americas," not "Sixth Avenue." Cost: $30 / $20 Members.

Picturesque streets and little-known alleys make Tribeca one of Manhattan's most architecturally memorable neighborhoods. Explore the various adjoining historic districts, viewing handsome examples of 19th century mercantile design, including notable cast-iron warehouses and masonry loft buildings that once served the import/export and food processing trades. The tour with architecture historian Matt Postal addresses urban renewal and how landmark designation has shaped the current streetscape, including contextual and non-contextual designs by, among others, William Breger and Herzog and DeMeuron. Cost: $30 / $20 Members.

In honor of Bastille Day, join urban planner/ cultural historian Laurence Frommer on this second part of a two tour exploration of New York's once legendary French Quarters of old. By the end of the 19th century, the French colony to the south of Washington Square had largely relocated to Chelsea above West 23rd Street. With a much more established presence this community now had several professional groups representing French chefs, waiters, and musicians as well as charities and other institutions. Numerous popular French restaurants flourished in the area including the legendary Mouquin at 28th Street and 6th Avenue. Vestiges of this community remain "hidden in plain sight." The Church of St. Vincent de Paul on West 23rd Street (Edith Piaf was married here) offered daily masses in French until its recent closing and the area's French Evangelical Protestant Church is still in operation. The building that housed the French Hospital on West 30th Street survives today as the French Apartments, and the still operating Jeanne D'Arc Home for young women on 24th Street are reminders of the vibrant French community that once held sway in the area. Cost: $30 / $20 Members.

Greenwich Village, long considered America's "Bohemia," has been home or a favorite hangout for an eclectic collection of writers - poets, playwrights, novelists and essayists. Join longtime New York City tour guide and bibliophile Lee Gelber on a tour of sites associated with the likes of Edna St. Vincent Millay, Theodore Dreiser, Dylan Thomas, Marianne Moore, Pete Hamill and many others - a variety of locations from pubs to unique houses and cul-de-sacs. Cost: $30 / $20 Members.

Join Judith Berdy, President of the Roosevelt Island Historical Society, on a walk through the northern part of the island. Visit the interior of the Chapel of the Good Shepherd, and hear the story of the landmark building that has served the religious congregations since 1889. Stroll up Main Street and learn of the original 1970s Roosevelt Island development, the new plans for Main Street, and the communities that came later. Explore the wonderful interior lobby of the Octagon. Bring a picnic dinner for enjoyment in Lighthouse Park. (Accessible by public transit? Cost: $30 / $20 Members.

Celebrate the great American painter's 135th birthday with a stroll through once-Bohemian Greenwich Village with architectural historian Matt Postal. Explore sites associated with Edward Hopper and his wife Jo, as well as his most celebrated contemporaries. Stops include the Washington Square row house where he lived and worked for more than five decades, the site of the legendary 10th Street Studio Building, and the first location of the Whitney Museum of American Art. Cost: $30 / $20 Members.

Join veteran tour guide Phil Desiere to trace the city's development through its major squares, Washington, Union, Madison, Herald and Times Squares, and finish at Columbus Circle. We do ride the subway between Madison and Herald Squares, and between Times Square and Columbus Circle so please bring your own MetroCard. Phil will show you some of the subway art along the way too. Cost: $30 / $20 Members.

Once the preserve of racetracks and "sporting gentlemen" in the historic town of Gravesend, Sheepshead Bay boomed in the 1920s, and today packs many worlds into a small compass, ranging from the seeming New England fishing village along the bay, to streets of countless 20th-century houses and apartment buildings, to the city's first Holocaust memorial. Join author and guide Francis Morrone for a walk through one of Brooklyn's most surprising neighborhoods, with a detour into Manhattan Beach. 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.

Join Zulmilena Then and Farrah Lafontant of Preserving East New York (PENY), a group recently formed to protect the architectural treasures of the Brooklyn neighborhood, on an exploration of the historic and cultural gems that make this community a vibrant and special place. East New York, together with nearby Cypress Hills, are the first communities to go under the City's major rezoning plan, which may threaten both of the neighborhood's historic buildings that PENY, with the endorsement of the Historic Districts Council, believes are worth saving. Cost: $30 / $20 Members.

Join Matt Postal for a tour of Manhattan's newest neighborhood. Anchored by a recently-opened subway station and park, two high-profile mixed-use developments, both being constructed above active railroad tracks, are rapidly rising. From the sidewalk and on the rustic north leg of the High Line, we'll observe the area's ongoing transformation, with new and anticipated structures from Diller Scofidio and Renfro, Kohn Pederson and Fox, and Thomas Heatherwick. The tour concludes in West Chelsea, where a remarkable apartment building by the late Zaha Hadid is nearing completion. Cost: $30 / $20 Members.

This tour led by Patrick Waldo will focus on the museum quality artwork hiding in plain view on the streets of Lower Manhattan. From Manhattan's largest sculpture, Civic Fame, on top of the Municipal Building, which tells one of New York's most tragic stories, to a sculpture partially submerged in the East River that is seen differently at high or low tide, Downtown is filled with award winning public art that is too often overlooked or ignored. Free from the confines of museum walls, world famous artists have created larger than life work that plays with its surroundings in dramatic, inspiring, and whimsical ways. This tour will examine work from artists featured in major collections such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art and MoMA, including Daniel Chester French, Isamu Noguchi, Jean DuBuffet, Louise Nevelson, and many more. Participants will never walk the streets of Lower Manhattan or see public art the same way again! Cost: $30 / $20 Members.

Join Anthony W. Robins for this meandering walk across tracts of the Upper West Side, from the West 80s to 103rd Street, Broadway to Riverside Drive. We see work by such stalwart Manhattan Deco icons as Sugarman and Berger, Boak and Paris, and Harvey Wiley Corbett, as well as architects less well known for their Deco productions, including Emery Roth and Rosario Candela. Highlights include Roth's Normandy Apartments and Corbett's Master Apartments; the Broadway Fashion Building - four-stories of commercial space in a Moderne glass box; Joan of Arc Junior High School; Boak and Paris's Midtown (now Metro) Theater; and one of Manhattan's last surviving Horn and Hardart automat buildings, with splendid Art Deco terra-cotta. If you've taken our tour of Art Deco on Central Park West, and wondered what else might be out there closer to the Hudson, this is your chance to find out. Cost: $30 / $20 Members.

Spring Street begins on the east at the Bowery and runs about 18 (depends on how you count) blocks to the Hudson River. It passes through Little Italy and SoHo. Beyond the frenetic streets of SoHo, Spring takes on a quieter, lazier air, as it makes its way toward the Ear Inn and the Spring Street Salt Shed. Near this western end of Spring once stood the terminus of the High Line before the viaduct below Gansevoort Street was demolished. We will heroically attempt to negotiate the SoHo passage, and your guide Francis Morrone asks for your patience as he seeks the right "niches" for standing in this very crowded area. Most of the tour won't be like that, but it may be a tad longer than the usual two hours, so prepare your plans accordingly. Cost: $30 / $20 Members.

When tour guide and preservation activist Joe Svehlak was growing up in Sunset Park, Norwegian Independence Day would be celebrated with a grand parade on 8th Avenue, which is now the commercial heart of New York City's 3rd Chinatown. Now there is a mosque on 8th Avenue reflecting the great diversity of Joe's old neighborhood. Join Joe for a walk up and down the hill of tree-lined row house streets in New York City's largest National Register Historic District of over 3,000 buildings. The Sunset Park Landmarks Committee is now seeking New York City landmark designation for many of its intact streets of fine middle class and working class housing constructed mostly at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. We'll discuss the campaign for landmarks and sensible development in this ever changing neighborhood. Enjoy great harbor and city views from the recently renovated 24.5 acre hilltop park. Learn about New York City's first major development of non-profit co-op housing started by the Finns in the early 1900s. View some grand civic buildings and magnificent churches, including Our Lady of Perpetual Help, which is the largest religious edifice on Long Island. We'll end on 8th Avenue where there are many choices for lunch in Brooklyn's Chinatown. Cost: $30 / $20 Members.

"Street art" is perhaps the most influential movement to hit the art world in recent decades. And though it is hailed as one of the first truly accessible art forms, the illegal nature and mystery surrounding it makes it a hard world to crack. Join MAS tour guide and former street artist Patrick Waldo as we decode the tags and murals found all over New York City's streets. A close examination of not only what to look for, but how to look for it, will showcase the exciting work on display in public view. We will break down the terminology, methods, and materials used so that participants can walk the streets of NYC with a newfound appreciation and understanding of the art form. Expect to see work from some of today's leading figures in the street art world. Cost: $30 / $20 Members.

The Bronx, New York's most northerly borough offers a diverse variety of sights and sounds with connections to the likes of Edgar Allan Poe, Winston Churchill, Stanley Kubrick, and educational institutions punctuated with the rumble of an elevated train. Stroll on a boulevard inspired by the Champs Elysee as Bronx native Lee Gelber will show you those links and more. Cost: $30 / $20 Members.

Join urbanist/cultural historian Laurence Frommer for a tour focused on the history and development of Off and Off-Off Broadway theaters in the East Village. The emergence of Off-Broadway - a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499 - started as a reaction in the post-war years to the perceived commercialism of Broadway. This fertile breeding ground, away from the pressures of commercial production and critical brickbats, helped give a leg up to hundreds of future Broadway shows, actors, and other theater professionals. However Off Broadway was soon criticized for the same reason that Broadway was, and within a decade the theater world gave rise to Off-Off Broadway, which denotes venues with fewer than 100 seats, and for many years was associated with avant-guard and experimental works. Stops on the tour may include Theatre 80, The Public Theater, Theater for The New City, LaMaMa, the former Bouwerie Lane Theater, and vestiges of the once vibrant Yiddish Theater. Cost: $30 / $20 Members.

Brooklyn Heights is of one of New York City's most appealing and architecturally rich neighborhoods. Join historian Matt Postal for a walk past varied brick and brownstone row houses, Victorian-era mansions and Gothic Revival churches. In addition to discussing notable residents, we'll look at efforts to maintain the district's singular character, focusing on recent buildings and the critical role played by the 1965 landmarks law. Cost: $30 / $20 Members.

See the sights of lower Manhattan with Phil Desiere. We will learn about The Battery, the Custom House, Charging Bull (and Fearless Girl), Trinity Churchyard and Hamilton's grave, Wall Street, St. Paul's Chapel (we'll visit the interior) and City Hall Park. Cost: $30 / $20 Members.

The Hamilton Heights/Sugar Hill plateau overlooking upper Harlem developed around the storied 18th and 19th century country estates of such notable figures as Alexander Hamilton and Madame Eliza Jumel. These two historic houses still bookend the district. Starting from the Hamilton Grange, and ending at the Morris-Jumel Mansion, discover many of the stories that overflow the route in between with tour leader Eric K. Washington. Some highlights will include sites associated with Black Harlem's fashionable cafe society, the herculean Old Croton Aqueduct system, the James Bailey mansion, community gardens, the City College of New York, the Dance Theatre of Harlem, vestiges of old Carmansville, the former 32nd Precinct Mounted Police Station house, Trinity Church Cemetery and much more. Note: the tour ends at Marjorie Eliot's famous annual "Jazz at the Mansion" on the lawn of the historic Morris-Jumel Mansion. Cost: $30 / $20 Members.

High up on a hill, its streets lined with modest but attractive six-story Art Deco apartment houses, Washington Heights has more in common with West Bronx neighborhoods just across the Harlem River than with the rest of Manhattan. Many of the same architects who worked on the Grand Concourse also designed apartment buildings on or near Fort Washington Avenue - we will see work by Horace Ginsbern, Jacob Felson, Israel Crausman, Miller and Goldhammer, Charles Kreymborg, and H. Herbert Lillien. Two taller apartment buildings, by Boak and Paris, offer a more idiosyncratic take on the modernism of the 1930s. This walk with Anthony W. Robins will also include a one-story taxpayer, and one of the city's few frankly Deco subway entrances. But the star attraction is the Fourth Church of Christ, Scientist (now the Hebrew Tabernacle of Washington Heights), one of perhaps a dozen or so Art Deco houses of worship anywhere in the city. Cost: $30 / $20 Members.

Fulton is a hard street to know. On weekdays it is very crowded. The close-packed buildings are a real jumble. Join Francis Morrone for this downtown tour. We will explore the neighborhood around this important and historic downtown street. Along the way we will consider maritime New York, see some of downtown's most interesting buildings, explore some unexpected literary associations, and conclude at the new Liberty Park. Cost: $30 / $20 Members.

After the Civil War, the stewards of our young nation sought to develop artists with talent to rival that of Old Europe. Their goal was to elevate the level of refinement of the average American, and prove that we could be preoccupied with more than the almighty Buck! On this pleasant trek along Museum Mile, tour guide Deborah Zelcer will show how the keepers of our first cultural collections defined art and decided what would or would not hang within their walls. Tour includes viewing and discussion of the exterior of the National Academy of Design, the Whitney Museum uptown, the landmarked Metropolitan and Guggenheim Museums, and details about their newer incarnations. And, learn about how our government secretly manipulated the art world for political gain worldwide...(shhhh)! Cost: $30 / $20 Members.

Join 6sqft Senior Editor Dana Schulz for a look at two very different but equally unique suburban-like enclaves in Manhattan. The tour will begin in Stuyvesant Town, exploring its Robert Moses-era incarnation as affordable housing for WWII veterans and its current function as hip East Village apartments with an affordable housing commitment. We'll also visit Stuyvesant Square, a charming neighborhood that was one of the early 20th century's most fashionable addresses, with Greek Revival townhouses surrounding the beautifully landscaped public spaces. Cost: $30 / $20 Members.