Anthony W. Robins

SOLD OUT Tour: The Woolworth Building and its Lobby
2014-01-05 14:00 - 15:00, 2013-12-29 14:00 - 15:30, 2013-12-29 12:00 - 13:30, 2013-12-22 14:00 - 15:30, 2013-12-18 14:00 - 15:30, 2013-12-15 12:00 - 13:30, 2013-11-24 14:00 - 15:30, 2013-11-20 14:00 - 15:30 (America/New_York) | Woolworth Building, 233 Broadway, New York
Reservations required – click here.
Tour of the Woolworth Building lobby, closed to the public for more than a decade and now open again. The tour includes a detailed look at the building’s unmatched polychromatic terra-cotta exterior, and an in-depth exploration of the lobby and its wealth of ornament, including hidden corners and staircases — plus a special visit to the mezzanine level for an up-close view of its extraordinary mosaic ceiling. For more, see the blog post.

Tour: Rockefeller Center
2014-01-05 10:00 - 12:00, 2013-12-25 10:00 - 12:00
Reservations required ($15 MAS members). To register, call 212-935-3960, or click here to register on-line.
Rockefeller Center — New York’s urbane urban wonderland — is full of surprising history, remarkable art and stunning architecture. Conceived as a new home for the Metropolitan Opera, but built instead as Radio City, Rockefeller Center is a private real estate venture that has evolved into the public square of Midtown Manhattan.

Tour: The Woolworth Building and its Lobby
2013-12-22 12:00 - 13:30, 2013-11-24 16:00 - 17:30 | Woolworth Building, 233 Broadway, New York

SOLD OUT Tour: The Woolworth Building and its Lobby
2013-12-15 14:00 - 15:30 | Woolworth Building, 233 Broadway, New York
Reservations required click here.
Tour of the Woolworth Building lobby, closed to the public for more than a decade and now open again. The tour includes a detailed look at the building’s unmatched polychromatic terra-cotta exterior, and an in-depth exploration of the lobby and its wealth of ornament, including hidden corners and staircases — plus a special visit to the mezzanine level for an up-close view of its extraordinary mosaic ceiling. For more, see the blog post.

Lecture: Grand Central Terminal - 100 Years of a New York Landmark
2013-12-13 10:30 - 12:00 | Riverdale YM-YWHA, 5625 Arlington Avenue, New York, 10471
On February 1st, 1913, the brand-new Grand Central Terminal opened its doors to an admiring public. On February 1st, 2013, the beautifully restored Terminal – rescued from destruction by a seminal 1978 Supreme Court decision – celebrates its Centennial, accompanied by exhibitions, events, and a new book: Grand Central Terminal: 100 Years of a New York Landmark. The Terminal’s creation combined engineering bravado (sinking two train yards below ground), technological wizardry (electrifying the trains to eliminate steam and enable their underground functioning), and real-estate savvy (replacing the original street-level train yard with 16 blocks of newly prime Midtown Manhattan real-estate, whose development paid for it all) with innovative planning (interior ramps and looping tracks) and Paris-inspired Beaux-Arts design. This illustrated lecture brings the Terminal to life – its remarkable history, stunning architecture, and central role in creating midtown Manhattan.

Lecture: Art Deco New York - From the Chrysler Building to the Grand Concourse
2013-12-12 10:30 - 12:00 | SAGE Woodbury Jewish Center, 200 South Woods Road, Woodbury NY, 11797
Art Deco today can refer to anything from saltcellars to skyscrapers, produced anywhere in the world during the early decades of the last century, using abstract, stylized floral, geometric, or streamlined design. In New York, Art Deco evolved through a series of Manhattan skyscrapers into the city’s chief architectural language. Following a massive reawakening of interest during the 1970s, New York’s Deco buildings today survive as prized remnants of a distant-yet-modern past that still helps to define the city’s visual identity.
This lecture covers the great skyscrapers of architects Raymond Hood, William Van Alen, Ely Jacques Kahn, and Ralph Walker, including the Daily News, Empire State, Irving Trust, General Electric, American Radiator, Barclay-Vesey and RCA Buildings. It then traces the adaptation of this “skyscraper style” through apartment buildings on the Bronx’s Grand Concourse, airport terminals at LaGuardia, the Central Park West residential skyline, automated midtown parking garages, diners, hotels, department stores, banks and theaters like Radio City Music Hall.

SOLD OUT Walking tour: Art Deco in the Fabulous Fifties
2013-11-17 14:00 - 16:30
TOUR sponsored by the Municipal Art Society. Reservations required. $20 ($15 MAS members). To register, click here.
Starting with the spectacular General Electric Building, we continue with the Waldorf, New York’s preeminent and beautifully restored skyscraper hotel; and end with Midtown’s miraculously urbane urban wonderland: Rockefeller Center.

Panel Discussion: Preservation after the Demolition of Penn Station
2013-11-14 18:30 - 20:00 | Greenwich Community School, 272-278 West 10th Street , New York
Co-sponsored by the New York Preservation Archive Project
Free and open to the public, but reservations required.
The original Penn Station, built by the renowned architecture firm of McKim, Mead, and White in 1910, stood for over fifty years as a masterpiece of the Beaux-Arts style and a monument to New York’s aspirations as a world capital. In 1963 the station was demolished, a loss that was bitterly protested. The demolition prompted deep self-reflection on the part of our city, and was soon followed by the passage of New York City’s Landmarks Law.
This program will examine how the preservation effort in New York has evolved since then, with a focus on each mayoral administration. Panelists will include: Prof. Franny Eberhart, a director of the Historic Districts Council and Vice-Chair of the Historic House Trust; Anthony Robins, preservationist and author; Tony Wood, author and founder of the New York Preservation Archive Project, moderated by Andrew Berman, executive director of Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation.

SOLD OUT Walking Tour: Art Deco in the Financial District
2013-11-10 14:00
Reservations required. To register, click here. ($15 for MAS members).
Towering above the narrow streets of 17th-century Nieuw Amsterdam are some of the city’s finest 20th century skyscrapers. Included are the best of Ralph Walker, once voted the “architect of the century” by his peers: the delightfully decorative New York Telephone Company headquarters, the ponderously massive Western Union Building, and the Gothic-modern fantasy of the Irving Trust tower at No. 1 Wall Street. Other marvels include the Art Deco encrusted Cities Service headquarters.
