This year, 2015, marks the 50th anniversary of New York City’s Landmarks Law. Explore major moments in the growth of the preservation movement in four walks.
Reservations required. 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.
This year, 2015, marks the 50th anniversary of New York City’s Landmarks Law. Explore major moments in the growth of the preservation movement in four walks.
This new tour takes in Deco marvels clustered along 57th and 59th Streets at the northern edge of Midtown. Buildings include the stylish emporia of Bloomingdales and Tiffany; the corporate headquarters of Squibb, Fuller, Hearst and 20th Century Fox; and luxury digs on Central Park South – Barbizon Plaza, Essex House and Hampshire House.
The Empire State Building and the Sears Tower still rank among the world’s tallest and most famous buildings. In the 20th century, it was the American skyscraper that regularly pushed the limit – from the Singer, Met Life and Woolworth buildings to the Chrysler and the Empire State, and eventually the World Trade Center and Sears Tower. Plans for the World Trade Center site have focused worldwide attention on such monuments, raising the question: why so high?
This new tour takes in Deco marvels clustered along 57th and 59th Streets at the northern edge of Midtown. Buildings include the stylish emporia of Bloomingdales and Tiffany; the corporate headquarters of Squibb, Fuller, Hearst and 20th Century Fox; and luxury digs on Central Park South – Barbizon Plaza, Essex House and Hampshire House.
Reservations required. 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.
Lecture covering the great skyscrapers of architects Raymond Hood, William Van Alen, Ely Jacques Kahn, and Ralph Walker, then tracing 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.
Perhaps best-known of New York’s official “Scenic Landmarks,” Central Park offers New Yorkers refuge, recreation and rejuvenation; a temporary haven from a city of brick and steel, concrete and glass. And yet this park which delights us with its lakes and streams, wildflowers and grand open spaces, is almost entirely artificial – a work of art.