Building Tours

Join Donald Albrecht and Thomas Mellins, historians and curators of NYSID’s current exhibition, The Persistence of Hand Drawing: Interior Rendering Today, on an exclusive tour of Paul Rudolph’s Modulightor Building, led by Kelvin Dickenson, president and CEO of the Paul Rudolph Institute of Modern Architecture. Afterwards, participants are encouraged to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s exhibition, Materialized Space: The Architecture of Paul Rudolph. The exhibition features Rudolph’s remarkable hand drawings.

Join us for a Louis Armstrong “double-header” in Queens: The Louis Armstrong Center and the Louis Armstrong House Museum. Sara Caples, AIA, and Everardo Jefferson, AIA, of Caples Jefferson Architects will lead us on a tour of the Louis Armstrong Center, the new state-of-the-art building which preserves and expands the legacy and ideals of America’s first Black popular music icon. The visit will continue with a docent-led tour of the Louis Armstrong House Museum.

The Louis Armstrong Center celebrates Armstrong’s distinctive role in African-Diaspora history and vitality, offering year-round exhibitions, performances, readings, lectures, and screenings through an array of public programs for all ages.

As designed by Caples Jefferson, the Louis Armstrong Center is at the scale of the modest neighborhood that Armstrong loved, while creating an urban precinct for his music that welcomes in all visitors. This new building establishes the final piece of the campus that now comprises the museum as whole; it now includes the home itself that reflects the personal values of Louis Armstrong, the garden that serves as a place for gathering and a place for live performances, and the visitor center, designed as an interpretation of Armstrong’s music, where the public can learn even more about the icon that is Louis Armstrong.

Speakers:
Sara Caples, AIA, Co-founder and Principal, Caples Jefferson Architects
Everardo Jefferson, AIA, Co-founder and Principal, Caples Jefferson Architects

About the Speakers:
Sara Caples and Everardo Jefferson are co-founders and principals of Caples Jefferson Architects PC (CJA), an award-winning design and architecture firm based in New York City. At the intersection of design and social equity, Caples’s work seeks to create a “joyously broadened” modern architectural language that provides enriched and enriching experiences for all. Jefferson’s practice centers on the intersection of social equity, education, and culture. Since its founding in 1987, CJA has remained committed to performing at least half its work in communities that have historically been underserved by the design professions. Among CJA’s most notable projects are Queens Theatre-in-the-Park, which expanded a former World’s Fair building in Flushing Meadows, Queens, into a public theater; the Weeksville Heritage Center, a museum, performance, and educational program space built around a rediscovered freedmen’s preservation site in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Caples and Jefferson have also co-authored the monograph Many Voices: Architecture for Social Equity, which was published in 2022.

Over the past century, Grand Central Terminal has captivated people from around the world with its architectural beauty, unique brick and mortar eateries, and endless transit possibilities. It’s also full of secrets—from being the target of a failed Nazi sabotage mission during WWII to containing hidden areas that keep it and its train traffic running each day. It’s time to explore one of the most perfect train terminals in the world like never before.

Join New York Adventure Club as we venture through Grand Central Terminal, along with the new Grand Central Madison LIRR station located 150 feet underground.

Led by NYC Tour Guide Gary Dennis, our unique ground-level and subterranean experience through this urban wonder of the world will include:

• The history of New York Central, the company that built Grand Central Terminal as well as the two preceding incarnations of the terminal built at the same location (third time’s a charm!)
• The incredible story of how Grand Central Terminal escaped the wrecking ball, and what the Landmarks Preservation Commission, Former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and the United States Supreme Court had to do with it
• Mysteries of the terminal revealed including why there’s a hole in the ceiling, how artists messed-up one of its most defining artworks, and how to find its hidden cocktail lounge
• A trip 15 stories down to the 700,000 square foot Grand Central Madison to visit incredible new works of art—opened in 2023, this LIRR station was the final piece of East Side Access, a decades-long infrastructure project that finally brought Long Island Rail Road trains to Grand Central Terminal
• Rare photos from secret areas throughout the terminal, including the Tiffany Clock room, catwalks, and more