AIA New York organizes several different walking tours throughout Manhattan and the boroughs, with a special focus on modern and contemporary architecture. Expert guides, all members of AIA New York, walk intimate groups of visitors through some of New York City’s most distinctive neighborhoods, exploring the city’s rich history and stunning new buildings, as well as creative examples of adaptive reuse, urban planning, and development.
Questions? Email [email protected].
Upcoming Walking Tours
Walking Tour: The Architecture of East 42nd Street
In-Person- AIANY Member: $25
Meet at 42nd Street Entrance to the Ford Foundation. Please arrive 15 minutes prior to tour start time.
There was a time when this seven block long stretch of East 42nd Street from the East River to Grand Central Terminal was seen as the undesirable back door of Midtown Manhattan. Slaughterhouses lined the banks of the East River, and an assortment of manufacturing and industrial uses continued west along this major artery. With the establishment of three large scale projects in the 1930’s—Tudor City, the Daily News, and the Chrysler Building—stepping stones were created for further development. By 1954 two clearly established anchors were in place: the United Nations on the East River and Grand Central at Park Avenue. The Ford Foundation then followed in 1967. With recent new development, including the towering One Vanderbilt office tower and the cavernous construction of Grand Central Madison, the history of this famous street continues to unfold.
AIANY Guide: Joseph Lengeling, AIA
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Health and Safety Guidelines:
AIANY cannot be held liable and assumes no responsibility for any injury or loss incurred by participants in these programs. A personal audio system will be in use for this tour. The tour is limited to 17 attendees. To insure each guest will receive a device, please arrive promptly 15 minutes prior to the start time. Walkups cannot be guaranteed a spot on the tour.
Cancellation Policy:
AIANY Walking Tours take place rain or shine. Please dress for the weather. There are no refunds, cancellations, or exchanges, unless we cancel a tour.
Walking Tour: Contemporary Architecture and Historic Landmarks in NoHo
AIANY Member: $25
Meet at the South Facade of the Cooper Union Foundation Building at 7 East 7th Street, between Cooper Square and The Bowery. Please arrive 15 minutes before the start of the tour.
The rich and diverse architectural context of NoHo’s Historic Districts continues to inspire innovative contemporary design. The highly crafted execution of many of the recent buildings in the neighborhood shows reverence for earlier masterworks. Tour highlights include Morphosis’ Cooper Union Engineering Building, Herzog & de Meuron’s 40 Bond Street, DDG Partners’ 41 Bond Street, and Selldorf Architects' 10 Bond Street. Also encountered is a fine group of 19th-century landmarks, including the Cooper Union Foundation Building, Astor Library (now the Public Theater), and the De Vinne Press, all of which grappled to find the appropriate architectural language for taller buildings so clearly illustrated by Louis Sullivan’s Bayard-Condict Building’s dominant vertical expression. Along the route, a discussion of technological and stylistic breakthroughs, including the transition from masonry load bearing to steel frame construction and the appearance of more varied cladding materials, will stitch the tour’s sites together.
AIANY Guide: Alex McLean, AIA
AIANY cannot be held liable and assumes no responsibility for any injury or loss incurred by participants in these programs. Tour is limited to 15 attendees. Walkups cannot be guaranteed a spot on the tour.
Cancellation Policy:
AIANY Walking Tours take place rain or shine, please dress for the weather. There are no refunds, cancellations, or exchanges, unless we cancel a tour.
Walking Tour: AIA Presidents Shaping the Lower Manhattan Skyline
In-Person- General Public: $30
Meet across the street from Trinity Church at 89 Broadway. Please arrive 15 minutes before the start of the tour.
Starting in the southern end of lower Manhattan and heading north to Foley Square (Thomas Paine Park), this tour focuses on the significant impact that buildings designed by former American Institute of Architects (AIA) Presidents have had on Lower Manhattan. For example, Richard Upjohn served for nearly 20 years as the first AIA president, followed by Richard Morris Hunt, Daniel Burnham, Cass Gilbert, George Post, and Charles McKim, among other notable architects. On this tour, we will also see and discuss significant buildings by other early AIA Architects, such as Ralph Walker’s 1 Wall Street and the Barclay-Vesey Building, Ernest Graham’s Equitable Building, Richard Morris Hunt’s NY Tribune Building, and George Post’s NY World Building. As an offshoot we will see the progress in the development of the skyscraper in New York City and discuss the “style” of the skyscraper as it matured.
The AIA was founded in Lower Manhattan by 29 architects in 1857 to “promote the scientific and practical perfection of its members” and “elevate the standing of the profession.” Until this time, anyone who wished to call themselves an architect, including masons, carpenters, bricklayers, and other members of the building trade, could do so. The development of architecture as a profession in the United States in the second half of the 19th Century in many ways mirrors the development of building sciences, technologies, and practices in Lower Manhattan. Concurrent with the burgeoning architectural profession, structural, mechanical, plumbing and electrical engineering disciplines developed in concert with America’s post-Civil War industrial revolution. The concept of the General Contractor for building very large and tall structures, who was responsible for all construction contracts, coordination, and implementation, was essentially created in Lower Manhattan.
AIANY Guide: William M. Singer, AIA, LEED AP BD + D
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AIANY cannot be held liable and assumes no responsibility for any injury or loss incurred by participants in these programs. Tour is limited to 17 attendees. A personal audio system will be in use for this tour. To insure each guest will receive a device, please arrive promptly 15 minutes prior to the start time. Walkups cannot be guaranteed a spot on the tour.
Cancellation Policy:
AIANY Walking Tours take place rain or shine, please dress for the weather. There are no refunds, cancellations, or exchanges, unless we cancel a tour.
Walking Tour: LGBTQ History in Chelsea
In-Person - Student with Valid ID: $25
In-Person - General Public: $35
AIA Member (not AIANY): $35
Join Amanda Davis and Ken Lustbader, the experts from the award-winning NYC LGBTQ Historic Sites Project, for its exclusive, first-ever LGBTQ walking tour of Chelsea.
For LGBTQ people in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Chelsea emerged as an affordable yet still-centrally located alternative to neighboring Greenwich Village. In fact, over the next two decades, Chelsea gradually overtook the Village as the city’s gay hub. Influential artists, from composer Virgil Thomson to poet Assotto Saint and photographer Tseng Kwong Chi, called Chelsea home. By the 1990s, gay-owned venues like the Big Cup and Barracuda were located on and around Eighth Avenue. The neighborhood also played a key role in LGBTQ rights and AIDS activism, as seen at sites connected to Lesbian Feminist Liberation, Gay Men’s Health Crisis, pioneering openly transgender psychiatrist Dr. Jeanne Hoff, bouncer and activist Stormé DeLarverie, and activist and film historian Vito Russo.
The tour will also feature the Project’s new research about the iconic Hotel Chelsea, bringing to light its rich LGBTQ history and expanding how it is interpreted today.
This 90-minute walking tour will begin in front of the Hotel Chelsea, 222 West 23rd Street, and end near The Lost & Found (372 8th Ave, New York, NY 10001), for networking and drinks. Rain or shine.
Speakers:
Amanda Davis, Project Manager, NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project
Ken Lustbader, Co-founder and Co-director, NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project
About the Speakers:
Amanda Davis is an architectural historian who has managed the NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project’s initiatives since its founding in 2015. In this role, she has written National Register of Historic Places nominations and a diverse range of historical narratives for the project’s website. Davis has also developed and led public programs and walking tours and spoken to various stakeholders at the city, state, and national levels on the importance of documenting the LGBTQ community’s cultural heritage. She previously worked for Village Preservation, the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission, and the Central Park Conservancy.
Ken Lustbader is a co-founder and co-director of the NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project. For over 30 years, he has been a national leader in issues related to LGBTQ history, documentation, and historic preservation. His prior work experience includes serving as the Historic Preservation Program Officer at the J.M. Kaplan Fund, consultant for the Lower Manhattan Emergency Preservation Fund, and Director of the New York Landmarks Conservancy’s Sacred Sites Program. Lustbader holds a B.A. in Economics from Vassar College and M.S. in Historic Preservation from Columbia University.
Policies
AIANY Walking tours take place rain or shine, please dress for the weather. There are no refunds, cancellations, or exchanges, unless we cancel a tour.
Accessibility
Please note that AIANY walking tours are not ADA accessible. However, since accessibility requirements can vary from person to person, please email [email protected] prior to purchasing your tickets for more information.