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: Mid-Century Modernism Along Manhattan’s 53rd Street
In-Person- General Public: $30
Meet at Greenacre Park, on the north side of E 51st St between Second and Third Avenues
Manhattan’s 53rd Street corridor, especially from Third Avenue to Sixth Avenue, is a benchmark for the development of NYC’s 1961 Zoning Resolution, a re-writing of the 1916 Zoning Regulation, the nation’s first comprehensive city zoning regulation. In addition to several of NYC’s iconic post-WWII buildings, such as the Lever House and CBS Building, is the creation of “heroic” open public space—the wide-open Seagram Building plaza to the intimate enclosure of the Paley “Vest Pocket” Park. While 53rd Street is primarily a commercial corridor, one finds high-rise and low-rise residential, a house of worship, an iconic hotel, and a globally recognized cultural institution. The underlying theme of the walk will be the post-WWII development of modern urbanism in NYC as demonstrated in the transition from the 1916 Zoning Resolution to respond to a post-WWII economic boom, the development of modern, high-rise office buildings with open office plans, and the increased use of the automobile. The 1961 Zoning Resolution coordinated use and bulk regulations, incorporated parking requirements, and emphasized the creation of open space.
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 19 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: Modern and Contemporary Architecture on Roosevelt Island
In-Person- General Public: $30
Meet in front of the entrance to the Church of the Good Shepherd 15 minutes prior to tour start time.
This tour will begin with Nelson Rockefeller’s ambitious efforts to redevelop the island, previously occupied by institutions, such as the New York City Lunatic Asylum serving the city’s sick and destitute, into a mixed-income largely car-free “New Town in Town” following a master plan prepared in 1969 by Philip Johnson and John Burgee. While that plan was only partially completed due to the fiscal crisis of 1975, many buildings were designed by leading Modern architects of the day: John Johansen, Josep Lluís Sert, and Kallman & McKinnell.
Four decades later, Cornell Tech, a new graduate campus of Cornell University, opened in 2017 with bold design and exceptional energy efficiency. When completed, The House, designed by Handel Architects, was the tallest and largest building ever built to the demanding Passive House Standard. Other highlights include the restored Blackwell farmhouse and Good Shepherd Chapel, James Renwick’s Smallpox Hospital ruins, and the Eastwood Apartment Complex. Finally, at the island’s southern tip, the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Four Freedoms Memorial, designed by Lou Kahn in 1973 and finally realized in 2012.
AIANY Guide: John Arbuckle, Assoc. 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. Tour is limited to 17 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: 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.
Energies of Repair Tour: Renewable Rikers and Hunts Point
Join us for the third waterfront walking tour with the project team behind Energies of Repair: Visualizing Community Power in NYC, a CFA Lab residency. Organized in collaboration with the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance and The POINT CDC, the tour highlights a community-led vision to transform Rikers Island into a site of reparative justice.
Rikers Island isn't just the site of the city's jails—it is also at the middle of a ring of numerous polluting facilities, from peaker plants, to waste transfer stations, to multiple expressways along the Bronx and Queens waterfronts. Renewable Rikers is a campaign-driven vision to repurpose the island into a hub for new renewable powered infrastructure that can improve water and air quality for the many communities that surround the island and save billions as decades old infrastructure meets its operational lifespan.
During the tour, participants will learn about the vision and latest updates from the Renewable Rikers campaign, as well as the perspective of Hunts Point, a frontline community situated across from the island. Hunts Point is a community seeking to preserve its industrial roots while embracing a green transition away from fossil fuels that can serve as a model for environmental justice communities nationwide.
The tour begins at The POINT CDC and concludes at Barretto Point Park along the East River.
Meeting Location: The POINT CDC, 940 Garrison Ave, Bronx, NY 10474
Disclaimer & Notes
This event will be filmed for a May 2026 exhibition at the Center for Architecture. Participants will be asked to sign a photo/video release form. If you prefer not to be documented, that’s completely fine—we’ll support any level of comfort.
Walking Tour: The Architecture of Madison Square Park
In-Person- General Public: $30
Meet at west entrance to the park at 24th Street and Broadway in front of the WWI memorial and flagpole. Please arrive 15 minutes before the start of the tour.
As the city moved rapidly northward in the 18th century, a series of small parks were established, anchoring neighborhoods such as Washington Square, Union Square, Madison Square, and Bryant Park.
In 1847, Madison Square Park (named for the fourth U.S. President, James Madison) was established as a residential neighborhood but quickly became a center for larger commercial and entertainment buildings. Today, it boasts a lively mix of insurance, finance, design, and residential uses. The park lays claim to home of the original Madison Square Garden, the founding of baseball, and the very first Shake Shack.
Early skyscrapers like the Flatiron Building, Metropolitan Life, and the NY Life Building will be discussed, as well as the architectural legacies of Stanford White, Daniel Burnham, Napoleon LeBrun, and Cass Gilbert.
Guide: Joseph Lengeling, AIA
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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 15 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: Upper East Side Architecture Through Affluence and Ailments
In-Person- General Public: $30
Meet at the SW corner of 78th Street at Madison Avenue
Two critical events irreparably changed Manhattan’s Upper East Side into the residential district it is today—the creation of Central Park (1857) and Park Avenue north of Grand Central Terminal (1888). While Central Park defined the Upper East Side; Park Avenue refined it. Wealth followed the open and recreational spaces of Central Park while Park Avenue effectively separated the served from the servants—and those in between. In addition to the professional class that settled on Park Avenue, or closely to its eastside, artisanal and working-class immigrant ethnic communities developed between Lexington Avenue and the East River. Hospitals and medical facilities evolved along the East River because of its salutary open space (and distance from the wealthy)—no “Magic Mountain” here for those with Tuberculosis. From railroads to housing laws, the development of the urban fabric in the UES as a significant residential district in Manhattan captures major shifts in the social, economic, political, and physical evolution of NYC.
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: Madison Avenue, High Fashion, and Historic Preservation
In-Person- General Public: $30
Meet at the Madison Avenue BID offices: 29 East 61 Street, Third Floor, New York, NY 10065. Please arrive 15 minutes prior to tour start time.
Join AIANY and the Madison Avenue BID as we set out to discover the history behind Madison Avenue’s landmark buildings and explore how high-fashion retail has been incorporated into the district to create a world-famous shopping destination. The area has evolved from brownstones built in the 1870s and 1880s to lavish Beaux Arts townhouses by celebrated architects such as McKim, Mead & White, Carrère & Hastings, and Ernest Flagg, to luxury apartment buildings designed by Rosario Candela, Emery Roth, and others. Since the early 20th century, many of these historic residential buildings have been transformed to accommodate prestigious stores. The tour will examine architecture from 1870 to the present on and near Madison in the East 60s and 70s, an area entirely within the Upper East Side Historic District. We will consider how landmark designation has preserved the avenue’s distinctive character.
This monthly tour is offered in partnership with the Madison Avenue Business Improvement District (BID), a public-private partnership established in 1996 with the goal of enhancing the quality of life for the community and its visitors. The BID focuses on public safety, sanitation, promotion and advocacy for the district, striving to make Madison Avenue a more attractive and dynamic place in which to shop, live, work and visit.
AIANY Guide: John Arbuckle, Assoc. 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. Tour is limited to 17 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: The Architecture of Bryant Park
In-Person- General Public: $30
Meet at NE Corner of Fifth Avenue and East 40th Street under the canopy. Please arrive 15 minutes before the start of the tour.
Before Bryant Park became New York’s “Living Room” and home to the New York Public Library, this open space served as a potter’s field, a reservoir for the Croton Water System, and the site of the Crystal Palace Exhibition. During the Great Depression, Robert Moses implemented a sweeping new landscape plan. Following a decline in the social and physical conditions in the 1970’s the park underwent a major transformation completed in 1990 designed by Hanna/Olin. Today, Bryant Park, one of the premier outdoor spaces of Manhattan, serves as a model for public and private revitalization. This walking tour will explore the architecture lining the perimeter of the park which offers a timeline of the development of Midtown. Key projects include the New York Public Library by Carrère and Hastings, the Radiator Building by Howells and Hood, One Bryant Park by Cook + Fox, the Grace Building by SOM, and Bryant Condominiums and Hotel by David Chipperfield. Urban and architectural issues will be discussed, including NYC zoning law, business improvements districts, and the evolution of skyscraper design.
AIANY Guide: Joseph Lengeling, AIA
Health and Safety Guidelines:
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. 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: 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: 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.
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.