Walking Tours

What do the Beatles, Michelangelo, Philip Johnson, Ken Kinsey, George Nelson, John F. Kennedy, Eero Saarinen, Andy Warhol, Walace Harrison, Jose de Rivera, Walt Disney, Goya, Robert Moses, Charles and Ray Eames, Lyndon Johnson, the “Space Race”, Touchtone, Picturephone, the Dead Sea Scrolls and Belgian Waffles all have in common? The 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair!

Pop art, high and popular culture, the “consumer society” and modern architecture all cross-pollinated at the Fair. By 1964/65, hierarchies, philosophies, and symbolism were being called into question both in the world of architecture and in the world at large, emblematic of this turbulent period in world history. The fair, like its predecessors, offered architects the opportunity to explore new concepts and technologies in designing structures that created memorable, visceral experiences.

Celebrate the 60th anniversary of the opening of the Fair (April 22, 1964), as we visit and analyze its extant, evocative, elegiac architecture.

Join us at 11:30am in the café at the Queens Museum, Flushing Meadows – Corona Park. There is considerable walking on flat ground.

AIANY Guide: John Kriskiewicz, Assoc. AIANY

The Museum is about a 20-minute walk through the park from the Mets/Willets Point #7 Subway and Long Island Railroad Stations. Free parking is available at the Queens Museum.

Tours will run rain or shine. Please arrive 15 minutes prior to tour start time. Registration is limited to 15; walk-ups are not guaranteed a spot on the tour.

Please Note: AIANY cannot be held liable and assumes no responsibility for any injury or loss incurred by participants in these programs.

Meet at the Madison Avenue BID offices: 29 East 61 Street, Third Floor, New York, NY 10065

Join AIANY and the Madison Avenue BID as we set out in person 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, and 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 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. 

Pride is celebrated to commemorate the 1969 Stonewall uprising, a key turning point in the LGBTQ rights movement. In its immediate aftermath, new activist groups emerged fighting for liberation and visibility. However, New York City has a long and vibrant LGBTQ history that spans several centuries.

Join Ken Lustbader from the NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project on a walking tour of pre- and post-Stonewall historic sites associated with early LGBTQ activism and community, all of which influenced American culture and politics.

Starting at Christopher Park, across from Stonewall, learn about the long-standing oppressive practices which led to the 1969 uprising and, before that, the 1966 “Sip-In” at Julius’ Bar. Stops along the tour will also highlight locations that have been especially impactful on the lives of LGBTQ people, including the starting point of the first-ever NYC Pride March (in 1970), popular gay and lesbian bars such as the Duchess and the Snake Pit, and places connected to the Mattachine Society, the Gay Activists Alliance, Radicalesbians, and the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR).

Speakers:
Ken Lustbader, Co-founder and Co-director, NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project

About the Speakers:
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 LGBT 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.

Meet at the Madison Avenue BID offices: 29 East 61 Street, Third Floor, New York, NY 10065

Join AIANY and the Madison Avenue BID as we set out in person 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, and 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

—

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. 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.