Walking Tours

Meet at the Peace Fountain east of the intersection of West 111th Street & Amsterdam Avenue on the grounds of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. 

Best known as the site of Columbia University, Morningside Heights is also home to the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, Barnard College, Teachers College, the Union Theological Seminary, the Jewish Theological Seminary, Riverside Church, St. Luke’s Hospital and the Manhattan School of Music. Bounded by Riverside Park and Morningside Park, the elevated area boasts a great variety of notable institutional architecture spanning from 1842 to the present, including works by many nationally and, more recently, internationally recognized architects. 

The tour will begin with the neighborhood’s oldest extant building, the Leake & Watts Orphan Asylum (designed by Ithiel Town), followed by an examination of Charles Follen McKim’s masterplan for Columbia University, and its evolution. We conclude just beyond Morningside Heights with the first phase of Columbia’s new Manhattanville campus, designed by the Renzo Piano Building Workshop. Along the way, we will view and discuss buildings by Ernest Flagg, Ralph Adams Cram, James Gamble Rogers, Harrison & Abramovitz, Mitchell/Giurgola, James Stewart Polshek, Bernard Tschumi, Weiss/Manfredi, Rafael Moneo and others. 

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. Some tours utilize VOX amplification systems; attendees are welcome to bring their personal earbuds.

Guide: John Arbuckle, Assoc. AIA

AIANY and the AIANY Architecture Tour Committee and its tour guides will not be held liable and assume no responsibility for any injury or loss incurred by participants in these programs. Walking tours endorse the initiatives of FitCity – promoting physical activity through design.

Meet at the south facade of the Cooper Union Foundation Building, between Cooper Square & Bowery/3rd Ave.

Explore a diverse range of recent and historic architecture on Cooper Square, Bond Street, Lafayette Street and the Bowery.  Newer highlights include Herzog & de Meuron’s 40 Bond Street and Public Hotel, Morphosis’ Cooper Union Engineering School, Norman Foster’s Sperone Westwater Gallery and Sanaa’s New Museum, among others.  Also encountered along the route is a remarkably rich group of NYC’s Individual Landmarks including the Cooper Union Foundation Building, the De Vinne Press, the Schermerhorn Building and Louis Sullivan’s Bayard Building.  A discussion of stylistic breakthroughs, technological innovations including diverse cladding materials, and urban design will tie these diverse sites togetherv

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. Some tours utilize VOX amplification systems; attendees are welcome to bring their personal earbuds.

Guide: Arthur Platt AIA & Alex McLean, Assoc. AIA

AIANY and the AIANY Architecture Tour Committee and its tour guides will not be held liable and assume no responsibility for any injury or loss incurred by participants in these programs. Walking tours endorse the initiatives of FitCity – promoting physical activity through design.

Meet at the north side of the fountain in City Hall Park.

Explore the rich history of New York’s Civic Center area, with a focus on urban planning, development, and architecture. From City Hall Park to Foley Square, to Police Plaza and Chatham Green, this tour includes exterior visits and expert interpretation of City Hall, Tweed Courthouse, Surrogate Court, Municipal Building, Court of International Trade, Javits Federal Building, the Department of Health, Criminal Courts, Lefkowitz State Office Building, New York State Supreme Court and Annex, US Federal Courthouse, Manhattan Correctional Center, Police HQ, Murry Bergtraum High School, Chatham Green, Chatham Towers, and more.

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. Some tours utilize VOX amplification systems; attendees are welcome to bring their personal earbuds.

Guide: Gail Cornell

AIANY and the AIANY Architecture Tour Committee and its tour guides will not be held liable and assume no responsibility for any injury or loss incurred by participants in these programs. Walking tours endorse the initiatives of FitCity – promoting physical activity through design.

Meet at Roosevelt Island Tram Station on Roosevelt Island.  

View a sampling of buildings spanning four centuries on the island formerly known first as Blackwell’s Island, later Welfare Island, and—since 1973—Roosevelt Island. Join us and explore a new community planned by Philip Johnson & John Burgee, the recently completed FDR Four Freedoms Park designed by Louis Kahn in 1973, and the new Cornell Tech campus.  Other highlights include the restored Blackwell farmhouse and Good Shepherd Chapel, James Renwick’s Smallpox Hospital ruins, housing by Johansen & Bhavnani, Sert, Jackson & Associates, and Gruzen Samton, and new Cornell Tech buildings by Morphosis and Weiss/Manfredi. 

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. Some tours utilize VOX amplification systems; attendees are welcome to bring their personal earbuds.

Guide: Kyle Johnson AIA

AIANY and the AIANY Architecture Tour Committee and its tour guides will not be held liable and assume no responsibility for any injury or loss incurred by participants in these programs. Walking tours endorse the initiatives of FitCity – promoting physical activity through design.

Meet at southeast corner of Park Avenue & 47th St. (in front of 245 Park Ave.) 

Park Avenue is the epicenter of Corporate Modernism. View three Modern masterpieces by SOM’s Gordon Bunshaft and Natalie de Blois, Mies van der Rohe’s Seagram Building, as well as “vernacular” Modern office buildings by Emery Roth and others. Also included are a distinguished Art Deco tower and lobby, a Morris Lapidus-designed hotel, and late Modern and Postmodern designs by Edward Larrabee Barnes, Philip Johnson, and I. M. Pei.   

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. Some tours utilize VOX amplification systems; attendees are welcome to bring their personal earbuds.

Guide: Kyle Johnson AIA

AIANY and the AIANY Architecture Tour Committee and its tour guides will not be held liable and assume no responsibility for any injury or loss incurred by participants in these programs. Walking tours endorse the initiatives of FitCity – promoting physical activity through design.

Meet at Wall Street & Broadway in front of Trinity Church  

While the Financial District is widely known for its historic architecture, it also boasts a variety of distinctive Modern buildings, many of them linked to urban design initiatives of the 1960s and 1970s. The tour focuses on what has come to be known as “Skid(more) Row” (Chase Manhattan Plaza, 140 Broadway and One Liberty Plaza) and the Water Street corridor, once planned to be the route of the Second Avenue Subway. We discuss adaptive reuse of older structures, and view downtown Manhattan’s signature spires of the 1930s en route. Highlights include buildings by SOM, Pei Cobb Freed, Kevin Roche, Philip Johnson, Davis Brody, Tsao & McKown, and Frederic Schwartz, among others.  

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. Some tours utilize VOX amplification systems; attendees are welcome to bring their personal earbuds.

Guide: Kyle Johnson AIA

AIANY and the AIANY Architecture Tour Committee and its tour guides will not be held liable and assume no responsibility for any injury or loss incurred by participants in these programs. Walking tours endorse the initiatives of FitCity – promoting physical activity through design.

Meet at northeast corner of Third Avenue & 52nd St. (in front of 875 Third Ave.) 

View a variety of classic Modern, late Modern and Postmodern designs by SOM, Philip Johnson, Edward Larrabee Barnes, Eero Saarinen, Kevin Roche, Kohn Pedersen Fox and others. Highlights include Lever House, the Seagram Building, Citicorp Center, the CBS Building, and the Museum of Modern Art’s multi-building complex. Smaller gems like the former Rockefeller Guest House, Austrian Cultural Institute and Paley Park are also included, as are interior spaces featuring work by artists Isamu Noguchi and Louise Nevelson. 

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. Some tours utilize VOX amplification systems; attendees are welcome to bring their personal earbuds.

Guide: Kyle Johnson AIA

AIANY and the AIANY Architecture Tour Committee and its tour guides will not be held liable and assume no responsibility for any injury or loss incurred by participants in these programs. Walking tours endorse the initiatives of FitCity – promoting physical activity through design.

Meet at the fountain in the plaza of Lincoln Center.  

Discover the evolution of this pioneering midcentury cultural complex. On this tour we explore Lincoln Center’s origins as an urban renewal project by the infamous Robert Moses, announced in 1956. We begin with the Center’s design and construction by some of  our most iconic Modern architects in the turbulent 1960s, and conclude with its reimagining by Diller Scofidio and Renfro in this past decade for 21st century New York. 

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. Some tours utilize VOX amplification systems; attendees are welcome to bring their personal earbuds.

Guide: John Kriskiewicz, Assoc. AIA 

AIANY and the AIANY Architecture Tour Committee and its tour guides will not be held liable and assume no responsibility for any injury or loss incurred by participants in these programs. Walking tours endorse the initiatives of FitCity—promoting physical activity through design.

Meet at North side of Pulitzer Fountain in Grand Army Plaza, near Fifth Ave. and 59th St., across from Plaza Hotel. 

View a variety of classic Modern, late Modern and Postmodern designs by Kohn Pedersen Fox, Cesar Pelli, Rafael Vinoly, I. M. Pei, Edward Larrabee Barnes, Helmut Jahn, Paul Rudolph, Edward Durell Stone, Harrison & Abramovitz, and others, as well as historic structures by Ely Jacques Kahn, Emery Roth and Henry Hardenbergh. Several interiors are included.  

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. Some tours utilize VOX amplification systems; attendees are welcome to bring their personal earbuds.

Guide: Kyle Johnson AIA

AIANY and the AIANY Architecture Tour Committee and its tour guides will not be held liable and assume no responsibility for any injury or loss incurred by participants in these programs. Walking tours endorse the initiatives of FitCity – promoting physical activity through design.

Meet at Water St. & Pine St., in plaza south of Wall Street Plaza (88 Pine St.). 

View a variety of classic Modern, late Modern and Postmodern designs by Kohn Pedersen Fox, Cesar Pelli, Rafael Vinoly, I. M. Pei, Edward Larrabee Barnes, Helmut Jahn, Paul Rudolph, Edward Durell Stone, Harrison & Abramovitz, and others, as well as historic structures by Ely Jacques Kahn, Emery Roth and Henry Hardenbergh. Several interiors are included.  

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. Some tours utilize VOX amplification systems; attendees are welcome to bring their personal earbuds.

Guide: Kyle Johnson AIA

AIANY and the AIANY Architecture Tour Committee and its tour guides will not be held liable and assume no responsibility for any injury or loss incurred by participants in these programs. Walking tours endorse the initiatives of FitCity – promoting physical activity through design.

Meet at the North side of Pulitzer Fountain in Grand Army Plaza, near Fifth Ave. & 59th St., across from the Plaza Hotel. 

Much of the new construction in Midtown Manhattan has been, and continues to be, near the south end of Central Park.  This tour will traverse North Midtown from Grand Army Plaza to Columbus Circle, viewing buildings by Norman Foster, Christian de Portzamparc, SOM, Robert A. M. Stern, Cesar Pelli, Edward Larrabee Barnes, Helmut Jahn, and I. M. Pei, as well as historic structures by Henry Hardenbergh, Warren & Wetmore, and Cass Gilbert.  New and forthcoming supertall residential towers will be included.   

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. Some tours utilize VOX amplification systems; attendees are welcome to bring their personal earbuds.

Guide: Kyle Johnson AIA

AIANY and the AIANY Architecture Tour Committee and its tour guides will not be held liable and assume no responsibility for any injury or loss incurred by participants in these programs. Walking tours endorse the initiatives of FitCity – promoting physical activity through design.

Meet at the southwest corner of Broadway and Vesey Street (by St. Paul’s Chapel)  

Rebuilding the World Trade Center in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks has been a daunting, contentious and dynamic process. The 9/11 Memorial opened on the tenth anniversary of this tragic event, and 2014 saw the opening of both the 9/11 Museum and One World Trade Center, currently the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere.  

This tour offers participants an opportunity to experience the 9/11 Memorial and to see the now almost-completed World Trade Center site. We discuss the highly publicized competitions for the site’s master plan and memorial, and delve into the design and development of each of the main structure–including the 9/11 Memorial and Museum, office towers and transportation hub. Together we consider the influence and concerns of the different stakeholders by comparing the initial winning plans for rebuilding at Ground Zero to the final, much altered, designs that we see today. 

We will also examine the history of the original World Trade Center site and the transformation of Lower Manhattan after World War II, and we’ll compare Minoru Yamasaki’s 110-story Twin Towers, built on a 16-acre superblock, with current efforts to reconnect the new WTC to the street grid and surrounding neighborhoods. Finally, we explore how the current emphasis on safety, security and sustainability is a response to the design and engineering of the original complex, the 9/11 attacks and a greater concern for ecologically-friendly architecture. 

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. Some tours utilize VOX amplification systems; attendees are welcome to bring their personal earbuds.

Guide: Doug Fox

AIANY and the AIANY Architecture Tour Committee and its tour guides will not be held liable and assume no responsibility for any injury or loss incurred by participants in these programs. Walking tours endorse the initiatives of FitCity – promoting physical activity through design.

Meet at Park Ave. & 42nd St, at east side of cafe in Pershing Square, across from Grand Central Terminal. 

View some of Midtown’s most distinctive buildings and interiors, ranging from the Art Deco Chrysler and Chanin Buildings and Raymond Hood’s Daily News Building, to the groundbreaking United Nations headquarters and Kevin Roche’s Ford Foundation and UN Plaza. Also included are less-known structures like the Japan Society and William Lescaze’s pioneering 1934 home and office, as well as buildings by Harrison & Abramovitz, Gwathmey Siegel, and I. M. Pei. 

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. Some tours utilize VOX amplification systems; attendees are welcome to bring their personal earbuds.

Guide: Kyle Johnson AIA

AIANY and the AIANY Architecture Tour Committee and its tour guides will not be held liable and assume no responsibility for any injury or loss incurred by participants in these programs. Walking tours endorse the initiatives of FitCity—promoting physical activity through design.

Meet at the William Tecumseh Sherman Monument in Grand Army Plaza (Manhattan), west of Fifth Avenue between 59th & 60th Streets.

Amidst the Upper East Side’s celebrated array of Beaux Arts, Colonial Revival and other landmarks, can be found important examples of Modern architecture designed by some of America’s most prominent and influential architects of the twentieth century. Discover Modern highlights in the East 60s and 70s, in and near the Upper East Side Historic District, including some of New York’s earliest remaining examples.  We will visit residential and institutional buildings designed by William Lescaze, Philip Johnson, Edward Durell Stone, Paul Rudolph, Gordon Bunshaft of SOM, Marcel Breuer and others.

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. Some tours utilize VOX amplification systems; attendees are welcome to bring their personal earbuds.

Guide: John Arbuckle, Assoc. AIA

AIANY and the AIANY Architecture Tour Committee and its tour guides will not be held liable and assume no responsibility for any injury or loss incurred by participants in these programs. Walking tours endorse the initiatives of FitCity – promoting physical activity through design.

Meet at corner of Macdougal St. and Macdougal Alley (between W. 8th St. & Waverly Pl.), across from Tenth Church of Christ, Scientist. 

Discover lesser-known examples of Modern architecture, some stunning new buildings, and creative examples of adaptive re-use in the West Village and Meatpacking District.  Included are buildings designed by Joseph Urban, Albert Ledner, Edgar Tafel, Paul Rudolph, Hugh Hardy, Kohn Pedersen Fox, SOM, SHoP, Morris Adjmi, Selldorf Architects, WORKac, BKSK, DDG and others.  Several interiors are included.  

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. Some tours utilize VOX amplification systems; attendees are welcome to bring their personal earbuds.

Guide: Kyle Johnson AIA

AIANY and the AIANY Architecture Tour Committee and its tour guides will not be held liable and assume no responsibility for any injury or loss incurred by participants in these programs. Walking tours endorse the initiatives of FitCity – promoting physical activity through design.

Meet at the northwest corner of Broadway and 47th Street, by Morgan Stanley Building at 1585 Broadway.

The Times Square “bowtie” and the area known as the “Deuce” (located on 42nd Street between 7th and 8th Avenues) today share a remarkably similar energy evident in the dazzling signage, renovated theaters, new office buildings, and retail offerings by global brands. But the path to the revitalization of these two distinct but connected locales has been guided by very different notions of how to encourage rebuilding and preservation. 

By the 1970s, both areas had become known as derelict districts packed with crime, seediness and pornography.   The 42nd Street Development Project, a joint initiative of New York State and New York City, was based on the premise that the Deuce was essentially beyond repair, and unless wholesale changes were made, 42nd Street would not re-emerge as a thriving commercial and entertainment destination.  

On the other hand, the new wave of office buildings and hotels on and near the Times Square bowtie in the 19080s resulted from market forces and zoning incentives—very much a case of incremental improvements and not wholesale rebuilding. Midtown east had become over-congested with highrise office buildings, and New York City planners created a special Midtown Zoning District to move development west.  In addition, a theater subdistrict zoning amendment protected historic theaters and provided for transferable development rights from the theaters to commercial developers. 

Don’t miss this brand-new AIANY walking tour, an exciting exploration of the epic transformation of these areas into people‐friendly crossroads, a testament to how plaza design shapes and directs our movement and interactions. 

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. Some tours utilize VOX amplification systems; attendees are welcome to bring their personal earbuds.

Guide: Doug Fox

AIANY and the AIANY Architecture Tour Committee and its tour guides will not be held liable and assume no responsibility for any injury or loss incurred by participants in these programs. Walking tours endorse the initiatives of FitCity – promoting physical activity through design.

Meet at the North side of Pulitzer Fountain in Grand Army Plaza, near Fifth Ave. & 59th St., across from the Plaza Hotel. 

Much of the new construction in Midtown Manhattan has been, and continues to be, near the south end of Central Park.  This tour will traverse North Midtown from Grand Army Plaza to Columbus Circle, viewing buildings by Norman Foster, Christian de Portzamparc, SOM, Robert A. M. Stern, Cesar Pelli, Edward Larrabee Barnes, Helmut Jahn, and I. M. Pei, as well as historic structures by Henry Hardenbergh, Warren & Wetmore, and Cass Gilbert.  New and forthcoming supertall residential towers will be included.   

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. Some tours utilize VOX amplification systems; attendees are welcome to bring their personal earbuds.

Guide: Kyle Johnson AIA

AIANY and the AIANY Architecture Tour Committee and its tour guides will not be held liable and assume no responsibility for any injury or loss incurred by participants in these programs. Walking tours endorse the initiatives of FitCity – promoting physical activity through design.