Results tagged “openhousenewyork”

       

Over the weekend, we looked at just a few of the many OHNY sites: the Newtown Wastewater Treatment Plant, an MTA Substation, and the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Here's a gallery of some of our other favorites, submitted by Gothamist users.

       

As part of our continuing Open House New York coverage, we visited the Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant this morning. It is enormous: dozens of buildings on 53 acres at the northern edge of Greenpoint. You've probably seen the huge silver digester eggs from the BQE— at night they're lit up with pretty blue light. An overview of what goes on there: "with a rated capacity of 1.2 million m³/d, this is New York City's largest wastewater pump station and serves an area of 4,162 acres of land, fed by 180 miles of sewers. " Polshek Partnership is responsible for the plant's design— check out their site for some cool progress pictures.

       

Yesterday, the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation opened up its doors to bicyclists for Open House New York bike and bus tours. Here are just some of one reader's photographs from yesterday's tour of the shipbuilding yard-turned-industrial park (Steiner Studios is located there).

       

There are so many Open House New York sites open this weekend, and so little time to see them all! So we picked two that seemed interesting: this MTA powerstation on 53rd Street (built in 1901 by Heins & Lafarge, with help from McKim, Mead and White,) and the Newtown Creek Water Treatment Plant (which we'll tour tomorrow morning.) We need your help to visit the rest: please send your on-location pictures to photos@gothamist.com or tag them "gothamist" on Flickr, and we'll put up a gallery tomorrow night.

       

This Saturday, as part of Open House NY, the Green-Wood Historic Fund and Dance Theatre Etcetera will bring Angels & Accordions to the cemetery. "A site-specific, live music and dance performance that guides audience members through historic Green-Wood Cemetery’s rolling hills, highlighting its unparalleled collection of sculpture and monuments." Looks like the 30 dancers involved have been doing some practicing! To check it out in real life, head over there tomorrow at noon or 3:30 p.m.

As we previously noted, the annual weekend extravaganza known as Open House New York is nearly upon us. Taking place next weekend (October 10th and 11th), all of the tours available have now been posted online. While they're free, the most coveted ones have a limited amount of space and require reservations. Act now!

Heads Up: Open House NY

Attention architecture porn aficionados: Open House New York is back for their 7th annual weekend event, which will give you the key to places you normally wouldn't be allowed to enter. This will all go down on October 10th and 11th, with 350 tours, talks and programs in all five boroughs. Renee Schacht, executive director of OHNY, says "This year, we are thrilled to feature private residences, historic landmarks, architect and artist studios, and new sites that demonstrate sustainable design.”

       

Over the weekend some of New York's closed doors were opened up to the public, for the annual Open House New York weekend. Take a look at some images that have popped up--and here's a look inside the Brooklyn Navy Yard, where they'll now be offering $30 tours. Did you see any interesting spots?

It's that time of year again, to sneak into those off-limits nooks of New York! Today Open House New York, a favorite annual event, has opened up advance reservations for some of this year's tours (though some are on a first come, first serve basis). Hopefully you didn't have your hopes up to see McCarren Park Pool, as that one's been mysteriously cancelled. For the rest, they instruct that "advance reservations for participation will be listed online and in the printed event guide. Please follow the RSVP email or phone instructions found within the site or program listing." You can also purchase a passport for the weekend (which will get you into non-reservation events), and tickets for the Launch Party, being held in the raw space of the Penthouse at One York in Tribeca, on October 3rd. View Saturday's tours here, and Sunday's here. Something to note: today's NY Times has a OHNY Weekend Event Guide.

A well-known ruin is crumbling. According to Roosevelt Island Historical Society president and historian Judith Berdy, part of the north wing of the Smallpox Hospital collapsed about a week ago. She writes, "The rest of the north wing especially the front is in danger of coming down any time... [The Roosevelt Island Operation Corporation] is working with TPL, the Southpoint park developers to find a way to do emergency stabilization of the rest of the building... Please encourage RIOC to do all possible to save the rest of the building."

Of all the forbidden sites that were opened for public viewing last weekend in the 5th annual Open House New York program, the High Line was one of the crown trophies. It offered rare views of the city, sexy industrial details, and the mysterious allure of a wild grassy flying carpet that won't open until at least a year hence. Built during the same era (early 1930s) as the Empire State Building, the George Washington Bridge and other Gotham landmarks, could this elevated former freight railway become a comparably iconic amenity?

October is starting off with a continuation of September's trend of quiet weather. Central Park was 2.8 degrees warmer than normal last month. Rainfall at Belvedere Castle was less than half of the normal 4.23 inches. Don't worry, rainfall upstate was closer to average and the reservoir levels are only slightly lower than they typically are at this time of year.

Open House New York weekend is coming up in 7 days and NewYorkology has a handy guide to which places you'll need reservations for this (the 5th) year, check it out here. Touted as America's largest architect and design event, OHNY opens usually locked doors throughout New York City each October (and sometimes Spring).

This October, artist Thom Sokoloski will build 100 white tents on Roosevelt Island, and the public will be able to see the illuminated tents at night as well as explore what's in them. The project is called The Encampment and here is a description the website:

The Encampment is a large-scale public participatory art installation. 100 - 19th century luminous tents will be erected as a work of optical art on Roosevelt's Island Southpoint. From 7pm to 7am each night, New Yorkers will be able to view the luminous symmetries of the tents from both sides of the East River, as well as visit the actual site and experience the installations in each of the tents. It proposes an archaeological dig as its metaphor; the search for artifacts is replaced by the search for a collective memory of Roosevelt Island.
Sokoloski told Metro that Roosevelt Island's past, filled with hospitals, lunatic asylum and other facilities, inspired him, "When you go deep the history is so fascinating. This will be a kind of digital archaeology, a model of exchange where the community will uncover the stories of the island’s past.” He also calls it "a metaphorical, archaeological dig into the history of mental health."

Open House New York opens the doors to many New York spaces that you wouldn't likely ever see. Past tours have included 7 World Trade Center and the Lost City Hall Subway. Each October these tours are free, and throughout the year the series costs money. The Spring tours will include:

- Washington Irving High School, Union Square

The General Theological Seminary takes up an entire block of West Chelsea between 9th and 10th Avenue. The seminary is the oldest Episcopalian seminary in the country-- it was founded in 1817! We've been peering through the bars for years on the way up to the galleries in Chelsea, and now, courtesy of Open House New York and our pal What I See, we finally get to take a peek inside. Check out his outdoor shots, as well as some interior pictures. And if you are interested in beautiful NYC seminaries, you should also check out the cloisters at Union Theological Seminary up in Morningside Heights.

- The ME's examination of the body found in a Pennsylvania dump is inconclusive about whether or not it's the body of Monica Lozado-Rivadineira

And like that Open House New York is over(ish). Our general impression has been that the rain and icky weather really kept people away this year. But that's just our impression. Anyone have any good stories? Take, or find, any good pictures? That's what comments are for.

We might have mentioned this before, but in case you missed it, here goes. Today, rain or shine (or, uh, rain), is the beginning of Open House New York, the one weekend of the year when hundreds of generally inaccessible places around New York get opened up to the public. It's really pretty awesome and worth your taking advantage of.

In case you missed our reminder last weekend, this weekend is Open House New York. Some of the sites requiring reservations are already full, but with so many sites available for touring, there's almost something for everyone.

In just two years Open House New York is quickly turning into a beloved New York tradition (50,000 people took part in the event last year). Part of the city's Architecture Week, OHNY (which runs next Saturday and Sunday) opens to any interested parties over one hundred buildings and places normally closed to the public along with tours, talks, walks, performances and more.

With Martha Stewart's new morning show debut this morning, as well as her version of The Apprentice - with more fresh flowers! - next Wednesday, Gothamist has been thinking about how her offices at the Starrett-Lehigh Building on West 26th Street (the massive brick and windowed structure that takes up a block at West 26th Street and Eleventh Avenue) have been transformed into television heaven. Because it's not just the studio for the show, but also where the Apprentice contestants are living! In the current issue of In Touch (uh, yes, we're ashamed), there are pictures of how the warehouse space has been converted for reality living; it all seems very tasteful and Martha, though the sleeping areas might not have windows (but we can't totally tell). We remember the Starrett-Lehigh Building when it was a hotbed of dot-com activity, most notably Inside.com, and the jobs offers were flying out of there...but Gothamist still wasn't convinced that the late-night shuttle van would really be that effective in pre-Crobar 2000. We're partial to the SLB, but what would you pick, living on West 26th and 11th Avenue or at Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue?

The New York Marble Cemetery, smack between Second and Third Streets and Avenues, is gem of Old New York hidden in the East Village. Not to be confused with its sister cemetery, the New York City Marble Cemetery which you can actually see from the street, the NYMC is the first non-sectarian cemetery in the city. It opened in 1830 and holds over 2,000 people in it's vaults. It is also the last place in Manhattan where a person could still be legally buried (the last burial was in 1937 and if you want in, uh, your family has to own a vault).

This past weekend was that great event where various New York instituations and spaces open up their doors to the curious: Open House New York. Let us know if you went and what you thought; and if you have pictures, paste the links in comments and we'll post to them.

It goes without saying that New York City is chock full of amazing buildings and spaces. And many of them aren't normally open to the public. But this weekend you can visit over 100 places throughout the five boroughs, free of charge, during the Second Annual Open House New York.

Admission is $15 (but the AdoptaCat event is free), but there is a coupon for $2 off. We know one person who went to the cat show and came back with one - little did he know that this cat would rule his life. And for the allergic or architecturally inclined, there is Open House New York this weekend.

- Gothamist gives our date suggestions

- Lets share our architectural treasures and foster a spirit of learning and appreciation.

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