Results tagged “tours”

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!

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.”

Though math nerds may not be the first demographic you'd expect to turn out in droves for an afternoon spent outdoors walking block after block, mathematician Glen Whitney has begun leading guided tours of Manhattan. Whitney, who quit his job at a hedge fund, has attracted a nice following: This week's New Yorker carries a dispatch from writer Nick Paumgarten on one of Whitney's tours, which that day took a group from 66th Street to Columbus Circle while stopping for all sorts of hidden math-yness along the way. When the group reached 64th Street, for instance, Paumgarten describes how "a Philip Johnson clock just off Columbus Avenue led to a disquisition on Pythagoras, octaves, calendars, eclipses, and time." Whitney is using the tours in hopes of building demand for a math museum in New York, and—for a city that already has museums devoted to sex, comic books, and creepy wax statues—why not? After all, for those who want nothing to do with any of that complicated number-learnin', there's always the Gossip Girl bus tour.

Could the city soon see the 300-acre Brooklyn Navy Yard up close? The NY Post points out that the former military base may soon become a tourist destination, as they are offering up bus tours starting tomorrow (tomorrow is free, coinciding with OHNY, then it'll cost $30 a head). There will also be 35 artists' studios opened at the Navy Yard tomorrow (details). Last year there was some controversy surrounding the OHNY tour, so hopefully they've worked out the kinks.

Have you re-read the classic coming-of-age JD Salinger novel, Catcher in the Rye, lately? amNewYork takes a trip down memory lane, and 5th Ave, with a pair of Holden Caulfield-tinted glasses. Apparently people like the Central Park Conservancy historian get a ton of inquiries about the New York references in the novel. The most popular question, "Where do the ducks go in the winter?" Referring to the ducks in the Central Park pond that our...