WINTER - SPRING 2008
Every year, I do half-a-dozen public Art Deco tours for the Municipal Art Society. The tours rotate among five itineraries. Once or twice a year I also do a walking tour for the Art Deco Society of New York, and sometimes teach a five-session course on the subject.
2008
AUGUST
Downtown Deco: The Financial District
Wednesday evening, August 20th, 6:15 p.m.. Meet on the steps of the former U.S. Custom House (now home to the Museum of the American Indian) at Bowling Green, foot of Broadway. (Transit: #4, 5 trains to Bowling Green; R train to Whitehall.)Sponsored by the Municipal Art Society. No reservations necessary. $15 ($12 MAS members)
Towering above the narrow streets of 17th-century Nieuw Amsterdam are some of the city's finest 20th century skyscrapers. Included are the best of Ralph Walker, once voted the "architect of the century" by his peers: the delightfully decorative New York Telephone Company headquarters, the ponderously massive Western Union Building, and the Gothic-modern fantasy of the Irving Trust tower at No. 1 Wall Street. Other marvels include the Art Deco encrusted Cities Service headquarters, and the "Modern Classic" Federal Post Office Building.
Central Park West Deco
Wednesday evening, August 27th, 6:15 p.m.. Meet at the N.W. corner of Broadway and 61st Street (in front of the Bible Society Building).
Sponsored by the Municipal Art Society. No reservations necessary. $15 ($12 MAS members)
A pleasant stroll along Central Park West, for a closer look at the buildings that form Manhattan's major residential skyline. We visit the great twin-towered skyscraper-apartment buildings -- the Century, the Majestic, and the Eldorado -- and other multi-colored jazz-age fantasies of high living overlooking the Park.
SEPTEMBER
Art Deco 42nd Street
Sunday, September 21st, 2:00 p.m. Meeting place to be announced.Sponsored by the Art Deco Society of New York. Reservations required. For further information call (212) 679-DECO
Midtown Manhattan's major boulevard of Art Deco skyscrapers. Star architect of the walk is crusty modernist Raymond Hood: we visit three of his four skyscrapers -- the Daily News, American Radiator, and old McGraw-Hill. Star building, once the world's tallest, is the one and only Chrysler, whose architect, William Van Alen, was once called the Ziegfeld of his profession. Also visited: the Chanin and Paramount Buildings.
October-November 2008
Downtown New York: Past, Present, Future
Five Sunday morning walks, October 5th through November 2nd, 10:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.Sponsored by New York University's School of Continuing and Professional Education. For more information, or to enroll on-line, click here.
In this course we will examine the boom and bust and boom history of Downtown/Wall Street as seen in its architecture and planning. In five sessions, including both class discussions and walks through Downtown, we will look at overall trends in Downtown's development over the past four centuries; the history of Downtown's post-World War II development, with special focus on the creation of the World Trade Center; the last decade of neighborhood diversification (residential, hi-tech, hotels, restaurants, movie theaters joining the office buildings) promoted by such organizations as the Alliance for Downtown New York; and the various proposals for redeveloping the Trade Center site, with their implications for Downtown's future."