SUMMER and FALL 2010
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 for New York University. And I occasionally lecture on Art Deco for events supported by the New York Council on the Humanities.
SEPTEMBER TO DECEMBER 2010
TOURS
Deco Fashion: The Garment District
Sunday, October 24th, 10:30 a.m. Meet by the Golda Meir statue at the N.W. corner of Broadway and 39th Street.Sponsored by the Municipal Art Society. No reservations necessary. $15 ($10 MAS members).
New York's Garment District - stretching roughly from Penn Station to Times Square, Sixth to Ninth avenues - is almost entirely the creation of architectural and urban forces of the 1920s and early 1930s, in particular the country's first zoning ordinance (1916) which mandated the setbacks we associate with Art Deco skyscrapers. Styles in the district range from the typical eclecticism of the 1920s through the Art Deco and Moderne. The district is particularly rich in the works of French-trained George and Edward Blum and modernist master Ely Jacques Kahn, but also includes such delights as a former Bickford's luncheonette (Stuckert & Co., 1929), a branch of the National City Bank (Walker & Gillette, 1929-30), the Hotel New Yorker (Sugarman & Berger, 1928-29), and the Navarre Building (Sugarman & Berger, 1928-30).
Rockefeller Center
Sunday, December 26th, 10:00 a.m. Meeting place to be announced.Sponsored by the Municipal Art Society. By reservation only. $15 ($10 MAS members). Further information: 212-935-3960.A walk through Midtown Manhattan's greatest Art Deco complex, and New York's great public square (which is private). Rockefeller Center — New York’s urbane urban wonderland — is full of surprising history, remarkable art and stunning architecture. Conceived as a new home for the Metropolitan Opera, but built instead as Radio City, Rockefeller Center is a private real estate venture that has evolved into the public square of Midtown Manhattan.
TOURS
Downtown/Financial District
Tuesdays, July 6 and 13, August 23, September 28, November 23, and 30, December 7, 12:30 p.m. Meet at the Downtown Information Center, 55 Exchange Place, Suite 401.
A new tour offered by the Municipal Art Society. No reservations necessary. Suggested donation: $10.00. IMPORTANT: Adults, please bring photo ID.
An hour-and-a-half tour of the Downtown/Wall Street financial district — history, architecture, and art. Tour include Federal Hall, the U.S. Stock Exchange, Trinity , Fraunces Tavern, U.S. Custom House, and Bowling Green.Grand Central Terminal
Wednesday, July 14 and 28, August 11 and 24, 12:30 p.m. Meet at the information booth, main concourse.Sponsored by the Municipal Art Society. No reservations necessary. Suggested donation: $10 per person.
This is the venerable, free tour offered by the Municipal Art Society, the civic organization that fought to keep Grand Central from demolition. Grand Central. -- the third railroad terminal on its site -- is one of New York's grandest Beaux-Arts monuments. Its construction in the early 20th century helped transform midtown -- Park Avenue became a luxury, landscaped residential boulevard, while East 42nd Street developed into Midtown's premier office building district. After WWII, Park Avenue was transformed again into an International Style corporate park, while Grand Central itself declined with rail travel. A proposal to replace the terminal with an office building led to a Supreme Court battle that ultimately reaffirmed the validity of New York's landmarks law. Today the Terminal, following a massive restoration project, has been transformed from a destination for commuters into a destination for Manhattanites -- for its dining court.
Give My Regards to Broadway
Sunday, September 5th, 2:00 p.m. Meet at the southeast corner of Sixth Avenue and West 44th Street.Sponsored by the Municipal Art Society. $15 ($10 MAS members) NOTE: MAS NOW ASKS FOR ADVANCE RESERVATIONS: CALL 212-935-3960.
Walk the streets of "the Great White Way," tracing the history of New York's Broadway theater district from Oscar Hammerstein in the 1890s to Walt Disney in the 1990s to its latest configuration. See the great Broadway theaters built between the turn of the century and the onset of the Great Depression - stunning works of art in themselves, and monuments to the lively history of American theater. The tour includes it all: theaters, skyscrapers, and city planning at its most creative.Fighting the Good Fight: Landmark Battles in Midtown Manhattan (celebrating the Landmarks Commission's 45th birthday)
Sunday afternoon, November 7th, 2:00 p.mSponsored by the Municipal Art Society. No reservations necessary. $15 ($10 MAS members). Meet in the courtyard of the New York Palace Hotel, Madison Ave., between 50th & 51st streets.
Midtown Manhattan has seen more than its fair share of landmarks battles. On this walk we consider the landmark rationale and battle history of the Villard Houses/Palace Hotel, St. Bartholomew's Church, Lever House, Grand Central Terminal (whose landmark status was finally upheld by the Supreme Court), and the Chrysler Building (bankrupt in the 1970s, it faced demolition).
COURSES AT NYU
Course: Historic preservation in NYC: 45 Years of the Landmarks Commission and NYC's Most Important Sites
Five Sunday afternoons, October 3-31, 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.Sponsored by New York University's School of Continuing and Professional Education. Click here to register on NYU's web site.
The Empire State Building, Greenwich Village, Central Park…. What would New York City be without its landmarks? Since 1965, New York’s Landmarks Preservation Commission has been responsible for choosing which buildings and areas will become the city’s official landmarks and historic districts, and for deciding what alterations may or may not be permitted. In this course, taught by a 20-year veteran of the Commission (and former Deputy Director of Research and Director of Survey), we explore the choices the Commission has made, while examining the nature of the Commission itself. We consider some case studies that illuminate the role of historic preservation in New York City.