Thousands of New Yorkers will tour such architectural wonders as the High Line during openhousenewyork weekend (photo by twi-ny/mdr)
Multiple venues in all five boroughs
Saturday, October 15, and Sunday, October 16
Admission: free (advance reservations required for some sites)
OHNY Passport: $150
212-991-OHNY
www.ohny.org
For the ninth year, hundreds of architectural sites around the city will open their doors, offering free tours of their unique spaces during openhousenewyork weekend. This Saturday and Sunday, religious institutions, museums, train stations, parks, farmhouses, hotels, cemeteries, hotels, international cultural centers, shipyards, well-known buildings, and little-known treasures will welcome thousands of visitors to spaces either not generally open to the public or not usually looked at in quite this way. Some of the events require advance reservations, and with a $150 Passport you can jump to the front of what should be some very long lines. Among the myriad participating locations are the African Burial Ground, the AVAC System on Roosevelt Island, the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park construction site, the Gowanus Canal (by canoe), the Old Croton Aqueduct, Mount Morris Park, the High Line, the Gatehouse, the Eldridge Street Synagogue, the Bartow-Pell Mansion, the Chrysler Building, Melrose Commons, Wave Hill, the Mark Morris Dance Center, the Old Stone House, St. Mark’s Church-in-the-Bowery, the Louis Armstrong House Museum, the Noble Maritime Collection, and many more. Over the years, we’ve had the opportunity to see some very cool sites, so we can’t recommend this highly enough. There will also be scavenger hunts, kids activities, ghost and manhole cover tours, art walks, opendialogue talks, and other special events. Just be sure to read the details about each venue before you go, since not all of them are open both days, and some are already booked. Keep checking the online schedule as well because there are regular updates and changes in addition to web exclusives.