Want a unique, behind-the-scenes look at New York City? Check out the 12th annual Open House New York (OHNY) on October 11 and 12, which will include access to some 300 spots around the city. (Some sites will be open to the public and free; others will require reservations. And according to city website Gothamist, reservations go fast.) The full itinerary will be released on October 1.
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| Woolworth Building photo courtesy of OHNY Instragram |
This year's attractions will include:
- The Barbarian Group’s new Chelsea office, with the 4,400-sq-ft "Superdesk," made out of plywood and a single pour of resin that flows throughout the office and seats over a hundred employees.
- Battery Weed, one of the earliest intact structures at Fort Wadsworth on Staten Island, with top views of New York Harbor and the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, directly overhead.
- The Office of the Manhattan Borough President in the historic Municipal Building, where a special display of official maps of the borough will include the 1811 “Commissioner’s Plan” that established the Manhattan street grid.
- The Great Hall of the New York Hall of Science, a 100-foot-tall space with no corners or straight segments built as a pavilion for the 1964-65 World’s Fair.
- The Spitzer School of Architecture’s Solar Roofpod, a student-designed plus-net-energy micro-dwelling and garden designed for the 2011 Solar Decathlon and rescued from storage to be installed on the roof of the school’s Rafael Viñoly-designed building as a living classroom.
- The 1875 Williamsburgh Savings Bank building, which the site calls "an architectural treasure" that was recently restored and reborn as event space Weylin B. Seymour’s.
- The TWA Flight Center at JFK, an iconic piece of mid-century work from architect Eero Saarinen, will once again be open.
- And for the first time, visitors will also get to go inside the Woolworth Building and learn about the tower's lobby with an expert guide.
Sites and tours for the 2014 Open House New York Weekend will be announced on September 30. Reservations can be made on ohny.eventbrite.com beginning at 11am on October 1.