2006
Open House New York Weekend
And I swear to the stars I'll burn this whole city down
This is the fourth Open House New York Weekend and every year it has been getting better and better. This year there were all sorts of new sites to see, starting right here at the Channel Gardens at Rockefeller Center, the very heart of Midtown.
After landing at night, I stayed at the airport hotel before transferring early the next morning to a downtown one
Out front at Fifth Avenue is a pretty interesting temporary art installation by Anish Kapoor called Sky Mirror which is, well, a mirror (usually) showing the sky
The first tower going up at the World Trade Center is 7 WTC, and it was finished enough that a floor was open for Open House New York. This is the 45th floor, where the views of Lower Manhattan were just about what you might expect they would be. It’s still (of course) nothing like the original World Trade Center observation deck view, but it’s still nice to see actual buildings being built here. Finally.
First the Rockefeller Center Rooftop Gardens, then the 45th floor of 7 WTC and now the lobby of the iconic Chrysler Building, this is some start to this year’s Open House New York Weekend.
I decided this year to make a concerted effort to see buildings outside of Manhattan, and that included a pilgrimage here to the Bronx Museum on the Grand Concourse, designed by Arquitectonica, a firm that owns Miami architecture but one that you rarely seem to see anywhere other than Florida.
After that trip to the Bronx, we’re finishing up this year’s Open House New York slideshow on a sunny October Sunday in Brooklyn. Our first of three absolutely terrific sites is the Soldiers and Sailors Monument, right at the entrance to Prospect Park. Lines to visit here weren’t all that long, and the tour included a rare visit inside, up the steps and all the way up to the roof.
Inside the arch there were all sorts of stairs, including this award winning* photo. There is also a puppet theatre inside the arch, although that was closed and, all things considered, is in a pretty terrible location.
*Every year now Open House New York has a photo contest, and this photo was selected as one of the winners
Not too far from Grand Army Plaza is the spectacular Mohawk Club, one of those sites I never even knew existed before it showed up on Open House New York’s weekend list.
Our last site in Brooklyn and the last site in this year’s Open House New York slideshow is One Hanson Place, the old banking lobby of the Williamsburgh Savings Bank, that hard to miss tall tower near the LIRR Atlantic Avenue Terminal. Inside was downright spectacular, a great end to one hell of a weekend at Open House New York.
Keep going back in time. Open House New York 2005 is next.
