Events & Things To Do

August 21, 2018

A new deal and more construction at Waldorf Astoria, though opening date is delayed

When the iconic Waldorf Astoria closed in 2017 for the massive renovation promised when Chinese company Anbang Insurance Group acquired it in 2014, the hotel's future held jumbo condos and massive guest rooms. The fate of the Park Avenue landmark has been a topic of drama and discussion ever since, especially given the takeover of Anbang by the Chinese government after the incarceration of the company's chairman, Wu Xiaohui, last year during a fraud investigation. The New York Post now reports that although contractor AECOM Tishman has signed a deal with Anbang and construction is underway for the promised 350 condos and 350 hotel rooms, the project's completion date has been moved from 2020 to 2021.
Find out more
August 17, 2018

Battery Maritime Building’s hotel-restaurant conversion is back on track

The plan to convert the landmarked Battery Maritime Building into a hotel and Cipriani rooftop restaurant is back on schedule after an injection of capital into the project, Crain's reported on Thursday. Developer Midtown Equities will take a 30 percent stake, allowing construction to resume this fall or winter. In 2009, the city first approved a plan to redevelop the building, which sits at 10 South Street in the Financial District, but was delayed after a series of legal and financial setbacks.
More details here
August 16, 2018

Tenement Museum will open an info kiosk at the Market Line inside Essex Crossing

The Tenement Museum will open a new kiosk at the Market Line inside the Essex Crossing development on the Lower East Side, developer Delancy Street Associates announced on Thursday. The kiosk will feature a screen with tour times and other information about the museum. When it opens later this year, the Market Line will run three city blocks and include 100 locally-sourced food, art, fashion and music vendors. The market, projected to be the largest of its kind in New York City, sits inside Essex Crossing, a 1.9-million-square foot mixed-use development.
Get the details
August 16, 2018

Get free tickets to 1,300 museums and more on Smithsonian Magazine’s Museum Day

Smithsonian Magazine Museum Day–formerly Museum Day Live–is happening this year on September 22; it's a chance to get free admission to museums across the country, including many great NYC options. Tickets became available on August 15 on the Smithsonian site, where you can download two free tickets to museums, galleries and cultural institutions like the Cooper Hewitt design museum, the Museum of Arts and Design, the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum and many, many more.
Choose from over 1,300 museums
August 13, 2018

The 8 best wildlife activities in and around NYC

You may have thought NYC’s wildlife predominantly consisted of subway rats and the giant cockroaches that find their way into your apartment each summer, but it appears there’s more to this city’s animals than pests. Indeed, New York is actually full of unique birds, mammals, and insects that help contribute each day to our shared ecosystem. It’s also full of walking tours, boat tours, driving tours, and other activities that’ll give you an opportunity to get a good look at the wildlife around us, both in the city and just outside of it. Here are some of our favorites.
The top 8 wildlife activities in and around NYC
August 9, 2018

The best affordable and student-friendly off-campus neighborhoods in NYC

If you can’t bear the idea of living in the dorms for another year, you’re not alone. Unless you happen to go to Columbia where over 90 percent of students live on campus, there's a high likelihood you’ll be searching for your own apartment at some point during your college years, just like 57 percent of students at NYU and 74 percent at The New School. And if you're like most students, you’ll be looking for an apartment far from downtown that strikes the right balance between affordability, commutability, and access to services. To help you make the smartest decision possible, 6sqft has compiled a list of affordable, student-friendly neighborhoods in Manhattan and Brooklyn. By New York City standards, all of these are both safe (e.g., reported fewer than 1.5447 crimes per 1000 people in June 2018) and within reach (e.g., on average, three-bedroom units can still be rented for less than $5,000 per month). Using July 2018 City Realty data on average neighborhood rents, we've broken down how much you’ll pay on average to live in a three-bedroom shared unit in each of these neighborhoods. We’ve also provided average commute times to both Union Square, which is easily walkable to NYU, The New School, and Cooper Union, and to the Columbia University campus.
Get the guide
August 8, 2018

Book your wedding at the TWA Hotel: Renderings revealed for retro event spaces

Getting married next spring? Or maybe you're planning a large conference? Either way, if mid-century-modern is your thing, then the news that the TWA Hotel is now booking events for the spring of 2019 and beyond is sure to be exciting. Ahead of reservations for guestrooms opening in December, we now have a first look at the 50,000 square feet of event space, including two ballrooms, a pre-function space complete with Saarinen-designed Knoll furniture like tulip tables and womb chairs, and six high-tech skyboxes.
Get a look at all the spaces
August 1, 2018

10 secrets of Washington Square Park

With 12 million visits a year from tourists and residents alike, Washington Square Park has plenty of things to see and do. And Parkies worth their salt know the basics: it was once a potter’s field where the indigent were buried, and a roadbed carried vehicles through the Park for almost 100 years. But the Park holds some secrets even the most knowledgeable Washington Square denizen might not know, like its connection to freed slaves in NYC and the fact that it was the first place the telegraph was publicly used.
Read on to discover if you’re a Park newbie or a Park expert
July 31, 2018

IKEA’s 2019 catalog comes to life at this free pop-up event in Soho

To mark 75 years of sleek, affordable design, IKEA is hosting a free pop-up event for just five days in Soho. Starting on Wednesday, design nerds and interior newbies alike will enjoy walking through different homes and get inspired by the various products and furniture, many which can be found in the company's 2019 catalog (officially released on Tuesday). Dubbed the IKEA Inspiration Experience, the event, located at 477 Broadway, runs between August 1 and August 5.
Get the details
July 30, 2018

This August, party on the rooftop of the New York Aquarium

Sure, there are plenty of rooftops to get your drink on this summer, but here's a chance to do it with fireworks and fish. As part of the inaugural season of their new Ocean Wonders: Sharks! exhibit, Coney Island's New York Aquarium is hosting late-night Friday and Saturday night rooftop parties during August and Labor Day weekend. The aquarium usually closes at 7pm, but for Summer Nights they'll welcome guests until 10pm with cocktails and a fireworks display on the roof of their new building, as well as extended access to the nine new spaces, including a 40-foot-long immersive coral reef tunnel, a rare look into the underwater "Grand Canyon," and a real hull from a local shipwreck.
All the details
July 27, 2018

Explore ‘faces and voices’ of Manhattan storefronts with new exhibit from James and Karla Murray

Whether it's their photography from our My Sqft series, images from their best-selling Storefront books or their most recent "Mom-and-Pops" life-size installation in Seward Park, chances are you've already admired the work of Karla and James Murray. And now there's an opportunity to further appreciate their work and the work of those they have mentored. Earlier this year, James and Karla hosted two, two-session workshops, which taught the art of capturing New York City storefronts. Starting August 1, the workshop's participants will show off their photos at the Jefferson Market Library's Little Underground Gallery. Celebrate with them during a free opening reception for the exhibit next Friday, August 3 from 5 pm to 7 pm.
Learn more about the event
July 27, 2018

Merchant’s House Museum files petition in court against construction of adjacent eight-story hotel

The Merchant's House Museum and its supporters filed a petition on Monday in New York Supreme Court against the construction of an eight-story hotel planned next door. The 186-year-old East Village home at 29 East Fourth Street belonged to hardware merchant Seabury Tredwell, who bought the 10,000-square-foot residence for $18,000 in 1832. The museum, which has been remarkably preserved since then, became the first property in Manhattan to be designated a New York City landmark in 1965. But landmark status does not guarantee protection from any adjacent construction projects. The museum is now taking legal action against the hotel project because, as its executive director, Margaret "Pi" Halsey Gardiner, told the WSJ: "It's not going to be able to survive construction next door, I guarantee you."
Get the details
July 26, 2018

15 must-see attractions and adventures on Staten Island

With major developments underway, Staten Island is slowly losing its nickname as the "forgotten borough." While projects like Empire Outlets, the Bay Street Corridor rezoning, and the expansion of the former Stapleton homeport hope to revitalize the borough with new residential and commercial space, Staten Island already offers visitors a ton of unique attractions to explore. Just take the free Staten Island Ferry to discover the miles of coastline and 12,300-acres of parkland in the city's greenest and least populated borough. For the best spots in the borough, follow 6sqft's list ahead of the 15 most unforgettable attractions on Staten Island.
Find out more
July 26, 2018

This fall, 1,000 New Yorkers will perform an ‘opera’ on the High Line

For five consecutive nights from October 3-7, 2018 "The Mile-Long Opera: a biography of 7 o’clock," will bring together 1,000 singers from across New York for free performances on the High Line. The project is a collaboration between architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Lang, with words and lyrics by acclaimed poets Anne Carson and Claudia Rankine. The free collective choral work shares personal stories, gathered through first-hand interviews with hundreds of New Yorkers about city life.
Find out more
July 25, 2018

You can soar down Centre Street on a 165-foot-long zipline this August

Summer Streets is back! Starting August 4, New Yorkers can enjoy seven miles of car-free fun along Park Avenue, from Central Park to the Brooklyn Bridge. As part of the Department of Transporation's 11th annual event, activities will be offered on three Saturdays in August, from 7 am to 1 pm. While there's sadly not a dishwasher-looking waterslide this year, there will be a 165-foot-long, 30-foot-high zip line, fun hand-cycles to test out, and an eight-foot-tall bouldering wall.
Plan your summer streets fun
July 20, 2018

See photos from Karla and James Murray’s ‘Storefront’ project on NYC’s mom and pop stores

6sqft has been closely following the progress of photographers James and Karla Murray‘s Seward Park art installation “Mom-and-Pops of the LES,” featuring four nearly life-size images of Lower East Side business that have mostly disappeared. The pair, who have spent the last decade chronicling the place of small neighborhood businesses in 21st century New York City, was chosen for the public art project by Art in the Parks UNIQLO Park Expressions Grant Program and ran a wildly successful Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for the wood-frame structure’s build out. James and Karla will be having a free public exhibition of their photography for "Store Front: The Disappearing Face of New York" at The Storefront Project (@thestorefrontproject) at 70 Orchard Street from July 25-August 12, 2018, with an opening reception on Wednesday, July 25th from 6-9 PM.
Find out more about this cool project
July 20, 2018

Design unveiled for Central Park’s first statue dedicated to real women

Coinciding with the 170th Anniversary of the Seneca Falls Women's Rights Convention, members of the Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony Statue Fund unveiled on Thursday the official design of the first statue of non-fictional women in Central Park. Designed by Meredith Bergmann, the sculpture includes both legible text and a writing scroll that represents the arguments that both women -- and their fellow suffragists -- fought for. There is also a digital scroll, which will be available online, where visitors are encouraged to join the ongoing conversation. The sculpture of Stanton and Anthony will be dedicated in Central Park on August 18, 2020, marking the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote nationwide.
Learn more about this monumental monument
July 20, 2018

Meet the man filling potholes with mosaics of NYC vermin (and Donald Trump)

Update 10:15am on 7/20/18: Jim Bachor tells us that the NYC Department of Transportation has already pulled up the cockroach, bouquet, Trump, and pigeon mosaics.  If you recently saw a construction worker filling potholes around Manhattan and Brooklyn with mosaics and thought it was a bit off, you were right. This was Chicago-based artist Jim Bachor in disguise for his latest public art piece, "Vermin of New York." For the past five years, Jim has been filling potholes in Chicago with mosaics of everything from flowers to trash, and after a successful Kickstarter campaign, he recently brought his work to NYC. The series includes a cockroach, a rat, a pigeon, and Donald Trump (yes, you can drive over his face). 6sqft was able to talk with Jim about how he got into such a unique form of "guerilla" art and what the meaning is behind his latest series.
Read on for more from Jim
July 19, 2018

Check out artist Yayoi Kusama’s installation in an abandoned Rockaway train garage

6sqft previously reported on the arrival of “Narcissus Garden,” a site-specific installation made up of 1,500 mirrored stainless steel spheres by Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama as MOMA PS1's third installment of“Rockaway!,” a free biannual public art program dedicated to the ongoing recovery efforts after Hurricane Sandy. The completely mesmerizing installation is now on view from July 01-September 03, 2018 at Fort Tilden in the Gateway National Recreation Area, in a former train garage that once was an active U.S. military base. Kusama’s mirrored metal spheres reflect the industrial surroundings of the abandoned building and highlight Fort Tilden’s history. According to MoMA, the metal directs attention to the damage inflicted by Sandy in 2012 on the surrounding area.
More amazing images this way
July 19, 2018

Join Untapped Cities for two insider tours of the Woolworth Building

After its iconic neo-Gothic architecture and copper crown, the Woolworth Building is known by New Yorkers for being off-limits to the public, but Untapped Cities is your source to get inside the landmark. Next week, they'll be hosting their uber-popular Special Access tour, which takes guests into the spectacular “cathedral-esque” lobby and mezzanine, as well as the cellar level with its abandoned bank vault and subway entrances. You'll learn about the building's history, restoration, and incredible interior Art Deco architecture. And for those true history buffs, next month they'll offer a VIP version of this tour with building architect Cass Gilbert’s great-granddaughter, Helen Post Curry.
SIGN UP FOR THE TOURS HERE!
July 19, 2018

Top 10 architecture day trips just outside NYC for Modernism lovers

Summer is the perfect time to get out of town and explore what's beyond the borders of the city. While there is certainly no shortage of nature escapes and historic hideouts nearby, just outside of Manhattan in about every direction are also numerous modernist treasures to admire. Ahead is 6sqft's round-up of the 10 best destinations for architecture enthusiasts with a penchant for modern design.
see them all here
July 16, 2018

Your NYC library card will now get you free admission to 30+ museums

For those New Yorkers who haven't gotten their IDNYC, there's now a new way to gain free access to museums across the city--your library card. Today, Brooklyn Public Library (BPL), the New York Public Library (NYPL), and Queens Library launched Culture Pass, "a joint library-led, city-wide initiative providing free access to more than 30 museums and cultural institutions across all five boroughs available to every NYC library card holder." According to a press release, all card holders have to do is go online to reserve a free day pass for themselves and up to three guests at 33 cultural organizations, from the Whitney Museum and MoMA (where regular adult entry is $25/person) to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and Wave Hill.
All the details
July 13, 2018

Rotating panels at Storefront for Art and Architecture converted into shelves for books ‘yet to be written’

Photo by Naho Kubota The iconic rotating facade panels at the Storefront for Art and Architecture have been reconstructed as mostly-empty bookshelves in an installation currently on view at the Soho gallery. Abruzzo Bodziak Architects (ABA) designed the sidewalk-encroaching shelves for the exhibition, dubbed Architecture Books-Yet to Be Written. As its name suggests, the installation "seeks to celebrate and evaluate both existing and the missing volumes of a history still in the writing." ABA's design will be on display until August 25 as part of the New York Architecture Book Fair, an initiative introduced by the gallery.
Learn more
July 13, 2018

Beyond Manhattanhenge: Find mini-henges happening every day across NYC

While the biannual sunset that aligns perfectly between two skyscrapers in Manhattan is perhaps the best known 'henge,' it's certainly not the only one. Because every neighborhood in New York City features its own pattern of a street grid, each has its own henge days (h/t NY Times). An interactive map called NYCHenge displays where mini-henges happen for every sunset throughout the year, allowing outer-borough residents to snap a solid sunset picture nearly every day.
Find a henge near you
July 12, 2018

This Saturday, the off-limits Brooklyn Bridge Beach will open to the public

This Saturday is the 11th annual City of Water Day, a free festival organized by the Waterfront Alliance to get people to, on, and in New York Harbor and its surrounding waterways. The most anticipated event this year is the chance to access the normally off-limits Brooklyn Bridge Beach, located just north of Pier 17 in the Financial District. For years, Lower Manhattan civic groups have been advocating for the small, sandy beach under the Brooklyn Bridge to be opened to the public, and though it doesn't look like that'll be happening any time soon, the Alliance worked with the NYC EDC to grant access for this one special day.
Learn about all the events happening this Saturday