Events &amp; Things To Do

Spring is officially here, and there's no better place to confirm the good news than Central Park, where the season brings a burst of color to every corner of the park's 840 acres. Warmer weather brings beautiful blooms and a flurry of activities and events along with photogenic landscapes. The park's Spring Guide has all you need to know about the park's prettiest places to visit; a handy map points out where the blooms are, and you can search for your favorites and learn more about them. There are also events for families, Conservancy members and the general public that will help you make the best of the season's beauty.
Where the blooms are, this way

$2.8M from Met admission fees will be allocated to 175 NYC cultural organizations

Image via Pexels

March 19, 2019

$2.8M from Met admission fees will be allocated to 175 NYC cultural organizations

When the Metropolitan Museum of Art announced it would start charging non-New Yorkers $25 for admission and waive its pay-what-you-wish policy for the first time since 1970, most people reacted with disapproval. But there was an under-the-radar benefit to this new policy: The Met agreed to share a portion of the new revenue from admission fees with the city, to be used by the Department of Cultural Affairs in support of the CreateNYC plan. A year after the admission fees went into effect, the de Blasio administration has announced that $2.8 million in additional funding will be allocated to over 175 cultural organizations in underserved communities throughout the five boroughs.
More info

Lou Reed archive opens at New York Public Library, complete with special edition library card

Image courtesy of NYPL.

March 18, 2019

Lou Reed archive opens at New York Public Library, complete with special edition library card

The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, located in Lincoln Center, has just announced that the Lou Reed Archive is open to the public. The archive documents the life and history of the musician, composer, poet, writer, photographer and tai-chi student through his own extensive collection of papers, photographs, recordings and other materials that span Reed's creative life starting with his 1958 Freeport High School band, the Shades, right up to his last performances in 2013. In addition, the archive's opening is being celebrated with a special edition library card as well as a display of items in the collection and more events.
Find out more

March 18, 2019

PHOTOS: See inside Hudson Yards’ climbable ‘Vessel’

By Devin Gannon

The long-awaited Hudson Yards development opened on Friday and with it, the centerpiece of the 28-acre project: a 150-foot-tall climbable public art piece, known as "Vessel." Designed by Thomas Heatherwick, the impressive bronzed steel-and-concrete structure offers visitors a one-mile vertical climbing experience through 154 interconnected flights of stairs and 2,500 individual steps. On Friday, 6sqft joined the first group of people to ever climb the honeycomb-shaped sculpture. Ahead, get up close to the intricately-designed Vessel and learn how to reserve tickets to climb it.
See inside the sculpture

Photo exhibit shows 10 years of subway cars dropped in the Atlantic Ocean to become artificial reefs

Air Break, 2008. Photo by Stephen Mallon.

March 15, 2019

Photo exhibit shows 10 years of subway cars dropped in the Atlantic Ocean to become artificial reefs

By now you may have seen Stephen Mallon’s mind-bending photo series showing thousands of decommissioned NYC subway cars being tossed into the Atlantic Ocean. The MTA initiative was undertaken more than 10 years ago with the goal of creating artificial reefs that would support sea life along the eastern seabed. The amazing photo series, briefly on view at NYU’s Kimmel Galleries, documented the train cars being heaved into the briny deep from Delaware to South Carolina over three years. Now, a new exhibit, "Sea Train: Subway Reef Photos by Stephen Mallon," opening March 20th at the New York Transit Museum’s Grand Central Gallery, features 19 large-format photographs that capture the iconic subway cars, dropped like toy trains from hulking barges as they're being deployed as sea-life-sustaining artificial reefs,
More amazing photos and their story, this way

Events & Things To Do

Everything you need to know about Saturday’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade: Route, street closings, and more

Image via Flickr

March 15, 2019

Everything you need to know about Saturday’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade: Route, street closings, and more

The city will soon be looking very green as 150,000 marchers and two million spectators come together for the annual St. Patrick's Day parade. Bagpipers, marching bands and more will make their way from Midtown to the Upper East Side, as the oldest and largest St. Patrick’s Day Parade in the world celebrates its 257th year. This year's parade will take place on Saturday, the day before St. Patrick's Day, because March 17 falls on a Sunday. Read on for more details, how to avoid traffic, and how public transit will be affected.
Know before you go

Sebastian Errazuriz’s Lower East Side sculpture live streams NASA satellite footage of the Earth

Photo taken by 6sqft

March 14, 2019

Sebastian Errazuriz’s Lower East Side sculpture live streams NASA satellite footage of the Earth

By Dana Schulz

When 6sqft visited designer, artist, and activist Sebastian Errazuriz in his Bronx studio last year, we noted that "nothing he does is cookie-cutter." This outside-the-box thinking is now on view for all of NYC to see in his latest public artwork titled blu Marble, a 20-foot, LED structure in a vacant Lower East Side lot that depicts live NASA satellite footage of the Earth. Located at 159 Ludlow Street, blue Marble will be on view until 14th to "inspire awareness and mindfulness in our everyday lives."
Find out more

Events & Things To Do

March 13, 2019

‘It’s the Bronx’ arts and culture festival aims to be the ‘SXSW of the Bronx’

The creators of The Bronx Night Market will soon be launching a grand festival dedicated to "celebrating Bronx hustle." The It's the Bronx (@itsthebronx) festival will take place on March 22-24 at the Union Crossing building in Port Morris, featuring up-and-coming musicians, visual artists, discussion panels, video screening, a gallery exhibit and street performances plus plenty to eat and drink.
Find out more

Events & Things To Do

Meet the women who founded New York City’s modern and contemporary art museums

“Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, half-length portrait, standing with statue of soldiers,” 1920, via, The Library of Congress

March 11, 2019

Meet the women who founded New York City’s modern and contemporary art museums

When the first Armory Show came to New York City in 1913, it marked the dawn of Modernism in America, displaying work by Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cezanne, Picasso, Matisse, and Duchamp for the very first time. Not only did female art patrons provide 80 percent of the funding for the show, but since that time, women have continued to be the central champions of American modern and contemporary art. It was Abby Aldrich Rockefeller who founded MoMA; Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney the Whitney; Hilla von Rebay the Guggenheim; Aileen Osborn Webb the Museum of Art and Design; and Marcia Tucker the New Museum. Read on to meet the modern women who founded virtually all of New York City’s most prestigious modern and contemporary art museums.
More Modern Women

JFK’s TWA Hotel will curate exhibitions of rare Jet Age artifacts and memorabilia

Guests of the TWA Flight Center Hotel—set to open on May 15—will be able to experience the Jet Age through exhibitions of Trans World Airlines artifacts curated by the New-York Historical Society. Flight attendant’s logs, vintage furniture from TWA headquarters, in-flight amenities—like gilded playing cards and custom matchbooks—are some of the types of objects that will be on view in a rotating series of exhibitions dedicated to the former TWA terminal, a historic landmark designed by Finnish architect Eero Saarinen and opened in 1962.
More info

Woodlawn Cemetery hosts LGBT history trolley tour in honor of Stonewall’s 50th anniversary

Via Doc Searls on Flickr

March 8, 2019

Woodlawn Cemetery hosts LGBT history trolley tour in honor of Stonewall’s 50th anniversary

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising, a watershed in the struggle for LGBT rights. In honor of the anniversary, Woodlawn Cemetery and the LGBT Historic Sites Project will offer a two-hour trolley tour taking visitors to the final resting places of some of Woodlawn's most illustrious LGBT "permanent residents."
Get tickets here

11 events to celebrate and commemorate Women’s History Month in NYC

Women from all over the world unite at the Apollo Theater, photo by Shahar Azran, courtesy of the Apollo Theater

March 8, 2019

11 events to celebrate and commemorate Women’s History Month in NYC

By Ben Kharakh

Women’s History Month comes but once a year in March, so until Women’s Day every day, we’ll have to make the most of what the city of New York has to offer. And that’s quite a lot considering all the art, culture, and history of the Big Apple. Here’s a list of what you can do to commemorate women’s indelible contributions to human flourishing, while also reflecting on how you can contribute to achieving equality, from art exhibits to comedy shows to seminars on female entrepreneurship.
Check out our 11 event picks

Events & Things To Do

An interactive ‘junglescape’ is coming to the courtyard of MoMA PS1 this summer

Hórama Rama by Pedro & Juana, winner of the 2019 Young Architects Program. Ana Paula Ruiz Galindo & Mecky Reuss. Mexico City, Mexico

March 8, 2019

An interactive ‘junglescape’ is coming to the courtyard of MoMA PS1 this summer

By Devin Gannon

Serving as the light at the end of winter's tunnel, MoMA PS1 unveiled this week the winning design for its popular summer outdoor music series Warm Up. The installation "Hórama Rama" by Pedro & Juana (a Mexico City-based studio founded by Ana Paula Ruiz Galindo and Mecky Reuss) will bring an immersive "junglescape" with a cyclorama that sits on top of the concrete courtyard walls. "Hórama Rama" will feature a 40-foot-tall, 90-foot-wide structure that floats over the courtyard space, with hammocks and a functioning, two-story waterfall contributing to the wilderness vibe. The temporary exhibit accompanies the outdoor music series that runs from June to September.
See the winning design

Events & Things To Do

Bjarke Ingels’ two twisting towers top out in Chelsea

Photo by Evan Joseph

March 8, 2019

Bjarke Ingels’ two twisting towers top out in Chelsea

Bjarke Ingels’ twisting towers at 76 Eleventh Avenue in Chelsea officially topped out this week, with the 36-story West tower reaching 400 feet shortly after the 26-story East tower hit its 300-foot height. The High Line-adjacent XI, located right across the street from Thomas Heatherwick’s bubbled condos at 515 West 18th Street, will offer 236 luxury condos, the first Six Senses Hotel location in the United States, commercial space, and a new public promenade that will extend from the park. Designed by Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), the XI's slanted shape gives the illusion the two buildings are being pulled apart, allowing for all residents to have views of both the city and the Hudson River.
Get the details

56 Leonard sidewalk gets outlined in anticipation of Anish Kapoor’s bean sculpture

Rendering by Anish Kapoor.

March 6, 2019

56 Leonard sidewalk gets outlined in anticipation of Anish Kapoor’s bean sculpture

Herzog & de Meuron's striking "Jenga" condo tower at 56 Leonard Street in Tribeca is a conversation piece on its own, with its cantilevered rectangles of glass rising into the sky. The long-anticipated flourish that will anchor the skyscraper–artist Anish Kapoor's reflective bean-shaped sculpture–is finally on the way, as evidenced by an intricate set of circles and arrows that just arrived on the building's sidewalk. The spray-painted outline will inform installation of the sculpture, which resembles a similar public art icon in Chicago, where Kapoor's "Cloud Gate" sculpture apparently attracts millions of tourists every year and has become an Instagram staple.
What's taking so long, the anticipation is killing us

Events & Things To Do

35 Hudson Yards reveals new interior renderings and details ahead of March 15 sales launch

35 Hudson Yards. Image courtesy of Related-Oxford.

March 5, 2019

35 Hudson Yards reveals new interior renderings and details ahead of March 15 sales launch

New details and lots of renderings were released this week revealing the 143 residences at 35 Hudson Yards, the tallest residential building in the Hudson Yards mega-development, ahead of a just-announced March 15 sales launch with units starting at $5 million. At over 1,000 feet, the building was designed by David Childs and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill with interiors by Tony Ingrao. In addition to the neighborhood's loftiest homes, the building is home to the world's first Equinox Hotel.
New renderings, this way

Rendering of “Big Bend” via Oiio Studio

February 28, 2019

Win tickets to hear Rafael Viñoly, José Andrés, and more speak at the 92Y’s ‘City of Tomorrow’ summit

By 6sqft

Some of the leading voices in architecture, real estate, city planning, and design will meet next month for a two-day symposium full of panel discussions and interactive workshops. Presented by the 92nd Street Y and Hundred Stories PR, the City of Tomorrow: Real Estate, Architecture & Design Summit features conversations with renowned architects like Rafael Viñoly and Annabelle Selldorf, restaurateurs José Andrés and Missy Robbins, developer Steven Witkoff, and dozens more. 6sqft has partnered with the organizers to offer two lucky readers a pair of tickets to the March 15 and 16 conference.
Find out how to enter

Events & Things To Do

Spin your wheels at MCNY’s upcoming exhibit ‘Cycling in the City: A 200 Year History’

New York Awheel―On the Riverside Drive, Near the Great Monument, Munsey’s Magazine, May 1896, Illustrator: J.M. Gleeson, Private collection courtesy of the Museum of the City of New York

February 28, 2019

Spin your wheels at MCNY’s upcoming exhibit ‘Cycling in the City: A 200 Year History’

With 100+ miles of protected bike lanes, a flotilla of Citi Bikes, and the robust Five Boro Bike Tour, New York City ranks as one of the top 10 cycling cities in the country. In fact, the nation's very first bike lane was designated on Brooklyn's Ocean Parkway in 1894, and the city's cycling history reaches back two centuries. Beginning March 14th, the Museum of the City of New York will celebrate and explore that history in the new exhibit, "Cycling in the City: A 200 Year History."
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Trump’s Soho hotel experiences business boom after rebranding without the president’s name

Image: Trump Soho; Donald Trump via Wikimedia Commons

February 27, 2019

Trump’s Soho hotel experiences business boom after rebranding without the president’s name

After a prolonged economic slump and a not-so-subtle rebranding, Soho’s Dominick Hotel—formerly known as the Trump Soho—has experienced a formidable increase in revenue, as Bloomberg reports. The revenue per available room rose more than 20 percent from last year. The hotel’s average nightly rate increased by $51 (a 20 percent increase compared to just 2 percent among the hotel's competitors) and had 7,000 more bookings in 2018 than in 2017.
More info

Events & Things To Do

Reservations to climb Hudson Yards’ giant public sculpture are open!

Rendering of the completed Vessel and plaza, courtesy of Heatherwick Studios for Related-Oxford

February 27, 2019

Reservations to climb Hudson Yards’ giant public sculpture are open!

By Dana Schulz

As of today, those who did not sign up for advanced tickets to enter Thomas Heatherwick's 150-foot-tall, honeycomb-shaped public art installation at Hudson Yards can reserve their one-hour time slot. Formerly known as The Vessel, (it's now awaiting an official name), the climbable sculpture officially opens along with the entire development this Friday. The free tickets must be reserved 14 days in advance, so chances are even though the structure can hold a whopping 1,000 people at a time, it's going to be a crowded spring.
More details

Events & Things To Do

My 1,300sqft: Artist Rob Wynne’s glass installations mix with eclectic decor in his Soho loft

Our series “My sqft” checks out the homes of New Yorkers across all the boroughs. Our latest interior adventure brings us to artist Rob Wynne’s Soho loft. Want to see your home featured here? Get in touch!

February 27, 2019

My 1,300sqft: Artist Rob Wynne’s glass installations mix with eclectic decor in his Soho loft

By Dana Schulz

"If you have something to say, you figure out what material will help you fulfill that destiny," said artist Rob Wynne, referencing the various mediums in which he works, from hand-embroidered paintings to sculpture to molten glass. It's this "alchemy" that is currently being explored through his exhibit "FLOAT" at the Brooklyn Museum, a show of 16 works that "seemingly floating within the American Art galleries." But Wynne's talent is perhaps on display nowhere more so that his home and studio in Soho. Wynne moved to the artist's loft in the '70s, and what has resulted is an organic and eclectic mix of decor and furniture from decades of travel, meeting fellow NYC artists, and finding inspiration through various disciplines. 6sqft recently visited Rob at his home and explored his collections of curiosities. We also got an up-close look at the process behind his large-scale mirrored glass installations, as well as many of his other incredible works.
Hear more from Rob and explore his studio

Thousands of Soviet espionage artifacts on view at Chelsea’s new KGB Museum

Inside the KGB Spy Museum. All photos in this post are courtesy of the KGB Spy Museum

February 25, 2019

Thousands of Soviet espionage artifacts on view at Chelsea’s new KGB Museum

After entering the new KGB Spy Museum on 14th Street between 7th and 8th Avenues on a recent afternoon, a young Russian man wearing all black said, "Do you know who that is?" Pointing to a stoic portrait of Vladimir Lenin on the wall, he added, "He is like a God to the Soviet people." The Soviet Era is the stock-in-trade of New York's new KGB Spy Museum, which houses a staggering collection of never-before-seen Soviet espionage artifacts used by the KGB, Soviet Russia's spy organization or "State Security Committee," once known as "the sword and shield of the Communist Party."
Get a preview

Events & Things To Do

NYHS exhibit celebrates cartoonist Mort Gerberg’s witty take on city life and social issues

Mort Gerberg, “No, not a ‘D’ – it’s a ‘B’! You know, like in Beowulf…Botticelli…Brahams…”, cartoon for the Saturday Review, 1965 Courtesy of the New York Historical Society

February 22, 2019

NYHS exhibit celebrates cartoonist Mort Gerberg’s witty take on city life and social issues

Sometimes, the daily grind of New York City life - from waiting for the subway, to getting hit with unidentified "New York Drip," to sharing an apartment with God-knows-how-many people, can be overwhelming. Other times, you just have to laugh. Beloved cartoonist Mort Gerberg has been helping New Yorkers laugh about the various predicaments of city life, current events, politics, and even sports for more than 50 years. Now through May 5th, the New-York Historical Society is hosting "Mort Gerberg Cartoons: A New Yorker's Perspective," a retrospective of his work that offers over 120 cartoons, drawings, and pieces of sketch reportage spanning the whole of Gerberg's career.
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Events & Things To Do

Siah Armajani: “Bridge Over Tree” 1970/2019; wood, steel and evergreen tree. Photo: Timothy Schenck.

February 21, 2019

Siah Armajani’s ‘Bridge Over Tree’ now open in Brooklyn Bridge Park