Walking Off the Big Apple

(Note: Following Superstorm Sandy, tours of Liberty Island are limited to views from the harbor. Visits to the monument are scheduled to resume on July 4, 2013.)  For someone who has spent the better part of the last three years designing self-guided tours around New York City, and indeed content to pursue urban adventures in a solitary way, you may be surprised to learn that I went on an actual guided tour this past Monday. The occasion was an invitation from  NYCTrip.com , a vacation company started in 1983, to follow along on one of their tours, specifically a guided trip to the World Trade Center site and then to the Statue of Liberty. I’m not opposed to group tours, and for reasons I will explain, visiting some sites in New York may be better suited for the organized tour than venturing alone. The Statue of Liberty, as seen from a ferry to Liberty Island, October 25, 2010. Our guide was a native New Yorker, trained actress, licensed city guide, and a storyteller of the

While walking the Brooklyn Esplanade or strolling downtown these days it's easy to notice the glimmering newcomer in the lower Manhattan skyline. That shimmering steel tower below the Brooklyn Bridge is a skyscraper previously known as "Beekman Tower" or "The Beekman," designed by Gehry Partners, and at 876 feet and 76 floors, it's now the tallest residential building in New York. According to a recent article on the building and interview with the architect in The Wall Street Journal , the builders, Forest City Ratner Companies, plan to market the tower by the name of "New York by Gehry at Eight Spruce Street." Okay. Hey man, whatever works. I think they, the builders and marketing people, want to get out the notion that the proud and soaring thing, to borrow Louis Sullivan's phrase, isn't just a Frank Gehry building anywhere, but an artistic statement about the city, the architect's interpretation of New York's visual identity. I

With the arrival of cool autumn temperatures, a trek to upper Manhattan is in order, specifically a vigorous hike around Fort Tryon Park followed by a meditative walk in The Cloisters. That will get you going. It's lofty up here, away from the secular masses and their petty bourgeois pursuits and their traffic fumes and discordant notes. The terrain is literally higher, elevation-wise, and the combination of a hike through a heather garden and sounds of Gregorian chants wafting through the museum's gift shop can shift the mortal soul into a higher state of being. Plus the views of the Hudson River and the George Washington Bridge are drop dead gorgeous. The George Washington Bridge as seen through the Heather Garden at Fort Tryon Park Getting here: Take the A train up to 190th Street and either wait for a bus to pick you up and drop you off at the front of The Cloisters, or walk through Fort Tryon Park and up to the museum. The park's Heather Garden is beautiful this t

For bibliophiles visiting the city, a trip to the main branch of the New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue in midtown is a required stop. But what's also enjoyable is a stroll of book-related points of interest nearby. On E. 41st Street, on the two blocks just to the east of the main entrance of the library in a stretch known as Literary Way, look down to the sidewalk for the bronze plaques depicting literary quotations. After visiting the great marble halls and rooms of the library, walk to the west side of the building to Bryant Park. While there, borrow a book from its outdoor Reading Room or take a look at one of the statues commemorating a notable figure in arts and letters. For a coffee break, stroll east on 42nd Street to Madison Avenue and look for the new branch of D'Espresso with its mind-bending design of a book-lined study turned on its side. Or for a longer break late in the day or night, wander over to the Library Hotel's rooftop bar, Bookmarks, and sip a g

Brooklyn Heights still retains a sense of dignity and quiet, the legacy of a residential neighborhood that was famous in the nineteenth century for its churches and for its elegant homes built by merchants and sea captains in the shipping trades. The neighborhood remained relatively secluded until 1908, ten years after the incorporation of Greater New York, when the IRT subway connected the two boroughs. According to the Federal Writers' Project guide to the city, the prospects of the lesser sort visiting the bucolic suburb of the aristocracy frightened the residents: "Many of the patrician inhabitants fled; the old Victorian mansions were partitioned into studios and apartments; and writers and artists were attracted to the region." (p. 442) the view from Brooklyn Heights Despite the subsequent twentieth century invasion by artists, poets, painters, and playwrights, Brooklyn Heights has managed to retain much of its seclusion and exclusivity, largely as a resul

(Exhibit closed.) REVIEW.  Abstract Expressionist New York , a sprawling exhibition at MoMA that is drawn entirely from the museum's collection and fills the entire fourth floor plus two additional focus exhibits on the second and third floors, presents the opportunity to be surprised and see the world new again. Shifted to center stage, the paintings that once rocked the art world sixty years ago become important once more, not just another chapter, albeit an important one, in art history textbooks. Much time has ticked away since those boozy, smoky and chatty New York days that gave rise to the drips and the zips, and as most of the artists departed the big scene, a mythology about their lives and work overshadowed their real stories. But even as they became myths, new art movements and artists took their place. MoMA's exhibition includes a section about these pop upstarts - Johns, Oldenburg, Lichtenstein, Ruscha, Rosenquist, and above all, Warhol, waiting in the wings.

(revised 2012) New York City is home to many international cultural centers that serve to highlight, advocate, or otherwise educate a larger public about a particular country, cultural group, or language. The city's international culture extends back to its earliest days, but New York firmly established itself as a world financial and cultural center in the latter half of the twentieth century. Certainly, the waves of immigration over the centuries have made New York one of the most diverse cities in the world. One of the city's most well-known institutions, the United Nations , brings thousands of people from around the world to live and work. The headquarters of the UN, built in the Turtle Bay neighborhood in the years 1949-1952, is designated international territory.  Park Avenue. The Italian Cultural Institute of New York is on the left. In the distance, the Asia Society. This walk serves as an introduction to several international societies, groups, and institute