Near Fifth Avenue's Holiday Frenzy, a Repertoire of Worthy Escapes

It takes a brave soul to withstand the holiday bustle in Midtown, especially Fifth Avenue near the glamorous glittery stores. Anyone who has tried to walk quickly on the crowded sidewalk under those famous high-flying flags knows exactly what I mean. The pedestrian drama at holiday time becomes intense and stressful.

While venturing inside the 5th Avenue stores can offer a momentary escape from the maddening crowd (but good luck with that), those in want of a quick restoration of sanity should take flight to calmer streets.

This is your brain on Fifth Avenue during the holiday season.

Consider these nearby Midtown spots to add to your storehouse of escapes:

1. Alywn Court Building and Petrossian Restaurant, or their café, 182 W. 58th St. (at 7th Avenue). On the ground floor of the ornate Alwyn Court Apartments (1907-1909), enjoy caviar and French-inspired food in a spectacular room decorated with Lalique glass and Limoges china. For a more minimalist experience and lighter fare, try the Petrossian Cafe, my go-to choice in the neighborhood. Even their croque-monsieur is handled lightly.

Alwyn Court Building, with awnings for Petrossian Restaurant

Petrossian Café

2. 6 1/2 Avenue: The Pedestrian Arcades of Midtown, between 7th and 6th Avenues. This area of Midtown features several walking arcades, though a decidedly corporate New York version of the Parisian ones of the late 19th century. These thoroughfares, now officially known as 6 1/2 Avenue, break up the long east-west blocks for the benefit of pedestrians, even inviting a sweet short-cut from City Center to Radio City Music Hall. They provide handy cover when it rains.

Now designated 6 1/2 Avenue, one of a sequence of pedestrian thoroughfares in Midtown

On 6 1/2 Avenue, just pedestrians, no cars

3. The back entrance to MoMA on W. 54th Street, between 6th and 5th Avenues. Cool people (i.e. museum members) enter MoMA from the W. 54th Street side, a less hurried entrance than on 53rd St. This block also sports some elegant Beaux Arts townhouses and nice restaurants. Sneak a peek at the museum's sculpture garden through the slatted fence.

W. 54th entrance of MoMA

7 W. 54th St, originally Philip Lehman House. 1900.

A peek at MoMA's sculpture garden from W. 54th St.

4. Paley Park, 3 E. 53rd St. Moving to the east side of Fifth Avenue, this small pocket park, built in 1967 on the site of the former Stork Club, is considered a model of successful public places. The necessary ingredients of public life are assembled here - a setback from the street, a water feature, nearby food, and moveable chairs amendable to solitude or to company. The waterfall makes loud enough white noise to drown out traffic but not conversation.

Paley Park. Stephen Sondheim's landmark musical Company (1970) includes a reference to this park -
"Imagine being in a tiny, quiet, little pocket of the park right here in the middle of the busy, noisy east 50s. "

5. Lever House and Seagram Building. After so much froufrou architecture (and yes, we started with the highly ornate Alwyn Court), a dose of architectural modernism works well to clear out the visual excesses. The 1952 Lever House is famous for introducing the world to the glass curtain wall, and the building has aged well. The Lever House Art Collection displays works of art in the building's courtyard and adjacent spaces. The tall, dark, and handsome Seagram Building (1958), a monument of modern architecture by Mies van der Rohe with Philip Johnson, is showing off pyramids of Christmas trees in its plaza.

Lever House

The Seagram Building opted for many trees this holiday but minimally decorated, of course.

Know your city, folks. You can play it like a piano.

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Images by Walking Off the Big Apple from the weekend of December 14-16, 2012. Clicking on images enlarges them.

A New York Spring Calendar: Blooming Times and Seasonal Events

See the UPDATED 2018 CALENDAR HERE . Updated for 2017 . At this time of year, thoughts turn to spring. Let's spring forward to blooming times, the best locations for witnessing spring's beginnings, and springtime events in the big city. While the occasional snow could blow through the city, we're just weeks now from callery pears in bloom and opening day at the ballpark. In The Ramble, Central Park. mid-April Blooming Times • Central Park Conservancy's website lists blooming times within the park. During the month of March we begin to see crocus, daffodils, forsythia, snowdrops, witch-hazel, and hellebores. Species tulips will emerge in several places, but the Shakespeare Garden and Conservatory Garden are particularly good places to catch the beginning of Spring blooms. Central Park near E. 72nd St., saucer magnolia, typically end of March. • Citywide Blooming Calendar from New York City Department of Parks & Recreation April is u

Museums in New York Open on Mondays

Please see this post for current announcements of reopenings . Please consult the museum websites for changes in days and hours. UPDATED September 23, 2020 Advance tickets required for many museum reopenings. Please check museum websites for details. • The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) reopened to the public on August 27 , with new hours for the first month, through September 27: from 10:30 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday to the public; and from 10:30 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. on Mondays for MoMA members on ly. Admission will be free to all visitors Tuesday through Sunday, through September 27, made possible by UNIQLO. See this new post on WOTBA for a sense of the experience attending the museum . • New-York Historical Society reopened on August 14 with an outdoor exhibition, "Hope Wanted: New York City Under Quarantine,” in the rear courtyard. The exhibit by activist Kevin Powell and photographer Kay Hickman will highlight how New Yorkers weathered the quarantine

25 Things To Do Near the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)

(updated 2016) The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) at 11 W. 53rd Street is near many other New York City attractions, so before or after a trip to the museum, a short walk in any direction could easily take in additional experiences. Drawing a square on a map with the museum at the center, a shape bounded by 58th Street to the north and 48th Street to the south, with 7th Avenue to the west and Park Avenue to the east, proves the point of the area's cultural richness. (A map follows the list below.) While well-known sightseeing stops fall with these boundaries, most notably Rockefeller Center, St. Patrick's Cathedral, and the great swath of famous Fifth Avenue stores, cultural visitors may also want to check out places such as the Austrian Cultural Forum, the 57th Street galleries, the Onassis Cultural Center, and the Municipal Art Society. The image above shows an intriguing glimpse of the tops of two Beaux-Arts buildings through an opening of the wall inside MoMA's scu

25 Things to Do Near the American Museum of Natural History

After visiting the American Museum of Natural History, explore attractions on the Upper West Side or in Central Park. Visitors to New York often run around from one major tourist site to the next, sometimes from one side of the city to the other, and in the process, exhaust themselves thoroughly. Ambitious itineraries often include something like coffee in the Village in the morning, lunch near MoMA, a couple of hours in the museum, a ride on the Staten Island Ferry in the afternoon, cocktails at the midtown hotel, a quick dinner, and then a Broadway show. It's a wonder people don't pass out at the theater. While sitting on the steps of the American Museum of History, consider exploring the Upper West Side and nearby sites of interest in Central Park. There's a better way to plan a New York trip. Consider grouping attractions together geographically. Several posts on this site address this recommended approach. The Wild West of the Tecumseh Playground Groupin

The High Line and Chelsea Market: A Good Pairing for a Walk

(revised 2017) The advent of spring, with its signs of growth and rebirth, is apparent both on the High Line , where volunteers are cutting away the old growth to reveal fresh blooms, and inside the Chelsea Market, where new tenants are revitalizing the space. A walk to take in both can become an exploration of bounty and surprise, a sensual walk of adventure and sustenance. A good pairing for a walk: The High Line and Chelsea Market Walking the High Line for a round trip from Gansevoort to W. 30th and then back again adds up to a healthy 2-mile walk. Regular walkers of the elevated park look for an excuse to go there. Especially delightful is showing off the park, a model of its kind, to visitors from out of town. A stroll through Chelsea Market. Time check. If you haven't stopped into Chelsea Market lately, you may want to take a detour from the High Line at the stairs on W. 16th St. and walk through the market for a quick assessment or a sampling. Among the sampli

25 Things to Do Near the Metropolitan Museum of Art

(updated) Sitting on the steps in front of the Metropolitan Museum of Art is one of those iconic things to do in New York City. On a sunny day, the wide steps can become crowded with the young and old, the tourist and the resident. It's tempting to stay awhile and soak in the sun and the sights. Everyone has reasons for lingering there, with one being the shared pleasure of people watching along this expansive stretch of Fifth Avenue, a painting come to life. Certainly, just getting off one's feet for a moment is welcome, especially if the previous hours involved walking through the entirety of art history from prehistoric to the contemporary. The entrance to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Fifth Avenue The Metropolitan Museum of Art should be a singular pilgrimage, uninterrupted by feeble attempts to take in more exhibitions along Museum Mile. Pity the poor visitor who tries "to do" multiple museum exhibitions in one day, albeit ambitious, noble, and uplift

Taking a Constitutional Walk

A long time ago individuals going out for a walk, especially to get fresh air and exercise, often referred to the activity as "taking a constitutional walk." The word "constitutional" refers to one's constitution or physical makeup, so a constitutional walk was considered beneficial to one's overall wellbeing. (Or, as some would prefer to call it, "wellness.") The phrase is more common in British literature than in American letters. As early as the mid-nineteenth century, many American commentators expressed concern that their countrymen were falling into lazy and unhealthy habits. Newspaper columnists and editorial writers urged their readers to take up the practice of the "constitutional" walk. One such essay, " Walking as an Exercise," originally printed in the Philadelphia Gazette and reprinted in New England Farmer , Volume 11, 1859, urges the people of farm areas to take up walking. City dwellers seemed to have the

Introducing Birds of Inwood

Introducing a New Website It's been a moment since I posted last. Please forgive me. I have been in the forest down the street. After spending many of my leisure hours taking photographs of birds in my local neighborhood of Inwood, I am introducing to you a new website featuring these beautiful and often enigmatic creatures. It's called Birds of Inwood . As I write there, "Inwood is my Amherst." With time, my advancing age, and the pandemic, I have learned to find depth and beauty in places close to home. I have also found to my delight that designing a new website presents great opportunities. Birds of Inwood is pretty flashy! The birds are even larger than life on these new pages! Please visit. You'll be glad I didn't call it "Flying Off the Big Apple." Check out my forest home. - Teri

14 Useful Mobile Apps for Walking New York City

Texting and walking at the same time is wrong. Talking on the phone while strolling down the street is wrong. Leaving the sidewalk to stop and consult the information on a cellphone, preferably while alone, is OK. What's on Walking Off the Big Apple's iPhone: A List Walkmeter GPS Walking Stopwatch for Fitness and Weight Loss . While out walking, Walkmeter tracks routes, time, speed, and elevation. This is an excellent app for recording improvised or impromptu strolls, especially with many unplanned detours. The GPS function maps out the actual route. The app keeps a running tally of calories burned while walking, useful for weight loss goals. Another welcome feature is the ability to switch over to other modes of activity, including cycling. An indispensable app for city walkers. $4.99 New York City Compass , designed by Francesco Bertelli, is an elegant compass calibrated for Manhattan, with indications for Uptown, East Side, Downtown, and West Side. While facing a cert

Visiting New York on a Monday

Mondays are OK. Let's have a look at some of the museums open Mondays - • American Museum of Natural History • Jewish Museum • Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) • National Museum of the American Indian • Neue Galerie • Guggenheim Museum • South Street Seaport Museum Any of these museums could be paired with a nearby restaurant or bar, making a complete full afternoon or day in New York. Monday is especially good for a museum visit, because the crowds tend to be thinner, and restaurants, too, tend to be less busy than on a weekend. A fun museum and bistro walk on the Upper West Side would be a combination of the American Museum of Natural History and the nearby Cafe Lalo on W. 83rd St. I also would suggest a pairing of the Neue Galerie with a nearby cafe, but the two cafes inside the musuem are so good, why go anywhere else? Image above: The Guggenheim on left and Beaux-Arts townhouse on right. View from E. 88th St. by Walking Off the Big Apple.

Walking Off the Big Apple

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