17 seconds ago 2009-11-10T01:51:47-08:00
NEW YORK – Interested in New York history and architecture? Check out the walking tours offered by the Municipal Arts Society on everything from Beaux Arts buildings on the Upper West Side to the neighborhood around the city's new High Line, an old elevated train track reclaimed as a park.
But if you can't fit a tour into your schedule while you're in town, the Municipal Art Society has just come out with a guide that allows you to do it yourself: "Ten Architectural Walks in Manhattan."
The $30 paperback was co-written by art and architecture critic Francis Morrone and Matthew Postal, an architectural historian, both of whom frequently lead tours for the Municipal Arts Society.
The book's 10 chapters cover downtown preservation and planning, with an eye to early Manhattan history; downtown skycrapers; the High Line neighborhood; the Flatiron District; the Art Deco architecture of Midtown; Grand Central Terminal; Park Avenue; Modernism in Midtown, including Columbus Circle; Central Park; and Hamilton Heights in Harlem.
If you do want to check out a tour in person, visit http://www.mas.org to see the schedule and prices. Most tours are two hours and run $15. They include visits to neighborhoods all over the city and not just in Manhattan, from Coney Island in Brooklyn to the green spaces and historic homes of the Bronx to the Asian neighborhoods of Queens.
