Private Midtown Manhattan Art and Architecture Walking Tour

We start the tour by dipping our toe into the tenements of Hell's Kitchen, a good juxtaposition for the residential history we see on Fifth Avenue at the end of the tour.

We discuss zoning laws and POPS (privately-owned-public- spaces) at Worldwide Plaza.

At the Citizen Hotel in tims Square we discuss the history of New York and its move uptown.

In the hotel lobby we see works by Julien Opie

787 Axa Equitable (now, BNP Paribas). Here we deconstruct a Roy Lichtenstein mural, then head out back to more works of art and 6 1/2 Avenue, a quirk of zoning and creative urban planning.

We pass into an underground tunnel netwoek that links a series of Midtown Manhattan corportate lobbies with stunning works of art, from Frank Stell and Fritz Glarner to Sarah Morris and Mark Bradford.

Skyscraper Alley is the nickname for these buildings by Wallace Harrison, part of the consortium of architects who built rockefeller Center.

We pass through Rockefeller Center and along the way discuss the fascinating, inordinate history, incuding: Columbia University, holdouts, Alexander Hamilton, Diego Rivera, radio and televison, the Rockefellers themselves , the architectural genius of Raymod Hood, and an incredible array of art. One key to understanding the hisotry of Modern architecture is in Rockefeller Center's program of art, not ornament, in its architecture (thoguh we'll see where John. D. Rockefeller Jr. won out over his architects and got a bit of ornament in his buildings)

You will always remember the view up the escalator to behold St. Patrick's Cathdrel across the Street.

We admire one of New York's most beautiful spaces, the last room in Rockefeller Center before heading out on Fifth Avenue.

Becuase they are long gone, pictures bring back the era when Venderbilt manisons stretched from this part of Fifth Avenue up to Central Park.

We discuss the history of Fifth Avenue and its periods of development.

We pass through the POPS of Olympic Tower and depending. We may use this time to discuss history or architecture if seating is availabe,

This building represents the height of Modern architecture; we put it in context with the development of the rest of the block.

There's a tone of hiostry to talk about here: Grand Central Terminal, the grid, the transformation of Park Avenue, twice! And the current "history" underway.

A must see stop on the tour.

The tour ends with two of New York's most prized POPS that are across the street from each other: 550 Madison and the IBM building's POPS.