20/08/2024
Looking towards the Statue of Liberty 🗽, and other shots from a beautiful wander through historic Green-Wood Cemetery.
Custom NYC Tours
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I offer custom walking tours in NYC. Please contact me to arrange a tour or make inquiries! We make NYC memories!
We run small-group, customized walking tours for NYC visitors (or locals!) looking for something a little more personal.
18/08/2024
I love the way that One World Trade Center seems to disappear into the sky when you look straight up at it.
16/08/2024
An afternoon at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 🖼️
16/08/2024
The current rooftop exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art is Petrit Halilaj's 'Abetare'. This sprawling sculptural installation will up through October 27.
15/08/2024
The beautiful art deco lobby of the Empire State Building.
14/08/2024
Ghirardelli Chocolate has arrived at the Empire State Building.
In addition to their full chocolate selection, the shop offers favorites like sundaes, milkshakes, hot chocolate, coffee, brownies, cookies, and chocolate covered strawberries. Will you be visiting?
13/08/2024
My thoughts on visitors worried about safety in NYC, and not mistaking media narratives for reality. 🗽
13/08/2024
The subway rolling into Victorian Flatbush, in Brooklyn.
12/08/2024
A visit around the campus of Columbia University.
Established in 1754 as King’s College on the grounds of Trinity Church, it is the oldest institution of higher education in New York and the fifth-oldest in the United States. It was renamed Columbia College in 1784 following the American Revolution, and in 1787 was placed under a private board of trustees headed by former students Alexander Hamilton and John Jay. In 1896, the campus was moved to its current location in Morningside Heights and renamed Columbia University.
The campus was designed along Beaux-Arts planning principles by the architects McKim, Mead & White.
11/08/2024
Photos from my Summer Streets walk yesterday, and a couple of little detours I took along the way. A beautiful Summer morning!
09/08/2024
Coney Island, on a grey late afternoon & evening. 🎡
09/08/2024
There’s no better way to make an entrance to Coney Island then via the Q train. Gets me every time. 
07/08/2024
The beautiful crown of the former General Electric Building (1931), plus a shot of it seen behind St. Bartholomew’s church from Park Avenue. The building was a celebration of the electric age. ⚡️
07/08/2024
The Seagram Building, on Park Avenue, and completed in 1958, was designed by famed architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. He was the last director of Germany's Bauhaus school. It has 38 floors, and cost about $40 million to build.
A glass curtain wall with vertical mullions of bronze and horizontal spandrels made of Muntz metal form the building's exterior.
Upon opening, the building was widely praised. Described in The New York Times as one of "New York's most copied buildings", the Seagram Building has inspired the designs of other structures around the world. Within NYC, it helped influence the 1961 Zoning Resolution, a zoning ordinance that allowed developers to construct additional floor area in exchange for including plazas outside their buildings.
05/08/2024
On top of Grand Central Terminal sits statues of 3 Roman gods. The work is called 'Glory of Commerce', by Jules-Félix Coutan. Traditionally, the depicted figures have been interpreted as (from left to right) Hercules, Mercury, and Minerva.
But lately, there's been renewed debate about that first one. On closer inspection, the figure does not resemble Hercules, and is surrounded by an anchor, cogwheel, anvil and hammer, etc. This indicates the figure is likely actually Vulcan... the god of fire and the forge, and of smithing and metal working. Essentially the god of industry. Logically, this interpretation makes more sense.
What do you think?
(Below the sculptures is a beautiful Tiffany-glass clock. Still tells the exact time!)
04/08/2024
Summer Streets is an annual event in NYC where specific streets are shut to cars from 7am to 3pm so they can be used for running, walking, or cycling. The Manhattan one runs from down by the Brooklyn Bridge all the way up to Harlem, just over 150 blocks or about 10 miles. The main stretch goes up Park Avenue.
I walked the entire length yesterday morning, and here’s some photos I took along the route.
Final Manhattan 2024 dates are Saturdays the 10th and 17th. Brooklyn and the Bronx will have shorter versions on the 24th.
30/07/2024
A Sunday afternoon in DUMBO, Brooklyn.
28/07/2024
Central Park, late July. 🌳
26/07/2024
An afternoon in Manhattan, on a lovely Summer day. 🚶🏻♂️☀️
24/07/2024
NBC is the local television home of the Paris Olympics, so Rockefeller Center has been transformed in celebration!
It’s always wonderful to see the Center transform throughout the year for holidays or other special events.
23/07/2024
An afternoon exploring Brooklyn.
Come tour NYC’s largest borough!
23/07/2024
Another beautiful Summer day on the water! ⛴️
23/07/2024
The Transit Museum in downtown Brooklyn (in a decommissioned subway station!) is a must-visit, but there’s also a free annex inside Grand Central.
The current exhibition there looks at the system history through old signage and maps.
23/07/2024
Some street art photographed this week.
We offer private art tours. Contact us to plan yours! 🚶🏻♂️🎨
07/07/2024
Haven't done any new videos in a while (busy working!), but here's some videos from last year...
6 1/2 Avenue: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uATP35Svxls
Brief history of the NYC subway from Astor Place to City Hall: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjrh3h4iHLs
I plan to do more videos in the Fall. What topics/areas should I cover?
Much of this is likely familiar to my followers, but for newbies, here's a brief (2-ish minute) look back at some NYC subway history.
05/07/2024
The High Line, on a sunny Summer day.
03/07/2024
Queensboro Bridge, seen from Roosevelt Island.
02/07/2024
Another beautiful Summer day for exploring NYC! 🗽
Come join me on tour, and plan your own New York adventure.
02/07/2024
A question I get on my Art Deco tours a lot is: Does anyone still make art deco buildings?
And the answer is: Very rarely! But not no.
A great example is The Fitzroy, a residential building in Chelsea, near the High Line. Completed 2019. It was developed by Largo and JDS Development Group and designed by the firm Roman and Williams. It has a striking art-deco-inspired facade of fluted dark green terra-cotta.
Amid more modern-looking buildings nearby by firms such as Bjarke Ingels Group and Zaha Hadid, it stands out for its more classic look. A walk along the High Line has become a stroll through inspiring new residential architecture. Worth a look if you're in this area of the west side.
30/06/2024
The Astoria route is my favorite route on the NYC Ferry system. A good ride along the East River, passing by countless landmarks and cool neighborhoods. ⛴️
And at $4 a ride, an incredible deal.
Here’s photos from yesterday’s ride!
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Videos
My thoughts on visitors worried about safety in NYC, and not mistaking media narratives for reality. 🗽
There’s no better way to make an entrance to Coney Island then via the Q train. Gets me every time. 
Artists at work at the annual Welling Court Mural Project event this afternoon. 🎨 This is one of several blocks where artists create beautiful art in this section of western Queens.
The Portal is an interactive public art project linking New York to Dublin via a video screen (no audio). Our portal sits right next to the Flatiron Building; theirs on N Earl Street across from the Spire. Residents of both cities can interact with each other in real time. When I visited this morning, we saw many Dubliners saying hello even on a rainy afternoon there.
My top 10 personal favorites of Art Deco in NYC. What would you have swapped?
Central Park jazz, near the reservoir. 🎷
Central Park, in Spring.
Got to watch street artist Frank Ape finish a wall on a tour today. (finished wall in comments)
A preview video of a landmark-packed half-day tour we’re planning. An itinerary for someone with limited time in NYC, and wanting to maximize what they can see. Would you take this tour?
Final cherry blossom video of the season! 🌸👋🏻 The Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s cherry tree esplanade is the prettiest place right now to experience the peak of this bloom season.
In a couple years, NYC will bid farewell to the Metrocard. 👋🏻 Over the last few years, the MTA has installed “tap to go” technology on every bus and in every subway station in New York City. You can tap any contactless payment card or Apple Pay now. But what about people who prefer a dedicated transit card, or want to use cash? That’s where the dedicated OMNY cards come in. The OMNY rollout will not be complete until all stations have a machine like this to buy or refill these cards. And they are a couple years behind schedule. But the progress continues!
Cherry blossoms have reached peak across New York, and we’re rapidly nearing the end of their bloom season. 🌸 Here’s a look at a beautiful section of these trees in Central Park yesterday, just up the hill from the Conservatory Water.
Cherry Hill, Central Park. 🌸
The NYC subway has been adding more modern trains to its system, and this year saw the debut of the first open gangway trains in the system. Currently, there's just a couple of them running on the C line, but more trains are being added over the next few years. Here's a 2-minute video looking at this new train, and the system in general in Spring 2024. Contrary to the usual media sensationalism, the subway remains the best way to get around New York. And at $2.90 a ride (capped at $34 in a 7-day period, no matter how much you ride), one of the best bargains in town.
St Patrick’s Day Parade, 5th Avenue. ☘️
Mohamed Elshorbagy (England) vs Cesar Salazar (Mexico), squash tournament at Grand Central.
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