Penn Central Transportation Company v. New York City was a landmark decision which ruled that New York City could prohibit the construction of a 53- story office building above Grand Central Terminal because the tower would significantly alter the terminal's status as a historic landmark.“The Committee to Save Grand Central Station,” was organized by the Municipal Art Society and led by several notable New Yorkers, including former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and architect Philip Johnson.

Supreme Court Ruling to Preserve Grand Central Terminal Landmark Status

A competition to develop innovative proposals to strengthen the resiliency of regions affected by Hurricane Sandy was launched by HUD, &nbsp;Rockefeller Foundation, Institute for Public Knowledge at NYU, Municipal Art Society, Regional Plan Association, Van Alen; it was won by the Dryline which received $335 million to implement the project&nbsp;

Rebuild by Design

Established to promote urban planning, public art, and preservation in the city. Key accomplishments include influencing New York's first zoning laws, contributing to subway planning, and helping establish the Landmarks Preservation Commission after the destruction of Pennsylvania Station. MAS has also championed the preservation of historic sites, such as the original Trans World Flight Center. It continues its mission today from its headquarters at 488 Madison Avenue, New York.

Everyday over 700,000 New Yorkers pass through Midtown along Park Avenue to and from Grand Central Terminal. This is a part of the City where in a few blocks you can see many of the forces that have shaped our city. There are icons of architecture (Midtown Modernism) and capitalism such as Lever, Seagram, and the Chrysler building. There are icons of real estate such as the Grand Hyatt and Helmsley. Under construction is one of the city’s tallest office buildings Chase. There are great clubs and great churches. This walk will showcase some of the art and architecture along Park Avenue and tell some of the stories about its past, its present, and perhaps future.The tour is available as a guided tour, as well as a virtual tour.

The Art & Architecture of Park Avenue from Lever to Grand Central 2026

Abby Suckle received her Master of Architecture from the Harvard Graduate School of Design and her undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to opening her own architectural firm, she practiced architecture with Pei Cobb Freed &amp; Partners. She has an architectural practice in New York City with work ranging from residential to public buildings. As the President of cultureNOW, she leads the Museum Without Walls project, which is an attempt to expand beyond gallery walls to create an acoustiguide to the environment blending art architecture and history. She has curated two recent exhibitions on Mapping in New York and Boston. She has taught at Parsons, the Boston Architectural Center and Harvard where she is currently collaborating on a course about Design for Resilience post Sandy. Ms. Suckle is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects. In 2012 she received the AIA NY State President Award and the National AIA Collaborative Achievement Award. She also received the 2009 AIA NY State Fellows Award and serves on the board of the NY Chapter of the AIA.

Anne Lewison is a Senior Technical Architect. Previously, she has been the senior architect and Project Manager for the World Trade Center Museum Pavilion by Snøhetta, New York. She directed the team on all aspects of this project from 2007 to the public opening in May of 2014. Prior projects include Pei, Cobb Freed and Partners, The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC for which she integrated the permanent exhibitions into the architecture, as well as designing the settings for all the commissioned art for the building. &nbsp; More recently her work took her to Toronto, representing the Museum of Contemporary Art's Board of Directors during the construction of their fit-out of 50,000sf over five floors of a 100-year-old former factory on the west side of Toronto.

RSVP is required and capacity is limited. Meeting location, ending location, and directions will be provided via email before walk date.

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Everyday over 700,000 New Yorkers pass through Midtown along Park Avenue to and from Grand Central Terminal. This is a part of the City where in a few blocks you can see many of the forces that have shaped our city. There are icons of architecture (Midtown Modernism) and capitalism such as Lever, Seagram, and the Chrysler building. There are icons of real estate such as the Grand Hyatt and Helmsley. There are great clubs and great churches. There are stories about Grand Central and its construction, the viaduct which may have been the first limited access highway. This walk will showcase some of the art and architecture along Park Avenue and tell some of the stories about its past, its present, and perhaps future. It can be accessed through the cultureNOW MuseumWithoutWalls app for the iPhone or Android.

The Art & Architecture of Park Avenue from Lever to Grand Central Virtual Tour 2026

Follow tour guide Ginny Poleman as she takes you on a walking tour of the Gilded Age mansions OFF 5th Avenue, still standing and now serving as institutions, art galleries, and one as the Ralph Lauren men’s flagship store. Using vintage images, we’ll see homes built for names like Vanderbilt, Astor, and Roosevelt, as well as some designed by notable architects like CPH Gilbert, Stanford White, Ogden Codman, and the New York Public Library’s architects, Carrère &amp; Hastings.

meeting location delivered in registration confirmation email

Gilded Age Mansions OFF Fifth Avenue

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Join MAS Director of Tours Ted Mineau for a walk though Upper Manhattan from Sugar Hill to Washington Heights. We’ll look at architecture from colonial times to today and talk about the people who live and lived here, as well as the many changes that have occurred here.

From Sugar Hill to Washington Heights

The Municipal Art Society (MAS) has been leading tours of New York’s famous Grand Central Terminal longer than any other tour operator. In fact, MAS saved Grand Central back in the 1970s with the legendary help of our board member Jacqueline Onassis. Join us for a 75-to-90 minute exploration of one of New York’s most beautiful and beloved buildings. Our licensed tour leaders will fill you in on the history and the architecture and take you to some special places that many New Yorkers don’t even know about.

In-person tour (meeting location delivered in registration confirmation email)

Grand Central Terminal

This walking tour with architectural historian Matt Postal offers a new perspective on this fabled downtown neighborhood, stopping to consider residential towers, pioneering cultural institutions, and structures associated with such Jazz Age luminaries as master architectural delineator Hugh Ferris, sculptor Paul Manship and first lady Eleanor Roosevelt (as well as her beloved Scottish terrier Fala). Likely Art Deco highlights include: the original home of the Whitney Museum of American Art, Joseph Urban’s New School for Social Research, apartment houses by Emery Roth and Boak &amp; Paris, and the Salvation Army Headquarters, designed by “architect of the century,” Ralph Walker.

Greenwich Village Art Deco

MAS members are invited to a policy breakfast on Thursday, February 5: Reimagining POPS for an Evolving City, featuring Jerold S. Kayden in a conversation with Thomas Balsley, FALSA and Erik Botsford moderated by MAS President Keri Butler. This program will also include a chance to learn about the MAS Public Realm Action Plan.&nbsp;New York City’s approximately 600 privately owned public spaces (POPS) play an important role as places of social gathering, rest, and passive enjoyment, but the policies governing these spaces have not been updated in nearly a decade. Since then, rezonings and hybrid work trends have transformed the audiences that POPS serve and the incentives that make POPS attractive to businesses. Likewise, the acceleration of climate change forces us to urgently seek innovative mitigation solutions. What policy changes might help our city’s POPS continue to flourish and meet the evolving and diverse needs of New Yorkers?&nbsp;Program Schedule:8:30 – 9:00 am: Breakfast9:00 – 9:15 am: MAS presentation: Public Realm Action Plan and POPS9:15 – 10:15 am: Panel Discussion and Q&amp;A10:15 – 11:00 am: Post-Panel Networking&nbsp;Jerold S. Kayden is the Frank Backus Williams Professor of Urban Planning and Design at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design and Founding Director of the Master in Real Estate Program. He previously served as co-chair of the Department of Urban Planning and Design and director of the Urban Planning Program. His teaching and scholarship address issues of land use and environmental law, public and private development in cities, public space, urban disasters and climate change, and design competitions. As an urban planner and lawyer, Professor Kayden has advised governments, non-governmental organizations, and private and public real estate developers in the United States and around the world.&nbsp;Thomas Balsley, FASLA, is a world-renowned landscape architect whose New York-based studio, SWA/Balsley, is best known for its fusion of landscape and urbanism into award-winning parks and waterfronts often found in the margins and post-industrial edges of cities. Sparking the public’s imagination, he has reshaped urban public realms throughout the U.S. and abroad with verdant, sustainable civic spaces that are teeming with life. &nbsp;His firm’s diverse portfolio includes more than 100 plazas and public landscapes throughout NYC, including Peggy Rockefeller Plaza and Hunter’s Point South Waterfront Park, exhibited at MoMA. In a rare gesture of recognition, a park he designed on 57th Street was named Balsley Park.&nbsp;Erik Botsford is the Director of Planning for Manhattan at the NYC Department of City Planning (DCP). Over a 23-year career with the agency, he has helped guide the borough’s development, serving as an urban designer, planner, and team lead for the West Side before becoming Deputy Director and then Director. ​Over his career, Erik has led neighborhood planning initiatives for West Chelsea, East Harlem, SoHo/NoHo, Governors Island, and Midtown South. He also served as the agency’s representative on the High Line design and development teams and led the citywide update of regulations for privately owned public spaces (POPS). Erik holds a Master’s degree in Urban Design and Planning from the University of Washington.&nbsp;This event is only open to members of the Municipal Art Society of New York.

The Municipal Art Society of New York

MAS Member Policy Breakfast: Reimagining POPS for an Evolving City

Ticket is free.This event is now waitlisted. Please RSVP if you wish to be added to the waitlist. You will be notified if a space becomes available.

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[In-person tour] Join architectural historian Anthony W. Robins for this popular annual Christmas Day tour of Rockefeller Center, the private real estate venture that has evolved into the public square of midtown Manhattan and an urban wonderland during the holiday season. Discover the surprising history, remarkable art and stunning architecture of the development conceived as a new home for the Metropolitan Opera, but built instead as Radio City.For all tours, there are no refunds, cancellations, or exchanges unless we cancel a tour. Online registration closes one hour prior to the tour start time.

Rockefeller Center

Christmas Day in Rockefeller Center Tour

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Explore the development of Midtown Manhattan’s west side, including the James A. Farley Building, Moynihan Train Hall, Manhattan West, and Hudson Yards. This is newest New York, a series of monumental developments billions and billions of dollars in the making. Has it been worth it? What is there to admire—and what might elicit a groan? Love it or hate it, an extraordinary amount of ingenuity went into these developments, and they deserve to be studied. Led by Francis Morrone; this is an enhanced-price tour.

Manhattan West

As part of our ongoing series, Design Exchange: Innovations for a Changing Climate, The New York Climate Exchange, The Municipal Art Society &amp; Pratt Institute present Extreme Heat: Adapting Cities to Rising Temperatures on Wednesday, June 11, at Pratt Institute.The 4th assessment of the New York City Panel on Climate Change (NPCC4) reveals the state of the science on climate change and the implications for local adaptation and mitigation policy. Heat waves are, on average, the deadliest type of extreme weather in New York City – killing more New Yorkers every year than any other type of extreme weather event. Increased heat also increases the risk of fire and poor air quality. The link between climate change and our health and safety is clear and extends beyond New York City across cities globally. Unprecedented collaboration with urban designers is needed, and solutions are emerging and scaling to promote smart growth, cool buildings, and mitigate the urban heat island effect.Join us on at 9 AM on Wednesday, June 11, for a pre-summer networking breakfast and action-focused panel discussion on design innovations that we can all rally around. Questions? Email us at events@mas.org.Speakers will include Carlos Cerezo Davila, Global Director of Sustainability, KPF; Yuliya Dzyuban, Assistant Professor, Pratt Institute; Cari Olson, Assistant Commissioner, and NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene; Moderated by Chris Rice, Associate Principal, WXY.

Pratt Institute - Brooklyn Campus, The Alumni Reading Room, 3rd Floor, Main Library Enter through

Extreme Heat: Adapting Cities to Rising Temperatures

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Park Avenue at the Seagram Buillding

Jane's Walk: The Art & Architecture of Park Avenue from Lever to Grand Central

In person

Virtual

The Commons has effectively been America’s town square since the Dutch landed. Virtually every major event of local, national and global significance has played out in some way on this stage. This tour captures the multiple and overlapping stories that are woven throughout our city’s life. It takes a look at the issues that New Yorkers were preoccupied with and how they solved them: their politics, religion, social protest, health and safety, commerce, disasters and defense, scandals and crime, education, publications, art and culture, parades and celebrations, architecture and engineering.The tour is available as an in-person guided tour, as well as a virtual tour.

Jane's Walk: The Commons - The Heart of New York City

In Person

Jane's Walk: The Art and Architecture of Park Avenue

Please join us for a presentation and discussion with British artist Bruce Munro, whose six-acre light-based project, “Field of Light at Freedom Plaza,” will open on Manhattan’s East Side on December 15. The year-long installation features an array of 17,000 low-level fiber-optic lights, subtly changing hues, in an immersive community experience. Munro, who has created site-specific Fields of Light in multiple countries and states, will describe how he interprets each site and how New York’s installation reflects its unique urban locale.

Sensorio

Sen­so­rio, the inter­sec­tion of art, tech­nol­o­gy and nature, was designed as a des­ti­na­tion for enter­tain­ment, explo­ration, med­i­ta­tion, adven­ture, and delight. It hon­ors the nat­ur­al topog­ra­phy of the land­scape, offer­ing vis­i­tors amus­ing, musi­cal, and kinet­ic expe­ri­ences. The Cen­tral Cal­i­for­nia des­ti­na­tion launch­ed in May 2019 with Field of Light,&nbsp;

Light at Sensorio now features four installations. &nbsp;Field of Light is a mul­ti-acre walk-through expe­ri­ence, Munro’s largest art­work in the world, recent­ly expand­ed to more than 100,000 stemmed spheres lit by fiber optics, gen­tly illu­mi­nat­ing the land­scape in sub­tle blooms of mor­ph­ing col­our that describe the undu­lat­ing land­scape. The adja­cent Light Tow­ers cel­e­brates Paso Rob­les’ exten­sive wine coun­try envi­rons, fea­tur­ing 69 tow­ers com­posed of more than 17,000 wine bot­tles, illu­mi­nat­ed with glow­ing optic fibers whose col­ors morph to an inspir­ing musi­cal score.The newly added Fireflies, is a whimsical work made up of close to 10,000 flickering points of Light and Gone Fishing, is a representation of the contemplative act of standing by a river and removing oneself from the here and now to a place of peace and reflection.

40 years on from his first visit to the Red Centre, Bruce Munro partnered with Australia’s largest regional accommodation provider, the G’day Group, to bring his immersive sound and light installation, Light-Towers, to Discovery Kings Canyon Resort in the Watarrka National Park. Light-Towers, is Munro’s second Red Centre work, following Field of Light at Uluru, installed in 2016.

Dorothy House Hospice Care

An installation of 400 shimmering Fireflies in the grounds of the Dorothy House Hospice, Bradford on Avon. Individually handmade Fireflies – each one a constellation of separate small lights

Field of Light, Uluru

&nbsp;In 2016 Munro returned to the red desert in Australia for the installation of Field of Light at Uluru, Northern Territories with a unique interpretation of his artwork comprising 50,000 spheres of light, the largest and most remote iteration of this artwork to date.Munro’s first solar powered Field of Light represented a spiritual homecoming for the artist and the artwork which was originally conceived during a visit to Uluru in 1992 with his fiance and now wife, Serena. Field of Light Uluru gently illuminates a remote desert area within sight of the majestic and ancient rock.Voyages Indigenous Tourism’s continue their ambitious commitment to arts and culture presenting the world renown installation indefinitely.

Illuminating 16 acres in the Arboretum at the Wildflower Center, Field of Light is a stunning display of 28,000 stemmed spheres that are subtly lit by solar powered fiber-optics. The exhibition beautifully showcases the intersection of art, technology and nature. The installation unites with the outdoors, celebrating the natural topography of the landscape and creating an immersive and emotional experience for guests.

Spanning more than six-acres on Manhattan’s East Side from 38th to 41st Street east of First Avenue, Field of Light at Freedom Plaza features an array of 17,000 lowlight, fiber-optic stemmed spheres that illuminate with a slow subtle change of hue. Guests are fully immersed in the installation as they walk the winding path through the ethereal painted landscape framed by the city’s iconic skyline and the East River waterfront. Made possible by The Soloviev Foundation, Field of Light at Freedom Plaza present meaningful opportunities for community engagement and educational programming.

Municipal Art Society

Fields of Light: A Journey with Bruce Munro 

Bruce Munro is a dual citizen of Britain and Australia and lives in Wiltshire, UK. He is best known for his large-scale light-based installations originally inspired by a camping trip to Uluru in Australia in 1992. An artist diarist, for over 30 years he has collected and recorded ideas in his sketchbooks which are reflected in his numerous installations around the world, including in the United Kingdom, Japan, Denmark, Australia, and eight states in the United States. His first Field of Light was realized in 2004, and his artistic journey is the subject of a recent book Light Field – The Art of Bruce Munro by Fiona Graber.

Sara Cochran is Chief Curator of The Church, an exhibition center and residency program established by the artists Eric Fischl and April Gornik in 2020 in Sag Harbor. Previously, she held positions as Director and Chief Curator of the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art and as Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Phoenix Art Museum. She earned her Ph.D. in the History of Art from the Courtauld Institute of Art in London.

The Commons has effectively been America’s town square since the Dutch landed. Virtually every major event of local, national and global significance has played out in some way on this stage. This tour captures the multiple and overlapping stories that are woven throughout our city’s life. It takes a look at the issues that New Yorkers were preoccupied with and how they solved them: their politics, religion, social protest, health and safety, commerce, disasters and defense, scandals and crime, education, publications, art and culture, parades and celebrations, architecture and engineering.

 The 1961 book by writer and activist Jane Jacobs is a critique of 1950s urban planning policy, which it holds responsible for the decline of many city neighborhoods in the United States. The book is Jacobs' best-known and most influential work. Jacobs was a critic of "rationalist" planners of the 1950s and 1960s, especially Robert Moses, as well as the earlier work of Le Corbusier. She argued that modernist urban planning overlooked and oversimplified the complexity of human lives in diverse communities. She opposed large-scale urban renewal programs that affected entire neighborhoods and built freeways through inner cities. She instead advocated for dense mixed-use development and walkable streets, with the "eyes on the street" of passers-by helping to maintain public order. 

City Hall Subway Station

The Commons : The Heart of New York City

Kritika Dhanda joined cultureNOW as a summer intern in 2015 to collaborate on the research for the Lower Manhattan Then and Now Map. &nbsp;The map was printed in 2016 and introduced for New York City's Department of Transportation's first Shared Streets. She has organized many of the walking tours, programs, exhibitions and publications including the Cocktails &amp; Conversations Book. &nbsp;She designed the cultureNOW website and app. &nbsp;She received her Masters in Design Studies from the Harvard Graduate School of Design.&nbsp;Intern 2015

The Municipal Art Society of New York 

The Municipal Art Society launched Imagine New York, a series of public workshops to explore how to commemorate the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. They brought together over 4000 residents in a series of focus groups to gather ideas for replanning Lower Manhattan.

The Municipal Art Society of New York

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