<p>A waterfront tour around Manhattan that begins at Chelsea Piers and circles the island of Manhattan.</p>

Manhattan Boat Tour

Welcome to the AIA Boat Tour, which circles Manhattan and offers a unique understanding of the island and it's relationship to the waterfront.

According to Historian James Kaplan, after WWII, the most important employment was the Docks. The Docks went into decline in the late 1950s because cargo shifted to airlines, and was also routed through New Jersey. Kaplan discusses the politics and history of this site.

Matthew Urbanski, Principal at Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates speaks on the addition of Pier 5 to Brooklyn Bridge Park and the role of picnic tables in shaping the design of the Pier.  

Matt Urbanski discusses the design of Brooklyn Bridge Park.

 Fred Schwartz, head of Frederic Schwartz Architects, discusses his work on the New Jersey 9/11 memorial, serving as a gravesite for many of the victims of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. 

 Fred Schwartz, head of Frederic Schwartz Architects, discusses his work on the Staten Island Ferry terminal, the largest ferry terminal in the United States. 

<p>The short video is a virtual tour of the building.&nbsp;</p>

 Rafael Pelli discusses the design of the Visionaire and its approach to sustainability. 

 Jean Parker Phifer, NYC architect and author of Public Art New York, reads a selection on the Robert F. Wagner Jr. Park, located west of Battery Place. 

Craig Copeland discusses the Glass Pavilion, a room that would receive the Western End of the Concourse to connect to the World Financial Center.  The design was to dissolve the facade as much as possible and to try and create an open and inviting canopy of basket columns to 'turn the Winter Garden back to lower Manhattan'.  

Craig Copeland, the Design Team Leader from Pelli Clarke Pelli talks about the reconfiguration of the World Financial Center into Brookfield Place.  He shares the challenge of returning to the building 25 years later and how the architects tried to maintain the vision while responding to the new program.    

 Jean Parker Phifer, NYC architect and author of Public Art New York, reads a selection about The Battery, located in downtown Manhattan. 

 Warrie Price discusses the new landscape of Battery Park, including the Gardens of Remembrance, a new fountain, and a food kiosk. 

Warrie Price discusses the future projects planned for Battery Park, including architect Frank Gehry's plans to build a play area and the ongoing project to wind the Hudson River bike path through the park.

 Ken Smith discusses the design of the two level park. 

 Historian Barry Moreno explains Ellis Island's history as an immigration station and eventually a deportation center. He speaks in detail about the immigrants' experience within the building as they were processed through the center, in addition to speaking about how United States immigration laws shaped Ellis Island's role as an immigration station. 

 Arthur Platt presents the Lower Harbor segment of the tour, beginning with Ellis Island and ending with One Madison Park. 

 The third stop on the Great Crash of 1929: Tour of the Financial District is in front of 55 Water Street. The building was once the largest private office building in New York City. It is now home to the India House, which houses a large collection of maritime objects. 

 Ken Smith talks about the collaboration in designing the plaza and light beacon. 

 The Landscape Architect talks about the challenge of navigating the design of the historic preservation of the park and the West Village and Soho users to have a design that was edgier. 

Architect and VP of the Empire State Development Corporation Carol Berens details the tumultuous, decades-long creation of Hudson River Park. 

 Architect Morris Adjmi talks about The Sterling Mason building. This 115,000-square-foot project in Manhattan&rsquo;s historic Tribeca neighboorhood features 37 luxury condominiums. The 1915 brick and terracotta warehouse at the corner of Laight and Washington Streets has been restored and paired with an aluminum-clad identical twin, as though a photographic negative of the older structure. The center of the seven-story building was removed to create a landscaped courtyard, giving most units both street and interior views. 

 Described as a 'little fragment of Ireland' sitting on top of a thin layer of concrete, Dorthea Basile describes the memorial, its features and the famine it commemorates. 

 Artist Brian Tolle won the competition to design the Hunger Memorial which was supposed to commemorate both the Irish Famine itself and address the larger issue of world hunger. Dorthea Basile tells the story behind the competition. 

 Artist Brian Tolle talks about adding inscriptions to the Memorial which was a requirement of the competition and how he elected to create strata infilled with pieces of glass where the text could be placed behind it or changed some time in the future. He also discussed the court cairns or tomb passages at the great court cairns as the inspiration for the passage he created beneath the hill. 

 Artist Brian Tolle describes the construction of the Memorial, beginning with how he decided to 'live' on the Jobsite. Because it was adjacent to the World Trade Center, he goes on to talk about what happened on September 11th and how it impacted the Memorial. 

 In a piece dedicated to hunger awareness, Artist Brian Tolle talks about his ongoing collaboration with sound artists, hunger organizations, historians and even poets to create changing audio content for the Passage. 

 Jean Parker Phifer, NYC architect and author of Public Art New York, reads a selection on The Irish Hunger Memorial, located at the North End Avenue at Vesey Street. 

 David Piscuskas discusses the conception of the memorial, the significance of its site, and the way in which it commemorates the Great Irish Famine and continuing problem of global hunger worldwide. 

 Artist Brian Tolle describes the process of how he got the commission for the artwork and selected his team and began to conceptualize the design. 

 Artist Brian Tolle explains the design process behind the memorial beginning with a competition between the finalist artists. He felt that a figurative piece was not appropriate. Instead, he decided to create a sculpture where the emphasis is on the land itself in its natural state. He wanted to add an authentic historic structure so he began a search for a suitable farmhouse with a historian. He talks about how he was finally able to find a house built in 1820 which the family lived in through the 1960&rsquo;s in Attymass Parish (where the first official death from the Famine occurred). The house was given as a gift from the family that stayed in Ireland to the family that emigrated from Ireland. 

Calvin Tsao, partner of TsAO & McKOWN Architects, discusses his firm's work on the River Lofts, a residential building in TriBeCa.

 Artist Mary Miss, an artist working in the territory between art, architecture and landscape architecture, speaks about her project at the South Cove in Battery Park City- a project she worked on with Susan Child and Stanton Eckstut. The collaboration that created what is today considered one of the country's most significant public artworks begun as "kind of a shotgun marriage" says Mary Miss. 

 South Cove was the result of the Innovative model set up as part of the Master Plan for Battery Park City and includes Stan Ekstut, its architect and master planner as a member of its team with Mary Miss (artist) and Susan Childs (artist). The project covers 3 acres with the goal of making the Hudson River accessible to the public. In fact it was one of the first green spots created along the River as it was transformed from a working waterfront to a more residential/ recreational one. 

 Jean Parker Phifer, NYC architect and author of Public Art New York, reads a selection on South Cove, a public art installation west of Battery Place. 

 David Marwell, the Director of the Museum of Jewish Heritage, talks about the completion of the museum's expansion, which was shortly after September 11, 2001. Located five blocks south of the 9/11 attacks, the museum was the closest cultural institution to the Trade Towers site, thus impact on the neighborhood was profound. The expansion opened on the second anniversary of 9/11. 

 Historian Barry Moreno discusses Castle Clinton's varied history, from its years as an immigration station to its decades as a performance space. He describes its brief career as an aquarium, and its near destruction to make room for the Battery Tunnel. 

 Claire Weisz discuses the fountain at the Battery Bosque. 

 Claire Weisz discusses the design plan for the Battery Bosque. 

 Jean Parker Phifer, NYC architect and author of Public Art New York, reads a selection on the Statue of Liberty, located on Liberty Island in NY Harbor. 

 Historian Barry Moreno details the history of Lady Liberty, from her construction in France to her thousands of tours daily. 

Chelsea Piers

Hudson River Park

The Carousel is located on Segment 5 of Pier 62, at the westernmost end.

Pier 62

Hudson River Park: Pier 62 Carousel

Little Island

Northwest of Gansevoort St. & Washington St., adjacent to the southern entrance to the High Line Park

Whitney Museum of American Art

Whitney Museum of American Art (new)

Hudson River Park: Tribeca Section Piers 25 & 26

Hudson River Park Trust

Hudson River Park Master Plan

Hudson River Park: Pier 40

Holland Tunnel

Intersection of Washington Blvd and Park Lane

Newport Green Park

Newport Green

River Lofts

The Sterling Mason

Teardrop Park

Irish Hunger Memorial

200 West Street (Goldman Sachs Headquarters)

World Financial Center

Battery Park City

Visionaire

South Cove Park

South Cove

Ritz Carlton Downtown Hotel Condominium Tower

Museum of Jewish Heritage, Battery Park City

Museum of Jewish Heritage: A Living Memorial to the Holocaust

Robert F. Wagner Jr. Park

Robert F. Wagner, Jr. Park Cafe and Viewing Platform

Pier A

Castle Clinton National Monument 

The Battery

The park at the tip of the city was re-equipped with a series of public spaces and features such as a spiral walk-through water feature, benches, a kiosk, a fountain, and ornamental gardens, spread out across the park.

Battery Bosque, Carousel, Kiosk, and Benches

Goldman Sachs - Jersey City

Empty Sky:  New Jersey 9/11 Memorial 

Ellis Island

Statue of Liberty National Monument

Governors Island Park and Public Space

Staten Island Ferry Whitehall Terminal

Battery Maritime Building

Pier 5

55 Water Street

120 Wall Street

Woolworth Building

8 Spruce Street

New York by Gehry

Pier 15

East River Waterfront Esplanade

Pier 17

South Street Seaport: Pier 17

South Street Seaport

Brooklyn Bridge

Between the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges

Brooklyn Bridge Park

Jane's Carousel

Brooklyn Bridge Park Boathouse

between the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges

DUMBO Historic District

Links Canal St. and the Bowery in Manhattan to the Flatbush Ave. Ext. in Brooklyn.

Manhattan Bridge

Pier 42

Links Delancey St. and Clinton St. in Manhattan to Washington Plaza and the Brooklyn-Queens Expwy. in Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Manhattan Boat Tour

Tour Stops