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Open House New York 2017: 15 must-see sites

These 15 sites are some of the best ones to check out during Open House New York 2017

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It's here! Open House New York released its list of the sites that will be open for its 2017 festival (happening October 14 and 15), and predictably, it's a doozy. Many of the greatest hits from recent years are back, including the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, the New York Marble Cemetery, and Brooklyn Bridge Park. But there are also tons of sites that are new to the event this year, including the Liggett Hall gymnasium on Governor’s Island, open to the public for the first time ever, as well as the revamped NYPL Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and the Leslie-Lohman Museum.

So how do you decide what to see? Use our list below as a guide: We've picked 15 of the best OHNY sites to see this year, and since reservations-only tours are now closed, we’ve selected only sites that are Open Access—i.e., if you have an OHNY Passport, you’re in. Check out the full list of places to go on Open House New York's website.

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Liggett Hall

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Open to the public for the first time ever, the Liggett Hall Gymnasium at Governor’s Island was used by the Coast Guard until their departure from the island in 1996. Here’s a fun fact: the building is as long as the Chrysler Building is tall, meaning it’s mighty big. It was designed by McKim Mead and White in 1821.

The first new section of parkland opened in front of Liggett Hall in 2014.
The first new section of parkland opened in front of Liggett Hall in 2014.
Max Touhey

Cunard Building

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Curbed readers deemed the Cunard Building’s interiors some of the most beautiful in New York City, and during OHNY weekend, you can check them out for yourself—the lobby will be open for tours on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The marble-covered building, which opened during the glory days of steamshop travel, was meant to resemble Roman baths.

A post shared by cate (@cwaldram) on

Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House

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The beautiful Cass Gilbert-designed Customs House building at the southern tip of Manhattan, now home to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, the National Archives and Records Administration, and the US Bankruptcy Court, will be open to visitors this OHNY weekend. As an added perk, the building’s rarely opened Tiffany-designed Collector’s Office will also be open for viewing.

Alexander Hamilton US Customs House Kathryn Yu

The Renee and Chaim Gross Foundation

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This former art storage warehouse was converted by sculptor Chaim Gross and wife Renee into a live-wok space in 1963. The building’s ground floor, topped by a massive skylight, is a showplace for Gross’s sculptures while the top floor shows off how the family lived alongside their collection of world-class art.

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New York Marble Cemetery

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This tiny, normally off-limits cemetery will open its doors for OHNY as part of the event’s Spaces of Respite program, which highlights spaces that “provide some serenity and respite from the chaos of the city”—something we all need right now. It’s open all day on Saturday and Sunday. The similarly-named New York City Marble Cemetery will also be open for tours from noon to 5 p.m. both days.

A post shared by Mark Tavern (@marktavern) on

Jefferson Market Library

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OHNY has included tours of this beautiful West Village library in its itinerary for years, and it remains super-popular with participants—probably because you get to explore the inner workings of the Gothic landmark, including its iconic clocktower. It’ll be open on Saturday from noon to 4 p.m.

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Westbeth Artists Housing

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This former Bell Labs Building in the West Village is now the country’s largest artist community, with 383 live-work spaces for artists and their families. The building’s history is enticing—it’s where the talking movie and binary computer were first demonstrated—and its architecture is equally so. The building was converted into housing with a design by Richard Meier way back in 1970. The building became a New York City landmark in 2011.

A post shared by OOWA (@oowalife) on

Albertine

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The city’s only bookstore devoted to French titles is as striking as you’d expect, especially considering its location: it sits on the first and second floors of the French Embassy on Fifth Avenue, which itself is located in Stanford White’s stunning Payne Whitney House. The bookshop is a beautiful place to wile away an afternoon, not least because of its ceiling, a stunning hand-painted mural that was “modeled after the extraordinary ceiling of the music room at the Villa Stuck in Munich, Germany,” per the shop. This tour, nestled under the Cultural Services of the French Embassy, is one not to miss.

A post shared by Jenny Xie (@hello88goodbye) on

The Rockefeller University

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This Upper East Side campus will be open to curious visitors during OHNY, with participants able to visit its public-facing spaces, the Collaborative Research Center, and the university’s new, modular addition, which is still under construction.

General Grant National Memorial

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You know the joke about Grant’s Tomb, but get the backstory on the memorial in Riverside Park—which was designed by architect John Duncan, and remains the largest mausoleum in the country—during tours on Sunday. Three different walks, led by National Parks Service rangers, will go in and around the Grant memorial.

Bronx Community College

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If Brutalist architecture is of interest, one would be hard-pressed to skip this tour of Marcel Breuer’s contributions to the Bronx Community College, including Meister Hall, Colston Hall, Begrisch Hall, and Carl Polowczyk Hall. The buildings dating to the late 1950s and early 1960s would go on to become a cornerstone of Breuer’s aesthetic, and Begrisch Hall would even become a city landmark.

Marcel Breuer Bronx Community College Vicente Muñoz

Queens Library at Kew Gardens Hills

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The revamped Kew Gardens Hills library is fresh off a renovation by WORKac that brought the building an additional 3,000 square feet as well as a green roof, conference rooms, and new open spaces for patron. The new design is meant to resemble an open book, and we’re happy to note that the finished product looks just like that.

Via Field Condition

Clifton Residence

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There’s a lot going on with the townhouse at 158 Clifton Place, which was renovated by Paul Castrucci Architects: it’s a timber-framed home, which was recently renovated to Passive House standards, and uses a plethora of recycled materials—namely reclaimed wood from New York state. The architects will lead tours on Saturday between 2 and 6 p.m. if you want to learn how an older home gets revamped for the future.

Sims Municipal Recycling - Sunset Park Material Recovery Facility

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Annabelle Selldorf designed the SIMS Sunset Park Material Recovery Facility, which boasted a budget of $89 million and is LEED certified, in part because 98 percent of the complex is made out of recycled steel. Inside, there's an education center, classrooms, offices, a theater, and a large outdoor terrace with views to Lower Manhattan. New York Times critic Michael Kimmelman described it as "understated, well proportioned and well planned—elegant, actually, and not just for a garbage site."

A post shared by Damon Ahola (@damon.ahola) on

The Flagship Brewing Company

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Surely there’s some intersection between beer and civic nerds, right? If you’re one of the people for whom those two topics are like catnip, then you’ll want to join a tour of Staten Island’s Flagship Brewing Company, which opened in 2014 and has a huge tasting room (and tasty beers). There’ll be tours on Saturday at 2:30 and 4 p.m.

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Liggett Hall

Open to the public for the first time ever, the Liggett Hall Gymnasium at Governor’s Island was used by the Coast Guard until their departure from the island in 1996. Here’s a fun fact: the building is as long as the Chrysler Building is tall, meaning it’s mighty big. It was designed by McKim Mead and White in 1821.

The first new section of parkland opened in front of Liggett Hall in 2014.
The first new section of parkland opened in front of Liggett Hall in 2014.
Max Touhey

Cunard Building

Curbed readers deemed the Cunard Building’s interiors some of the most beautiful in New York City, and during OHNY weekend, you can check them out for yourself—the lobby will be open for tours on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The marble-covered building, which opened during the glory days of steamshop travel, was meant to resemble Roman baths.

A post shared by cate (@cwaldram) on

Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House

The beautiful Cass Gilbert-designed Customs House building at the southern tip of Manhattan, now home to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, the National Archives and Records Administration, and the US Bankruptcy Court, will be open to visitors this OHNY weekend. As an added perk, the building’s rarely opened Tiffany-designed Collector’s Office will also be open for viewing.

Alexander Hamilton US Customs House Kathryn Yu

The Renee and Chaim Gross Foundation

This former art storage warehouse was converted by sculptor Chaim Gross and wife Renee into a live-wok space in 1963. The building’s ground floor, topped by a massive skylight, is a showplace for Gross’s sculptures while the top floor shows off how the family lived alongside their collection of world-class art.

A post shared by rosewang (@rwangg) on

New York Marble Cemetery

This tiny, normally off-limits cemetery will open its doors for OHNY as part of the event’s Spaces of Respite program, which highlights spaces that “provide some serenity and respite from the chaos of the city”—something we all need right now. It’s open all day on Saturday and Sunday. The similarly-named New York City Marble Cemetery will also be open for tours from noon to 5 p.m. both days.

A post shared by Mark Tavern (@marktavern) on

Jefferson Market Library

OHNY has included tours of this beautiful West Village library in its itinerary for years, and it remains super-popular with participants—probably because you get to explore the inner workings of the Gothic landmark, including its iconic clocktower. It’ll be open on Saturday from noon to 4 p.m.

A post shared by @newyork_state_of_mind_ on

Westbeth Artists Housing

This former Bell Labs Building in the West Village is now the country’s largest artist community, with 383 live-work spaces for artists and their families. The building’s history is enticing—it’s where the talking movie and binary computer were first demonstrated—and its architecture is equally so. The building was converted into housing with a design by Richard Meier way back in 1970. The building became a New York City landmark in 2011.

A post shared by OOWA (@oowalife) on

Albertine

The city’s only bookstore devoted to French titles is as striking as you’d expect, especially considering its location: it sits on the first and second floors of the French Embassy on Fifth Avenue, which itself is located in Stanford White’s stunning Payne Whitney House. The bookshop is a beautiful place to wile away an afternoon, not least because of its ceiling, a stunning hand-painted mural that was “modeled after the extraordinary ceiling of the music room at the Villa Stuck in Munich, Germany,” per the shop. This tour, nestled under the Cultural Services of the French Embassy, is one not to miss.

A post shared by Jenny Xie (@hello88goodbye) on

The Rockefeller University

This Upper East Side campus will be open to curious visitors during OHNY, with participants able to visit its public-facing spaces, the Collaborative Research Center, and the university’s new, modular addition, which is still under construction.

General Grant National Memorial

You know the joke about Grant’s Tomb, but get the backstory on the memorial in Riverside Park—which was designed by architect John Duncan, and remains the largest mausoleum in the country—during tours on Sunday. Three different walks, led by National Parks Service rangers, will go in and around the Grant memorial.

Bronx Community College

If Brutalist architecture is of interest, one would be hard-pressed to skip this tour of Marcel Breuer’s contributions to the Bronx Community College, including Meister Hall, Colston Hall, Begrisch Hall, and Carl Polowczyk Hall. The buildings dating to the late 1950s and early 1960s would go on to become a cornerstone of Breuer’s aesthetic, and Begrisch Hall would even become a city landmark.

Marcel Breuer Bronx Community College Vicente Muñoz

Queens Library at Kew Gardens Hills

The revamped Kew Gardens Hills library is fresh off a renovation by WORKac that brought the building an additional 3,000 square feet as well as a green roof, conference rooms, and new open spaces for patron. The new design is meant to resemble an open book, and we’re happy to note that the finished product looks just like that.

Via Field Condition

Clifton Residence

There’s a lot going on with the townhouse at 158 Clifton Place, which was renovated by Paul Castrucci Architects: it’s a timber-framed home, which was recently renovated to Passive House standards, and uses a plethora of recycled materials—namely reclaimed wood from New York state. The architects will lead tours on Saturday between 2 and 6 p.m. if you want to learn how an older home gets revamped for the future.

Sims Municipal Recycling - Sunset Park Material Recovery Facility

Annabelle Selldorf designed the SIMS Sunset Park Material Recovery Facility, which boasted a budget of $89 million and is LEED certified, in part because 98 percent of the complex is made out of recycled steel. Inside, there's an education center, classrooms, offices, a theater, and a large outdoor terrace with views to Lower Manhattan. New York Times critic Michael Kimmelman described it as "understated, well proportioned and well planned—elegant, actually, and not just for a garbage site."

A post shared by Damon Ahola (@damon.ahola) on

The Flagship Brewing Company

Surely there’s some intersection between beer and civic nerds, right? If you’re one of the people for whom those two topics are like catnip, then you’ll want to join a tour of Staten Island’s Flagship Brewing Company, which opened in 2014 and has a huge tasting room (and tasty beers). There’ll be tours on Saturday at 2:30 and 4 p.m.