Open House, New York this Weekend. Why Don't We Do This?

Ever walk through a city and think, wow, I wish I could see that building from the inside?

Seems like a pretty obvious idea-pick a few days, and open up all kinds of unique buildings and interesting or historic places up for tours. New York, was actually a late adaptor of this concept, now done in over a hundred cities around the world.

"Renee Schacht, Executive Director of OHNY said in 2010: “We will be touring places and opening doors to sites that span the history of New York – from Staten Island’s Conference House, the only pre-Revolution manor house still standing to contemporary public and private spaces including The Centurion, a midtown Manhattan residential building designed by Pei Partnership Architects with I.M. Pei.”

More than 185,000 people participate in the event that includes over 300 sites, programs, events and tours, which in past years has drawn audiences from beyond the five boroughs to encompass all 50 states and many nations around the world."

In many cases, the event has grown beyond building tours to encompass all sorts of walking, bike and boat tours and more extreme forms of urban exploration. Take a hard hat tour of a building under construction or being rehabbed or perhaps an abandoned tunnel or bridge one can't normally go to. The value of this kind of thing sometimes leads to new thinking--remember that the High Line in NY was once an obscure abandoned space.

A few highlights I came up with.

Check out the 6000 sqare foot roof garden in Greenpoint Brooklyn.

Explore the historic Eldridge Street Synagogue on The Lower East Side.

Tour NY's oldest operating Whiskey Distillery in Bushwick

Learn about the design and engineering behind supertall skyscrapers.

Take a walk with a photographer down Industrial, Newtown Creek in Queens

See the Plans For The New Moynihan Station In The Old 34th Street Main post Office building

Take a canoe tour of Brooklyn's Gowanus Canal

Tour the amazing Lobby of The Chrysler Building.

See historic and long abnadoned PS 90 in Central Harlem which is now being restored.

Tour a working Art Glass Studio in a Civil War Era warehouse in Redhook

Tour Brooklyn's historic Greenwood Cemetery by trolley.

I'll stop there. Doesn't Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Youngstown, Johnstown or other great places in our region have great historic buildings and places that would be great to link together in an event like this?

Who Knew? Steubenville, Ohio "City of Murals"

One of the big reasons I've tried to take the blog more towards a wider, more regional view is that a lot of the area is still a mystery to most of us, filled with all kinds of great secrets and changes. 10 years ago, most locals didn't know how great Pittsburgh was.

Who knew, this fellow steel town just to the east on the Ohio is becoming known as "the city of Murals", with 25 easily viewable in or near it's downtown?

A few of these lean towards the dry and boring but some look really stunning. Most, which are now old pay tribute to the area's unique history.

Check out this great post about them.

"Many of the murals were fading—the reds in particular—and recent extremes in Ohio weather haven’t helped. Other murals lie in rubble, like verdigris-covered Roman ruins. To some extent, weather and a shifting city scape are the hazards of public art. Just as a struggling economy helped birth the City of Murals tough times are encouraging people to rally in support of this part of Ohio history. Funds may be scarce, but in tough times public art helps communities maintain their unique identity and share that vision with the world. A small group of people are rallying to retain the City of Murals through audio tours, events and by raising funds for upkeep and preservation."

Check out a link and see more images.

Hat tip to Burgh Diaspora.