Free Cancellation
For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.
Cancellation Policy
Free Cancellation
June 10100% refund
June 11No refund
You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance of the experience for a full refund.
For a full refund, you must cancel at least 24 hours before the experience’s start time.
If you cancel less than 24 hours before the experience’s start time, the amount you paid will not be refunded.
Any changes made less than 24 hours before the experience’s start time will not be accepted.
Cut-off times are based on the experience’s local time.
This experience requires good weather. If it’s canceled due to poor weather, you’ll be offered a different date or a full refund.
Please select a travel date and travelers to show booking options.
Inclusions / Exclusions
Mobile ticket
Offered in: English
Professional guide
Gratuities
Overview
This Midtown Manhattan walking tour is a comprehensive look at the city's historical development as told through the buildings themselves. Fascinating strands of social, cultural, technological, real estate and zoning law histories are woven together in this wide and deep look New York's Midtown art and architecture.
Meeting points
Enter at the northeast corner of 49th Street and 8th Avenue, we meet just inside the supermarket.
Tour ends east of Tiffany's on 57th Street with views of Billionaire's Row
Itinerary
Eighth Avenue
We begin at the boundary of Hells Kitchen and Times Square with an overview of the city's historic move uptown. We cover the basics of historical (academic) architecture up to the Modern period, and from overblown Beaux Arts to ornament-free skyscrapers. We learn the fundamentals of zoning in this POPS (Privately Owned Public Space). Works by Sidney Simon and Matt Mullican.
15 minutes
N/A
The subway station below Worldwide Plaza is an example of evolving zoning law history; incised granite by Matt Mullican is part of the program.
3 minutes
N/A
On the way to Citizen M and Julian Opie's larger-than-life wall art we scan the skyline for Hearst Tower and the New York Times Building.
3 minutes
Times Square (Pass By)
We stop at the Allianz Building and Warner Music Group to take in the view of Times Square from the north. Zoning laws achieved a look inspired by Tokyo!
N/A
We use the Brill Building to launch into a short discussion the role Times Square and much of today's Midtown played (and still do) as holding almost a monopoly on the history of American culture: Music, theater, radio, television, books, magazines, newspapers, advertising, even automobiles.
5 minutes
N/A
We pass the Winter Garden, the Taft Hotel, and the building that inspired the song MONY MONY. We transition into private corporate space in the lobby of 787 7th Avenue and we go from commercial culture to corporate commercial. Expensive art and monumental feats of architecture are the mainstays of the remainder of the tour. Roy Lichtenstein opens us to the world of corporate art appropriately with Mural with Blue Brushstroke, a work he painted in place before the building opened. Out back in the POPS are works by Sol Le Witt and Barry Flannagan.
5 minutes
6 1/2 Avenue
We look as far uptown as we can along this 6-block long quirk in zoning, so-called "6 1/2 Avenue," a mid-block arcade that doesn't quite connect Times Square with Central Park.
3 minutes
UBS Art Gallery
They have a world renown collection and their lobby is divided between temporary and permanent exhibits that include Frank Stella and Sarah Morris.
5 minutes
N/A
The lobby of the Time and Life building is a Modern classic with its stainless steel panels and terrazzo floor. Large wall art by Fritz Glarner, a student of Mondrian.
3 minutes
Exxon Building (Pass By)
Monumental is the common theme to works by Hiroshu Senju and Kan Yasuda. Outside on the plaza is La Gran Manzana.
Sixth Avenue (Avenue of the Americas)
We stop in 1221 (the McGraw Hill building) the see a work by visual artist Mark Bradford. Out onto Sixth Avenue stand below "Skyscraper Alley," some of the worst products wrought by man and zoning law. Across the street begins the art and architecture, and story Rockefeller Center, one of the greatest civic-minded entrepreneurial (seriously) projects in modern history. The Art Deco of Rockefeller Center would come to define the style. Most interesting to point out are the subtle shifts from the "Modernistic" (Art Deco) to the Modern as the project progressed after the passing of Raymond Hood.
5 minutes
Radio City Music Hall
We learn the origin story of the name for every venue today named Roxy.
3 minutes
Rockefeller Center (Pass By)
The politics of the day, and the Rockefeller family dynamic, are the most interesting backstories to the art history of likely the most important corporate lobby in Modern history. The story of radio and David Sarnoff is also integral to the story.
The Rink at Rockefeller Center
Art and architecture reach their apex outside where the Christmas tree goes every year. There is a mix-bag of interesting history: holdouts, Diego Rivera and the Rockefellers, the story of the ice-skating rink and perhaps the greatest reversal-of-fortune in Rockefeller Center history.
5 minutes
Rockefeller Center
The lobby of the International Building is a work of art itself. Light and Movement by Michio Lhaza are the wall "center pieces." Atlas by Lee Lawrie stands outside facing St. Pat's
5 minutes
St. Patrick's Cathedral
The history of Fifth Avenue is told through its buildings.
3 minutes
N/A (Pass By)
As we make our way to Park Avenue we pass striking juxtapositions of the Modern and the Beaux Arts. the Villard Houses are now the Palace Hotel.
Park Avenue
Architecture. We learn the evolution of Park Avenue from open train tracks, to high end residential, to today's corporate buildings. Buildings discussed are: The Health and Racquet Club (1918), St. Bart's (1919), The New York Central Building (1929), The Waldorf Astoria (1931), The GE Building (1931), Lever House (1952), The Seagram Building (1958), and the Met Life Building (1963).
5 minutes
N/A
535 Madison Avenue is hat trick for architecture, zoning laws, and works by three French artists, about 20 years apart: Leger, DuBuffet, and Francois-Xavier LaLannes.
3 minutes
N/A
A fascinating example of a "successful" holdout in New York's high pressure real estate market. A great option for lunch or dinner after the tour.
2 minutes
N/A (Pass By)
A Philip Johnson Building with a recently re-designed, and likely the most spectacular outdoor POPS in the city. If there's time we can go inside to see Solid Sky by Alicia Kwade.
N/A (Pass By)
The IBM Building's POPS is regularly the most highly-rated in the city. Applefest pieces.
N/A
Finally, we exit onto 57th Street where we end the tour beneath Billionaire's Row, skinny residential towers that are the latest redesign of the Manhattan skyline; astronomical heights and prices.
3 minutes
Sample Menu
Additional Info
Infants and small children can ride in a pram or stroller
Service animals allowed
Public transportation options are available nearby
Not recommended for travelers with spinal injuries
Not recommended for pregnant travelers
Travelers should have at least a moderate level of physical fitness
Operates in all weather conditions, please dress appropriately
Free Cancellation
June 10100% refund
June 11No refund
You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance of the experience for a full refund.
For a full refund, you must cancel at least 24 hours before the experience’s start time.
If you cancel less than 24 hours before the experience’s start time, the amount you paid will not be refunded.
Any changes made less than 24 hours before the experience’s start time will not be accepted.
Cut-off times are based on the experience’s local time.
This experience requires good weather. If it’s canceled due to poor weather, you’ll be offered a different date or a full refund.
Total review count and overall rating based on Viator and Tripadvisor reviews
5 stars
21
4 stars
0
3 stars
0
2 stars
0
1 star
0
We perform checks on reviews
We had a great experience touring New York City with Jonathan. He's a great tour guide and he made it very memorable and enjoyable. The tour was also super informative and I'm glad to have had a great tour guide during my visit in NYC. Would definitely recommend this tour to anyone looking for a tour her We had a great experience touring New York City with Jonathan. He's a great tour guide and he made it very memorable and enjoyable. The tour was also super informative and I'm glad to have had a great tour guide during my visit in NYC. Would definitely recommend this tour to anyone looking for a tour her We had a great experience touring New York City with Jonathan. He's a great tour guide and he made it very memorable and enjoyable. The tour was also super informative and I'm glad to have had a great tour guide during my visit in NYC. Would definitely recommend this tour to anyone looking for a tour her We had a great experience touring New York City with Jonathan. He's a great tour guide and he made it very memorable and enjoyable. The tour was also super informative and I'm glad to have had a great tour guide during my visit in NYC. Would definitely recommend this tour to anyone looking for a tour her We had a great experience touring New York City with Jonathan. He's a great tour guide and he made it very memorable and enjoyable. The tour was also super informative and I'm glad to have had a great tour guide during my visit in NYC. Would definitely recommend this tour to anyone looking for a tour her We had a great experience touring New York City with Jonathan. He's a great tour guide and he made it very memorable and enjoyable. The tour was also super informative and I'm glad to have had a great tour guide during my visit in NYC. Would definitely recommend this tour to anyone looking for a tour her
Reviews by TravelOne travelers
Showing 1-5 of 21 reviews with 5 stars
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Great Experience
Published on Jan, 2025
A well crafted tour of Midtown Manhattan's architecture and art. Robert did an excellent job of describing midtown Manhattan building codes, open to public spaces and even private spaces. There were interesting anecdotes connected to the buildings and paintings. Robert keep the tour interesting and lively. I have to add that I grew up in New York City and never gave a thought to the interesting history of the city. Even if you are a New York or visiting from someplace else, take the tour and you'll be pleasantly surprise.
This guy knows his stuff and NYC comes alive with him!
Published on Dec, 2024
You think you’ve seen it all in Midtown! Well, we were wrong and you’ll be surprised too. The art, the history, the intrigues to get structures built, the families behind it all….Rob knows it all and shares it with enthusiasm and a sense of the awe and fun of NYC. The three hours raced by and we decided to take two more tours with him with our remaining two days in the City. Best use of our time we could have hoped for.
He’s a scholar with a gift for connecting dots not unlike Robert Caro. In fact, if Rob writes a book about NYC history, you’ll want to read that too?
Great tour
Published on Dec, 2024
An excellent tour guide, very knowledgeable and personable! Opened our eyes to much that we had just walked by in mid-twon in the past.
So many fun NYC surprises!
Published on Nov, 2024
What a terrific walking tour this was (albeit a long tour - 3-1/2 hours - so we were tired by the end), but it was so worth every minute. Rob is enormously knowledgeable on NYC history, art installations in unexpected locations, how building codes and regulations influenced architecture. He comes fully prepared with maps and photographs illustrating his points so that it became easy to understand what we were looking at. We learned so much and are still talking about how much fun we had.
Each building has its own story
Published on Oct, 2024
Incredible experience especially since I thought I “knew New York”! Sharing his knowledge of architectural periods Rob made us understand the underlying meaning and power of the art and architecture we saw. What a terrific adventure.
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