Open House New York: City Opens Doors to Off-Limits Locations for One Weekend

NEW YORK, NY — If you've always wondered what the inside of city landmarks such as the Bryant Park Hotel, Masonic Hall or United Nations building look like, you'll have your opportunity to explore the off-limits areas on Oct. 15 and 16. The annual Open House New York event will be held the third weekend in October, but registration for many of the locations begins Oct. 6.

Many of the 275-plus locations will allow open access to anyone stopping by, but others will only accept a certain amount of pre-registered visitors. Many familiar locations will provide behind-the-scenes tours if you sign up ahead of time.

The link to sign up for the restricted access sites begins on Thursday, Oct. 6 at 11 a.m.

>>Click here to sign up for the restricted sites once they go live.

There are way too many good options to choose from, but in addition to the three mentioned above, some good Manhattan options are the Woolworth Building, VIA 57 West, Google Inc. (yes, its offices), Apollo Theater, St. Patrick's Cathedral, and the Manhattan Municipal Building Cupola (that's the roof).

A few of our picks for Brooklyn include the Gowanus Bay Terminal, Brooklyn Glass, Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant (seriously, it's pretty cool), and St. Ann's Warehouse.

There will be locations across all five boroughs open to visitors, though your options are quite limited in the Bronx (either a cemetery or a concrete plant).

Here's a look at the hundreds of restricted access sites only (these are the ones to sign up for Thursday):

Manhattan

• 101 Bicycle Infrastructure: The Intersection of Architecture, Urban Planning & Design (Upper East Side)
• 111 Eighth Avenue Infrastructure Tour (Chelsea)
• 170 Amsterdam (Upper West Side)
• 400 Park Avenue South (Flatiron)
• 50 West (Financial District)
• Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House Restoration Tour (Financial District)
• Apollo Theater (Harlem)
• Art Students League of New York (Midtown)
• Broadway Malls (Upper West Side)
• Bryant Park Hotel (Midtown)
• Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine: Vertical Tour (Morningside Heights)
• Central Park Walk (Upper East Side)
• Chinatown Loft (Chinatown)
• Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum (Upper East Side)
• Cooper Union New Academic Building (East Village)
• Cornell Tech + Four Freedoms Park (Roosevelt Island)
• DSNY Manhattan 1/2/5 Sanitation Garage & Salt Shed (Hudson Square)
• DSNY Manhattan 11 Sanitation Garage: Mongo Collection (East Harlem)
• Elevated Parks of Lower Manhattan (Financial District)
• Empty Ellis (Ellis Island)
• FDR Four Freedoms Park Landscape Tour (Roosevelt Island)
• First Baptist Church in the City of New York (Upper West Side)
• Fulton Center (Financial District)
• General Grant National Memorial After-Hours Tours (Morningside Heights)
• Ghosts of Penn Station (Midtown)
• Google Inc. — Design & Workplace Tour (Chelsea)
• Grand Central Terminal (Midtown)
• Hall of Records / Surrogate's Courthouse Tours (Civic Center)
• Hallett Nature Sanctuary (Midtown)
• High Bridge (Washington Heights)
• High Line Landscape Tour (Chelsea)
• Jazz at Lincoln Center Renovation Tours (Midtown)
• Kane Residence (Midtown)
• Liberty Park (Financial District)
• Lower Manhattan Then (Financial District)
• Lower Manhattan Then and NOW : The Commons – the Heart of New York City (Civic Center)
• Manhattan Municipal Building Cupola (Civic Center)
• Masonic Hall (Chelsea)
• Met Breuer (Upper East Side)
• Metropolitan Opera (Upper West Side)
• Modern Apartment in The Apthorp (Upper West Side)
• Modulightor (Upper East Side)
• Museum of Art and Origins (Sugar Hill)
• National Arts Club (Gramercy)
• New School: Making Center (Greenwich Village)
• New School: Site Specific Artworks (Greenwich Village)
• New School: University Center (Greenwich Village)
• New York Academy of Medicine (East Harlem)
• New York Photo Safari (Greenwich Village)
• New York Society Library (Upper East Side)
• New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture – Whitney Studio (Greenwich Village)
• New York Times Building Lobby Garden (Times Square)
• New York University's Greenwich Village Tour (Greenwich Village)
• New York University: Edward Hopper Studio (Greenwich Village)
• NYC Manhole Covers (Chelsea)
• NYPL 53rd Street Branch (Midtown)
• Panel Discussion: 125th Street East-West Connection (Apollo Theater) (Harlem)
• Panel Discussion: 125th Street East-West Connection (CCCADI) (Harlem)
• Pier 15 (South Street Seaport)
• Pier 17 Hard Hat Tour (South Street Seaport)
• Quiet by Design: Tudor City (Midtown)
• Quintessential Upper West Side (Upper West Side)
• Restoring This Old Brownstone (Midtown)
• Riverside Health Center (Upper West Side)
• Roosevelt House at Hunter College (Upper East Side)
• Sacred Spaces of the East Village (East Village)
• Schermerhorn Row (South Street Seaport)
• St. Patrick's Cathedral (Midtown)
• Stonewall National Monument (West Village)
• Tenement Museum (Lower East Side)
• The Charles (Upper East Side)
• Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace National Historic Site (Gramercy)
• Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse (Civic Center)
• Times Square Arts Nighttime Spectaculars (Times Square)
• Times Square Reconstruction (Times Square)
• Town Hall (Times Square)
• Union Theological Seminary (Morningside Heights)
• United Nations (Midtown)
• Upper West Side Art Deco (Upper West Side)
• Vandal (Lower East Side)
• VIA 57 West (Midtown)
• WABC-TV (Upper West Side)
• Walk the Waterline (Harlem)
• Woolworth Building (Civic Center)

Brooklyn

• BKLYN CLAY (Park Slope)
• Boerum Hill Modern Townhouse (Boerum Hill)
• Brooklyn Cultural District (Downtown Brooklyn)
• Brooklyn Glass (Gowanus)
• Brooklyn Historical Society (Brooklyn Heights)
• City Point (Downtown Brooklyn)
• DSNY Hamilton Avenue Marine Transfer Station (Gowanus)
• DUMBO: The Making of a Cultural District (DUMBO)
• Empire Stores (DUMBO)
• frog studio (DUMBO)
• GBX – Gowanus Bay Terminal (Red Hook)
• Historic Ship Mary A. Whalen (Red Hook)
• Kings County Distillery (Fort Greene)
• LeFrak Center at Lakeside (Prospect Park)
• Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant (Greenpoint)
• Newtown Creek Wildflower Roof (Greenpoint)
• NYC DOT Art Bike Tour (Downtown Brooklyn)
• Pier 5 Uplands at Brooklyn Bridge Park (Downtown Brooklyn)
• Red Hook Walking Tour (Red Hook)
• Ridgewood Reservoir (Bushwick)
• SahoNYC (Williamsburg)
• Serge Drouin Residence (Greenpoint)
• St. Ann's Warehouse (DUMBO)
• Urban Post-Disaster Housing Prototype (Brooklyn Heights)
• Victorian Flatbush Walking Tour (Flatbush)

Bronx

• Concrete Plant Park (Hunts Point)
• Woodlawn Cemetery (Woodlawn)

Queens

• DSNY Central Repair Shop (Maspeth)
• Elmhurst Library (Jackson Heights)
• Historic Douglaston Manor and the Douglaston Club (Bayside)
• Hunter's Point South Waterfront Park (Long Island City)
• Maple Grove Cemetery (Kew Gardens)
• MTA Arts & Design, Take the A Train – to see new art (Ozone Park)
• Queens Botanical Garden (Flushing)
• QueensWay (Richmond Hill)
• Tabernacle of Prayer for All People (Jamaica)

Staten Island

• Freshkills Park (Richmondtown)
• New York Wheel (St. George)
• NYPL Mariners Harbor Branch Library (Mariners Harbor)
• Silver Lake (West Brighton)
• Urby Staten Island (Stapleton)

To see the full list of places, meaning those you don't need to reserve ahead of time, go to the Open House New York website.

Photo Credit: Manhattan Municipal Building (you can stand right under the gold statue at the top) via Public Domain