Open House New York (OHNY) is a not-for-profit devoted to educating the public about the architecture and design culture of New York City. From Saturday October 12th to Sunday October 13th, OHNY will provide free access to sites, talks, tours, performances, and family activities in all five boroughs in its annual OHNY Weekend.

Locations important to the history of NYC architecture which are usually closed for the public are open to OHNY participants. Participants can also meet the architects, designers, engineers, and historians who have helped create some of the cities most important buildings. Reservations open at 11am today, so check out our guide below to key locations to check out this year!

New and Unique Experiences

• Access to the CitiBike Warehouse, where participants can see the inner workings of NYC’s newest bike share program
• The city’s tiniest museum in an elevator shaft
• Renee and Chaim Gross Foundation Townhouse, a townhouse renovated from the 1830s which includes a sculpture studio
• TWA Flight Center at JFK Airport: Jim Stevens from the Port Authority will be on-site to answer questions about the renovation
• The Neustadt Collection of Tiffany Glass
• The M&B Building in the Decorators and Design district in Midtown Manhattan
• Tour of faded ads by Frank Jump

Special Events and Tours

• “Walk the Internet,” a walking tour with journalist Andrew Blum, provides a view into the infrastructure behind the “global internet.”
• A perimeter tour around the future Whitney Museum in the Meatpacking
• Stargazing at the Woodlawn Cemetery with the Woodlawn Conservatory and Amateur Astronomers of New York
• An open invitation to the opening party of Arts@Renaissance, which is a huge art space in the former Greenpoint Hospital

Designer’s Open House

When you peruse interior design magazines or architecture digests, don’t  you always wonder what they’re houses looks like? Now, you can. Another segment of the OHNY weekend will include tours of the homes of 20 designers and architects. For the design junkie, several of the residences will feature “opendialogues” in which participants can discuss the design process with participating architects and designers.

One residence open for view is a renovated 19th century dentist office. You thought dentist offices were boring? Try this on for size: this space has a moat, bridge, water wall, and cantilevered bed. Another residence is small, but mighty, for it has a dining room table that could be raised and lowered with levers. Oh, the pranks you could pull in that apartment.

Tours of Favorite Spots from the Untapped Cities Archive

• African Burial Ground National Monument
• Alice Austen House
• Brooklyn Botanic Garden
• Cathedral of St. John the Divine
• Freshkills Park
• General Grant National Memorial “Tomb at Night Tour”
• Gowanus Canal Superfun(d) Site Canoe Trip
• Grand Central Terminal
• High Line at the Rail Yard: Carol Bove, Caterpillar
• King Manor Museum
• Louis Armstrong Museum
• Morgan Library and Museum
• MTA Arts for Transit Tours
• Morningside Park Harlem’s Scenic Landmark
• Museum of the City of New York
• Museum of the Moving Image
• New York City Center
• New York Transit Museum
• Newtown Creek Alliance Walking and Canoe Tours
• Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant
• Old Croton Aqueduct Walk
• Roosevelt House
• Wave Hill

Favorites from the Untapped Archive That Will be Open to the Public

• Bartow Pell Mansion
• Edgar Allen Poe Cottage
• Brooklyn Navy Yard
• City Reliquary Museum
• Brooklyn Army Terminal
• US Customs House/Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian
• Eldridge Street Synagogue
• Henry Street Settlement
• Edward Hopper Studio
• Jefferson Market Library
• NYC Marble Cemetery
• Van Alen Institute
• General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen
• Little Red Lighthouse
• FDR Four Freedoms Park
• Socrates Sculpture Park
• Queens County Farm Museum
• Snug Harbor Cultural Center and Botanic Garden

Over 200,000 people will attend the OHNY weekend. Would you like to be one of them? Make a reservation here. Also, look here for a full guide of all the spaces you could tour.