It’s that time of year again: every fall, you’ll find urban explorers frantically refreshing their web browsers to gain access to some of New York City’s most stunning and mysterious structures. It’s all part of Open House New York (OHNY) weekend, which celebrates architecture and urban design by opening extraordinary places to the public for talks, tours and other special programming. Since its inaugural year in 2003, the citywide event has grown to include over 200 participating sites across all five boroughs.
This year is particularly special, as OHNY weekend is celebrating its 15th anniversary. The event, regarded as one of the largest architecture festivals in the country, will unfold on October 14th and 15th, and more than 85,000 visitors are expected to participate. While the full list of accessible sites won’t be announced until October 4th, we do know that the weekend will include some returning favorites, as well as a range of new places.
In celebration of the occasion, we’re excited to announce a giveaway for two OHNY Weekend Passports, a VIP pin that gives the wearer and a guest front-of-the line admittance to Open Access sites, which are free-of-charge and do not require advanced reservation. There are numerous ways for Untapped Cities readers to enter the contest (see our Rafflecopter embed below). You can win entries by interacting with us on Instagram, Twitter, and visiting our Facebook page. The giveaway will run until end of day October 7th, 2017.
To whet your appetite, ONHY’s advance preview list includes sites like The Bridge at Cornell Tech, one of the first three university buildings completed on Roosevelt Island; the historic Liggett Hall on Governors Island, a former military barrack, which will have its secret archway gymnasium open to the public for the first time; rare access to New York Transit Museum Archives, which contains thousands of artifacts telling the story of mass transportation in New York City; the American Copper Buildings, where visitors will tour the building’s newly completed skybridge and much, much more.
In the meantime, here are some important dates to watch out for leading up to OHNY weekend:
October 4th: The full list of all participating OHNY sites (both open access and ones that require reservations) will be announced on www.ohny.org.
October 5th: The majority of sites are open-access and free to visit, but some require Advance Reservations ($5 fee per person). Reservations will begin on October 5th at 11am.
October 12th: The 2017 OHNY Weekend kicks off with a launch party at Jane’s Carousel, in Brooklyn Bridge Park. Tickets will go on sale in September.
