The ultimate New York City lover’s treasure hunt is back Friday, Oct. 17 through Sunday, Oct. 19. That’s when Open House New York will unlock doors across all five boroughs to sites that are typically off-limits, overlooked or simply underappreciated.
You can climb into old towers, walk through brand-new construction or explore the behind-the-scenes infrastructure that makes New York hum. Some tours are led by engineers or city workers, and others by artists, architects, historians and "regular" New Yorkers.
This year’s lineup boasts 341 sites — making it the biggest and longest OHNY Weekend ever, according to Executive Director Kristin LaBuz.
“We are packing 1,600 hours of programming into three days,” LaBuz said. “The first event is 12:01 midnight on Friday … and the weekend ends Sunday evening at 10 p.m. with stargazing in Inwood with the Amateur Astronomers Association.”
Many of the most in-demand sites, including most of those highlighted below, require $7 tickets and have timed reservations or light background checks. Others are completely free to drop in during opening hours. Tickets are released at noon Eastern Time on Friday, Oct. 3, and the most popular sites get snapped up immediately, so get your keyboard ready.
Here are some of the coolest spaces opening their doors this year:
Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Memorial Arch
Paul Martinka / Courtesy of Open House New York
The triumphant arch at the top of Grand Army Plaza hides an interior most parkgoers have never seen. On this tour, rangers guide visitors up into the Trophy Room above the archway, showcasing recent preservation work and sharing stories of Brooklyn’s Civil War regiments. Just be prepared for stairs. Get tickets here.
ConEd East River Generating Station
This East Village power facility, which was built in the 1920s and is continuously updated, produces both electricity and high-pressure steam for Con Edison customers. New Yorkers who were here during Hurricane Sandy will know exactly how important this brutalist maze of catwalks and turbines really is. Get tickets here.
Yankee Ferry
The last surviving Ellis Island ferry, which shuttled immigrants to and from New York’s famous port of entry, is now a private residence docked in a boatyard on Staten Island. This tour, the first public visit in more than five years, brings you into the home of artists Victoria and Richard MacKenzie-Childs, who have realized an incredible vision on the boat over decades. Get tickets here.
Unseen sides of the World Trade Center
At 3 World Trade Center, OHNY Weekenders can explore two rarely seen upper floors: Floor 79, home to a working artist-in-residence program with sweeping skyline views, and Floor 80, where scale models and images trace the massive rebuilding effort at the World Trade Center site. It’s a special opportunity to experience art, architecture and urban memory all in one vertigo-inducing visit. Get tickets here.
A separate tour takes visitors below ground to the subterranean road network that connects the entire 16-acre WTC campus, including a visit to the Central Chiller Plant, which powers the climate control for the site. The tour concludes at a private observation deck on the 64th floor of One World Trade, a space that is otherwise never open to the public. Get tickets here.
Inner operations of the MTA
Patrick Cashin, Metropolitan Transportation Authority / Courtesy of Open House New York
New Yorkers love to complain about the subway. During OHNY Weekend, you can get up close and personal with the massive logistical and mechanical operations that keep the system running. Three behind-the-scenes MTA tours show different angles of the agency’s work:
At the 207th Street Yard in Upper Manhattan, visitors will learn about the newly completed flood wall engineered to withstand a 500-year storm event. Get tickets here.
Brooklyn’s sprawling Coney Island Yard, the largest in the system, showcases ongoing upgrades and lets you peek into how eight subway lines worth of trains are serviced, stored and repaired. Get tickets here.
And at the Livonia Maintenance Shop, a tour of the 3 line’s home base highlights brake inspections, wheel work, and the complex inventory and safety systems that underpin every subway ride. Just don’t expect it to smell like fresh paint. Get tickets here.
Surprisingly sexy municipal infrastructure
The phrase “wastewater resource recovery” may not scream glamour, but bear with us: These underappreciated city systems are engineering feats hiding in plain sight, and some even come with water views.
At the Owls Head facility in Bay Ridge, you can trace the journey of 120 million gallons of sewage as it is transformed into clean water, while standing atop a bluff with a panorama of New York Harbor. Get tickets here.
Meanwhile, on the Upper East Side, the 91st Street Marine Transfer Station offers a rare look at how garbage is barged out of Manhattan with sleek efficiency. Get tickets here.
Staten Island’s sprawling compost facility is a surprisingly high-tech operation that turns food scraps and yard waste into 42 million pounds of nutrient-rich compost every year. Get tickets here.
And the Spring Street Salt Shed, that sculptural concrete bunker you’ve always wondered about, is part of a snow operations tour showing how the Department of Sanitation tackles 19,000 miles of winter roadways. Get tickets here.
Inside private clubs
For fans of old New York or anyone curious about how the other half (of the 1%) lives, OHNY Weekend offers rare entry into some of the city’s most storied private clubs. At The Players Club on Gramercy Park, founded by Shakespearean actor Edwin Booth and designed by Stanford White, guests can explore rooms dripping in private history. Get tickets here.
Right next door, the National Arts Club opens its stained-glass-domed parlors inside the Samuel Tilden Mansion, a Victorian Gothic stunner rarely open to the public. Get tickets here.
And across town in Queens, the Douglaston Club invites visitors into its 1819 Federal-style mansion for a history tour followed by cider on the porch. Whether it’s oil paintings, antique billiards tables or strict dress codes, there’s no shortage of old-school charm. Get tickets here.
Hidden spaces of Rockefeller Center
You may have seen the Rainbow Room’s chandeliers from a wedding Instagram or a movie scene — but now’s your chance to walk underneath them in person. A set of expansive Rockefeller Center tours includes four different venues that each offer a slice of Midtown’s architectural evolution.
The loft and gardens at 610 and 620 Fifth Avenue showcase modern interiors that open onto landscaped rooftops with rare views of St. Patrick’s Cathedral and Rockefeller Plaza. See more information on 610 and 620 (no tickets are required).
Radio Park, a lush, tenants-only rooftop garden tucked above Radio City Music Hall shows off how green space can thrive high above Sixth Avenue. More information is here (no tickets are required).
And the capstone is a tour of the iconic Rainbow Room on the 65th Floor of 30 Rock, where Art Deco opulence meets skyline views. Together, the venues illustrate Rockefeller Center’s layered identity as a historic complex and an ongoing design laboratory. Get tickets here.
