Open House New York (OHNY), the fun annual event in which some of the city's coolest, most obscure, and most architecturally interesting buildings are opened up to the public, is taking place the weekend of October 16th and 17th this year. While about half of the locations are free and open to the public—or are virtual events—about half of them require reservations. And you're gonna want to get on top of that, because reservations for the tours are open starting at 11 a.m. today here, and reservations tend to get plucked up quickly.

“Open House New York was founded in the wake of 9/11, when access to Lower Manhattan was suddenly highly restricted. Today, at a time when residents across the five boroughs are struggling to reconnect with each other and the city, OHNY Weekend provides a much-needed impetus for discovery and exploration,” said Rob Rogers, President of the Board of Directors for OHNY.

Highlights of this year's event, which takes place all across the five boroughs, include the chance to see several city landmarks at night (including the 9/11 Memorial, Belvedere Castle, Moynihan Train Hall, and Little Island); the chance to explore lots of corners of the Brooklyn Navy Yard (including Building 92, Crye Precision HQ, Dock 72, Kings County Distillery and Nanotronics); the Smallpox Hospital on Roosevelt Island; Newtown Creek; The Arts Center at Governors Island; and Billion Oyster Project Restoration.

There's a Harlem Culture crawl, as well as group tours at Woodlawn Cemetery, TWA Hotel, Morningside Park, Brownsville and Green-Wood Cemetery. You can check out Audubon Murals in Washington Heights, NYCHA art at Red Hook Houses, or join a bike tour of DOT public art. There's tours of individual residences including Billiou-Stillwell-Perine House on Staten Island, Greenwich Village Row Houses, The House on Henry Street, and Vander Ende Onderdonk House in Ridgewood.

And there are featured series including Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Centennial, which is focused on the impact of the Port Authority, and another called Radical Knowledge: Libraries as Community Catalysts, on how libraries have improved life in NYC.

BookOps Sorting Facility

NYPL

Here are some of OHNY's picks for the best events of the weekend of places the public will usually not be able to see behind-the-scenes:

  • BookOps Sorting Facility: Discover how tens of thousands of books in the circulating collections of Brooklyn Public Library and New York Public Library find their way to eager readers across the city at this Long Island City building.
  • EWR Airport Building One: OHNY goes to New Jersey this year and unlocks the story behind the airport's original 1934 terminal, an art deco gem cut in three and stitched back together just 3,700 feet from its initial location.
  • SUMMIT One Vanderbilt: Experience midtown from 1,200 feet, the highest vantage point in Midtown Manhattan. From transparent elevators to glass sky boxes, take in panoramic views of New York, sidewalk to sky.
  • Brooklyn Navy Yard: Nanotronics: Industrial development takes off at Nanotronics, a new state-of-the-art center for the AI and robotics innovations driving advanced manufacturing in New York and beyond.
  • Northeast Bronx YMCA: Decades in the making, this new community anchor is set in a three-acre urban forest and blends indoors and outdoors to promote the health and wellness of residents and surrounding neighborhoods.
  • Little Island @ Night: Experience the blending of nature and art through luminance at the newly repaired and renovated Pier 54 on the shorelines of West Chelsea.

Get all the info on OHNY 2021 events and ticketing here. There is also a launch party for the weekend happening on Thursday, October 14th on the rooftop terrace of the newly renovated Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library; you can get ticket info for that here.