New York City Sights

  1. 111 Front Street Galleries

    You'll know this building immediately thanks to the arresting orange banner at the front door. More than 11 independent artists and art organizations are housed inside - each one maintains a distinct office or atelier. Visitors are welcome to browse through and check out the work going on in each one, but hours vary.

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  2. 6th And B Garden

    Reclaimed from squalor by community activists in the 1980s, East Village residents adore this 17,000 sq-foot tangle of plots, vines, sculptures and flowers. Garden members fought long and hard to keep the city from selling the land out from under them; and now it's a city oasis everyone enjoys.

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  3. Abingdon Sq

    Unlike the rest of Greenwich Village, which has seen some shabby days, Abingdon Sq has always been wealthy and well-kept. Once owned by a privileged settler family, it still has its original 1843 perimeter, the Abingdon Memorial (aka The Doughboy) to WW I veterans and is shaded by immense, stately trees.

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  4. Abrons Art Center

    This venerable cultural hub has three theaters, the largest being the Harry De Jur Playhouse (a national landmark), with its own lobby, fixed seats on a rise, a large, deep stage and good visibility. A mainstay of the downtown Fringe Festival, Abrons Art Center is also your best bet to catch experimental and community productions. Not afraid of difficult subjects, Abrons sponsors plays and dance and photography exhibits that don't get much play elsewhere.

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  5. Abyssinian Baptist Church

    Founded by an Ethiopian businessman, the Abyssinian Baptist Church began as a downtown institution but moved north to Harlem in 1923, mirroring the migration of the city's black population. Its charismatic pastor, Calvin O Butts III, is an important community activist whose support is sought by politicians of all parties. The church has a superb choir and the building is a beauty.

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  6. American Museum of Natural History

    Founded in 1869, this museum is a classic for kids. Its halls are fascinating wonderlands of more than 30 million artefacts, and the thrilling Rose Center for Earth & Space was added in 2000. Plan to spend most of a day here so you and your littlies can see as much as possible. The museum is most famous for its three large, dinosaur halls, as well as for the enormous (fake) blue whale hanging from the ceiling of the Hall and Ocean Life.

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  7. Artists Space

    One of the first alternative spaces in New York, Artists Space was founded in 1972 to support contemporary artists working in the visual arts, including video, electronic media, performance, architecture and design. It offers an exhibition space for new art and artists, and tries to foster an appreciation for the role artists play in communities.

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  8. Barbara Gladstone Gallery

    The curator of this eponymous gallery has learned a thing or two after 27 years in the Manhattan art world. Ms Gladstone consistently puts together the most talked-about and well-critiqued displays, and artists such as Shirin Neshat, Magnus von Plessen and Anish Kapoor are frequently shown.

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  9. Battery Park

    Embracing the tip of lower Manhattan, Battery Park's a breezy, delightful swath of color with 13 works of public art, 35 acres of greenery, the Holocaust Memorial, the NYC Police Memorial, the Irish Hunger Memorial, the rose-filled Hope Garden and sweeping views of Lady Liberty.

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  10. Bowling Green

    New York's oldest park is believed to have been the spot where Dutch settler Peter Minuit paid Native Americans US$24.00 to purchase Manhattan Island. The verdant triangle was leased by the people of New York from the English crown beginning in 1733, for the token amount of one peppercorn each. The huge bronze Charging Bull is an unintentional Wall Street icon.

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  11. Bridgemarket

    After decades of restoration, Bridgemarket - the vaulted, Guastavino-tiled space under the 59th St Bridge that served as a farmers market in the early 1900s - was brought back to life in 1999 by design guru Sir Terence Conran. Now it's a thriving retail and dining complex anchored by the Terence Conran Shop, full of ingenious modern design accessories, and Guastavino's, a former restaurant (now reserved for private functions) worth peeking into.

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  12. Brooklyn Bridge

    A New York icon, the Brooklyn Bridge has many stories to tell. It held the angry marchers outraged by the police torture of Abner Louima in 1997. In spring 2004 it hosted a crowd of gays and lesbians who marched in support of legalising same-sex marriage. In late 2005, the NYC masses commuted across it due to the three-day Transit Workers Union strike.

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  13. Bryant Park

    Fashion Week, free films, Latin dancing, concerts and Broadways shows (plus ice-skating in winter), there's always something going on in this grassy haven behind the New York Public Library. With free wi-fi and a cute coffee bar, it's everyone's favorite satellite office. Come early for free films in summer - blankets suggested.

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  14. Cathedral of St John The Divine

    This is the largest place of worship in the USA - and it's not finished. On completion, the 183m (601ft)-long Episcopal cathedral will rank as the third-largest church in the world (after St Peter's Basilica in Rome, and Our Lady of Peace at Yamoussoukro in Côte d'Ivoire). A design highlight is the Great Rose Window, America's largest stained-glass window.

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  15. Central Park

    If you're ever lucky enough to fly into New York over the stretch of Manhattan, one of the most stunning visuals is not the buildings themselves but the lack of them, within the 843-acre carpet of green that makes up this stunning park. Located smack-dab in the middle of the borough, this is definitely a place that is not to be missed.

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  16. Cheim & Read

    Sculptures of every shape, size and material abound at Cheim & Read, and monthly changes keep the exhibits fresh. If the timing is right, you might catch William Eggleston's bouncy color photographs hanging on the wall, or a Jenny Holzer light installation blazing over the front door.

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  17. Chelsea Art Museum

    One of many new additions to the art scene here, this museum occupies a three-story red brick building dating from 1850 and stands on land once owned by writer Clement Clarke Moore. Its focus is on post-war abstract expressionism, especially by national and international artists; its permanent collection includes works by Antonio Corpora, Laszlo Lakner and sculptor Bernar Venet.

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  18. Chelsea Hotel

    The prime sight on noisy 23rd St is a redbrick hotel with ornate iron balconies and no fewer than seven plaques declaring its literary landmark status. Even before the Sex Pistols' Sid Vicious murdered girlfriend Nancy Spungeon here, the hotel was famous as a hangout for the likes of Mark Twain, Thomas Wolfe, Dylan Thomas and Arthur Miller. Jack Kerouac allegedly crafted On the Road during one marathon session here.

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  19. Chelsea Piers Complex

    This massive waterfront sports center caters to the athlete in everyone. You can hit golf balls at the four-level driving range, ice skate in the complex's indoor rink or rent in-line skates to cruise down to Battery Park along the new Hudson Park waterfront bike path. There's a jazzy bowling alley, Hoop City for basketball, a sailing school for kids, batting cages, a huge gym facility with an indoor pool, indoor rock-climbing walls - the works.

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  20. Children's Museum Of Manhattan

    A favorite for area mommies, this museum features discovery centers for toddlers, a media center where technologically savvy kids can work in a TV studio and the Inventor Center, where cool tech stuff like digital imaging and scanners are available. Expect the kids' stuff to be filtered through a sophisticated city lens, as recent exhibitions shaped interactive art projects around the works of William Wegman, Elizabeth Murray and Fred Wilson.

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  21. Children's Museum Of The Arts

    No looking allowed! This is a museum of direct participation. Fabulous multisensory activities are educational and fun, and conducted under the watchful eyes of facilitators, all trained artists themselves. Warning: children will leave knowing how to make Flubber at home.

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  22. Christopher St Piers/Hudson River Park

    Like so many places in the Village, the extreme west side was once a derelict eyesore used mostly as a cruising ground for quick, anonymous sex. Now it's a pretty waterside hangout, bisected by the Hudson River Park's slender bike and jogging paths, with great sunset views. It's still a good place to cruise, just much less dangerous.

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  23. Chrysler Building

    The 319m (1048ft) Chrysler Building has been widely named as a favourite work of architecture by lay people and building aficionados alike - an art deco masterpiece designed by William Van Alen in 1930. It briefly reigned as the tallest structure in the world until being superseded by the Empire State Building a few months later.

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  24. City Hall

    The hall has been home to New York's government since 1812. In keeping with the half-baked civic planning that has often plagued large-scale New York projects, officials neglected to finish the building's northern side in marble, gambling that the city would not expand uptown. The mistake was finally rectified in 1954.

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  25. Colonnade Row

    Once there were nine Greek Revival mansions in this row; now there are four. All were built in 1833, out of stone, the work done by prisoners from the upstate Sing Sing prison, and all have ornate, detailed touches on their classic facades.

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