January 07, 2008

Upcoming 'backstage' tours: NY Times, cheese caves

Here's a roundup of a number of behind-the-scenes tours coming up in New York City this winter, including the newsroom of the New York Times, Murray's cheese caves and a century-old power substation.

Open House New York on Tuesday evening kicks off its year-round tours for 2008 with a visit to the EverGreene Plaster restoration studios in Dumbo.

Tours of Murray's subterranean cheese caves proved fast-fillups when offered during past Open House NY weekends (set for Oct. 4 and 5 in 2008.). But Murray's is now opening them up once a month for $10 tours. The next date is January 19, and then the third Saturday of every month.

Renzo Piano's new New York Times building is open for tours on January 23 (with the Center for Architecture Foundation) and February 1 (with the Municipal Art Society.)

92nd Street Y does a whole series of behind-the-scenes tours every season. Upcoming: Gracie Mansion Tea Tour (Jan. 24 and April 15;) Waldorf-Astoria Tour and High Tea (March 7;) and United Nations Tour and Delegates Dining Room Lunch (March 25.)

New York Transit Museum tours for the winter include the abandoned, century-old City Hall station (January 20 and March 15;) Coney Island Overhaul Shop (Jan. 29;) Manhattan substation in operation since 1904 (Feb. 2;) and Grand Avenue Bus Depot (April 13.)

While the stunning lobby of the Woolworth Building has been closed to "tourists" for years, you can get in if you have legitimate business with one of the companies therein. Like say, NYU, which is holding a pair of career nights there later this month: January 22 (Corporate Training) and January 23 (Business Project Management.)

The Met Opera is scheduled to have one more free open house with backstage tours this season -- on April 18 for "la Fille du Regiment." (However, the December 21 open house for "Hansel and Gretel" was open only to school kids.)

The Brooklyn Historic Railway Association does monthly tours of the forgotten Atlantic Avenue train tunnel from the 1840s -- which you enter by climbing through a manhole at the intersection of Court and Atlantic -- but the January date hasn't yet been announced.

The NYC Parks department is still offering free bus tours of the future Fresh Kills park on Staten Island. You can sign up on their website to get notified of 2008 dates.

A little farther afield, the National Park Service Sandy Hook unit keeps some things open during the winter, including the lighthouse keeper's quarters, which is open weekends from 1 to 5 p.m.

Image source: The new New York Times building/NewYorkology, and the sign in front of the main entrance to the Woolworth Building/NewYorkology.

Earlier: Transit Museum adds tours of repair yards, old City Hall
Inside the Woolworth Building with OpenHouse NY
Touring backstage, behind-the-scenes New York

January 7, 2008 08:42 AM in Architecture, Cheap Stuff, Downtown, History, Kids, Midtown, Museums, Out of Manhattan, Sightsology, Tours, Transportology

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