Open House New York Weekend is here: Get behind-the-scenes tours of 350 NYC sites

It’s Christmas in October for fans of architecture and design. In addition to the monthlong Archtober festival, Open House New York Weekend takes place this month. The annual five-borough event offers free behind-the-scenes tours of New York City spaces, unlocking sites that are often off-limits to the public. Hosted over three days from October 20 through October 22, this year’s OHNY Weekend line-up is the largest ever, with nearly 350 insider tours of cultural spaces like the new Perelman Performing Arts Center, iconic institutions like the United Nations headquarters, historic homes of Greenwich Village, and so much more.

“Nothing reflects the dynamism and diversity of New York quite like OHNY Weekend. And nothing rivals the experience of exploring and discovering the city alongside thousands of New Yorkers and visitors from around the world,” Pamela Puchalski, executive director of Open House New York, said.

“By inviting the public to explore projects across all corners of the city, this festival embraces the power of place—from neighborhood anchors and bridges and tunnels to historic landmarks and modern skyscrapers.”

For the second year, the festival will be 100 percent free to attend. For tours with limited capacity, tickets will be distributed through a lottery system. The lottery opens Tuesday, October 10 at 9 a.m. and closes Thursday, October 12 at 9 a.m. You can enter the lottery for an unlimited number of ticketed events for multiple time slots, but only one entry per time slot is allowed. All tickets come with a plus one.

About 175 OHNY Weekend experiences are “open access,” meaning no ticket is required.

Just a few highlights of ticketed tours during the 2023 OHNY Weekend include:

• 1520 Sedgwick: Birthplace of Hip Hop Walking Tour
• 550 Madison (garden, lobby tours)
• Belmont Mausoleum and Harbeck Mausoleum at Woodlawn Cemetery
• Brooklyn Central Library- “Book of HOV” tour
• Cathedral of St. John the Divine – Crypt Crawl
• Central Park South Residential Buildings
• Cornell Tech Campus – Bloomberg Center, Tata Innovation Center, and MakerLAB
• Domino Sugar
• Greenwich Village Row Houses Walking Tour
• Grolier Club
• Historic Central Park Structures at Night
• Little Island
• Moynihan Train Hall at Night
• Olympia DUMBO
• Perelman Performing Arts Center (PAC NYC) – Architecture Tour
• The Belnord
• United Nations Headquarters
• World Trade Center: Before, After and In-Between Tour

This year’s open-access sites include some of the following places:

• 1914 Lehigh Valley Railroad Barge No. 79
• African Burial Ground National Monument
• Boehm House on Staten Island
• Brooklyn Seltzer Museum
• Center for Brooklyn History
• Central Synagogue
• Dyckman Farmhouse Museum
• Federal Hall
• Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club
• Highbridge Water Tower
• Hindu Temple Society of North America
• Manhattan Borough President’s Office Map Display
• Museum at Eldridge Street
• The Actors’ Temple
• Ukrainian Museum
• Weeksville Heritage Center
• WXY – Open Studio

Get the full lineup of OHNY Weekend 2023 here.

RELATED:

• Archtober 2023: 10 best architecture tours to check out
• Archtober 2023: Your guide to this year’s architecture and design events