Manhattan Unlocked Historical and Architectural Walking Tours: WTC progress

"No other city is so spitefully incoherent"

--James Baldwin

Welcome to Manhattan Unlocked Walking Tours

Discover hidden-in-plain-sight history and have fun decoding the streetwalls of the city on our multi-faceted walking tours. Manhattan Unlocked answers the question every New Yorker and visitor has asked at some point: "why is this building next to that building?" We take that question to the nth degree and ultimately let the built environment--the city itself--tell its own story, and it's an incredible story to tell! In addition to the million-and-one things on the surface of the island (architecture, history, culture, commerce, immigration, etc.), we look at how ancient geographic features, and long gone and forgotten transit systems, had everything to do with how the city would grow and develop.

About Us

Manhattan Unlocked began as a blog over a decade ago as an effort to decode and make sense of the streetwalls of the city. What most people consider New York City is an architectural complex, and constellation of neighborhoods, stretching almost 5 miles from the Battery to Central Park. Yet, what looks like a jumble of buildings on almost any given blockfront, I realized long ago, couldn't be random. There had to be reasons, there had to be patterns. Neighborhoods too, whether made up of cast iron buildings or skyscrapers, had to be part of some greater, overarching narrative that described the city's development. There had to be some way that Tribeca and Museum Mile were part of the same story.

I soon realized taking on the search for the single-story--the "unified theory"--behind New York's instantly recognizable yet wholly enigmatic built environment, I needed to hit the pavement so to speak. Manhattan Unlocked walking tours began. I had to discontinue the blog long ago, but hope to start posting again soon. Join us on a walking tour, or wait for the book, Build: The History of of New York City on the Island of Manhattan.

Our Walking Tours

Join Us on a Walking Tour...Click the big blue button below for details, or to book any of the following tours (don't forget to read our TripAdvisor reviews!):

Midtown Manhattan Art and Architecture Walking Tour

Midtown west, Times Square, Rockefeller Center, Park Avenue

Holdouts! Based on the Book by Alpern & Durst

Midtown east, Grand Central, Rockefeller Center

Recreate the Most Requested Walking Tour of 1840s New York

Astor Place, NoHo, SoHo, Chinatown, Foley Square

A Disastrous History of Housing the Poor

Foley Square, Chinatown and The Lower East Side

Explore the Ruins of a Forgotten City in the Middle of Manhattan

Madison Square, Nomad, the Flatiron District, Chelsea

In the meantime, the old blog for "testing the waters" remains below.

Click Here to See Tours

Friday, November 26, 2010

WTC progress

Just a quick post and a few pictures to show the progress at the WTC site, the soon to be Reflecting Absence memorial in the footprints of the towers. They tested the waterfalls a few weeks ago.

I haven't gotten choked up about September 11 in a long time, but the size of the memorial is staggering when you see it for the first time. It was difficult to view, but I guess it's supposed to be.

That's part of the footprint of the South Tower, I think that's a generator and lights being hoisted up.

The South Tower footprint/Reflecting Absence being born...

The view from the Winter Garden. I've been at this spot maybe a dozen times since September 11 and for years the feeling was like you were looking at a construction site. With the memorials in view now, the feeling here is starting to change.