Upcoming Programs

The book talks and lectures below are held at The Skyscraper Museum starting at 6pm and are free of charge, except when noted. The gallery and exhibition are open for viewing shortly before the programs start. To assure admittance, guests must either use the RSVP form on this site or send an email to [email protected] with the name of the program you would like to attend.

Please be aware that reservation priority is given to Members and employees of Corporate Members of The Skyscraper Museum. Not a member? Become a Museum member today!

Programs are a mix of online and in-person, so consult each entry. All in-person lectures are also live streamed. Past programs are posted on our website and YouTube channel.

Battery Park City Tour:
The North Neighborhood

RSVP Thu, Jul 17, 2025 at 4:00 PM
The North Neighborhood tour of the Museum’s three thematic walking tours of Battery Park City, on Thursday, July 17 at 4pm, will cover the north residential neighborhood, which was developed in several phases, beginning with Stuyvesant High School at the northeast edge and the esplanade and Rockefeller Park along the Hudson. A diagonal avenue lined with apartment buildings creates one face of the neighborhood, while the inner courts of the large blocks are connected by the delightful Teardrop Park. Located two blocks from ground zero, we will also explore the history and design of the Irish Hunger Memorial completed in 2001.

This tour will meet in the Winter Garden at Brookfield Place.

Designing the American Century:
Clarke and Rapuano

RSVP Tue, Jul 22, 2025 at 6:00 PM
In his new book Designing the American Century, Thomas J. Campanella argues that Gilmore D. Clarke and Michael Rapuano were the foremost spatial designers at work in the mid-20th century. Their vast portfolio of public landscapes propelled the legacy of Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux into the motor age, touching the lives of millions and changing the face of the nation. With the patronage of public-works titan Robert Moses, Clarke and Rapuano transformed New York over a span of fifty years.

Battery Park City Tour:
The North Neighborhood REPEAT

RSVP Fri, Jul 25, 2025 at 4:00 PM
The North Neighborhood tour of the Museum’s three thematic walking tours of Battery Park City, on Friday, July 25 at 4pm, will cover the north residential neighborhood, which was developed in several phases, beginning with Stuyvesant High School at the northeast edge and the esplanade and Rockefeller Park along the Hudson. A diagonal avenue lined with apartment buildings creates one face of the neighborhood, while the inner courts of the large blocks are connected by the delightful Teardrop Park. Located two blocks from ground zero, we will also explore the history and design of the Irish Hunger Memorial completed in 2001.

This tour will meet in the Winter Garden at Brookfield Place.

Curator’s Tour of The Modern Concrete Skyscraper

RSVP Wed, Jul 30, 2025 at 3:00 PM
The Museum’s director, Carol Willis, will offer a gallery tour of The Modern Concrete Skyscraper, which examines the hidden history of concrete in tall buildings. This exhibition reveals why, today, almost all skyscrapers are built of concrete, not steel. Curator’s tours are FREE, but you must book a timed ticket at 3pm on Ticketstripe, through the RSVP button.

Battery Park City Tour:
The South Neighborhood

RSVP Thu, Aug 7, 2025 at 4:00 PM
The South Neighborhood tour on Thursday, August 7 at 4pm explores Battery Park City’s southern district, which is home to the Skyscraper Museum and includes some of BPC’s earliest landscapes and infrastructure, as well as the residential enclaves built in the 1990s that followed the 1979 Cooper Eckstut Master Plan. Starting in the Museum’s gallery to see historic views of the waterfront, the tour will visit South Cove and the green spaces that connect to the Esplanade, the first waterfront park in New York since the Brooklyn Heights Esplanade in 1951.

This tour will meet at The Skyscraper Museum, 39 Battery Pl.

New York’s Scoundrels, Scalawags, and Scrappers:
The City in the Last Decade of the Gilded Age

RSVP Tue, Aug 12, 2025 at 6:00 PM
Tireless chronicler of Manhattan’s building history, John Tauranac finds a new angle on the city’s past in his new book New York’s Scoundrels, Scalawags, and Scrappers. Beginning each chapter with a different building of the era, he delves into the social history on site. As he recounts, the 1890s, the tail end of the Gilded Age, was both a time of great inequality and, also, opportunity for those who did not play by the rules. These included “the managements of some businesses and some administrations of the municipality who… gamed the system to their advantage. They are New York’s scoundrels, scalawags, and scrappers.”

Battery Park City Tour:
The South Neighborhood REPEAT

RSVP Fri, Aug 15, 2025 at 4:00 PM
The South Neighborhood tour on Friday, August 15 at 4pm explores Battery Park City’s southern district, which is home to the Skyscraper Museum and includes some of BPC’s earliest landscapes and infrastructure, as well as the residential enclaves built in the 1990s that followed the 1979 Cooper Eckstut Master Plan. Starting in the Museum’s gallery to see historic views of the waterfront, the tour will visit South Cove and the green spaces that connect to the Esplanade, the first waterfront park in New York since the Brooklyn Heights Esplanade in 1951.

This tour will meet at The Skyscraper Museum, 39 Battery Pl.

The Projects:
A New History of Public Housing

RSVP Thu, Oct 16, 2025 at 6:00 PM
As the US struggles to provide affordable housing, millions of Americans live in deteriorating public housing projects, enduring the mistakes of past housing policy. In his new book The Projects, Howard A. Husock explains how we got here, detailing the tragic rise and fall of public housing and the pitfalls of other subsidy programs. He takes us inside a progressive movement led by a group of New York City philanthropists, politicians, and business magnates who first championed public housing as a solution to urban blight.

Skyscraper Museum logo

The programs of The Skyscraper Museum are supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

The programs of The Skyscraper Museum are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature.

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