Empire State Building - New York City

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Empire State Building is a 102-story landmark Art Deco skyscraper in New York City at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and West 34th Street. It stood as the world's tallest building for more than forty years, from its completion in 1931 until construction of the World Trade Center's North Tower was completed in 1972. Following the destruction of the World Trade Center in 2001, the Empire State Building once again became the tallest building in New York City and New York State.
The Empire State Building has been named by the American Society of Civil Engineers as one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World. The building and its street floor interior are designated landmarks of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, and confirmed by the New York City Board of Estimate.[8] It was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1986. In 2007, it was ranked number one on the List of America's Favorite Architecture according to the AIA. The building is owned and managed by W&H Properties.
The site of the Empire State Building was first developed as the John Thomson Farm in the late 18th century. At the time, a stream ran across the site, emptying into Sunfish Pond, located a block away. Beginning in the late 19th century the block was occupied by the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, frequented by The Four Hundred, the social elite of New York.

Central Park - Manhattan - NY city

Visit to New York City
Central Park, is a large public, urban park that occupies over a square mile (341 hectares) in the heart of Manhattan in New York City. The park was designed by the famous landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted and the architect Calvert Vaux. It is host to approximately twenty-five million visitors each year. Central Park was opened in 1859, completed in 1873 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1963.
While much of the park looks natural, it is in fact almost entirely landscaped. It contains several natural-looking lakes and ponds, extensive walking tracks, two ice-skating rinks (one of which is a swimming pool in July and August), the Central Park Zoo, the Central Park Conservatory Garden, a wildlife sanctuary, a large area of natural woods, a reservoir with an encircling running track, and the outdoor Delacorte Theater which hosts the "Shakespeare in the Park" summer festivals. Eighty-five per cent of the park's operating budget comes from private sources via the Central Park Conservancy, which manages the park pursuant to a contract with New York City Department of Parks and Recreation.

The park is maintained by the Central Park Conservancy, a private, not-for-profit organization that manages the park under a contract with the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, in which the president of the Conservancy is ex officio Administrator of Central Park.

Central Park is bordered on the north by West 110th Street, on the south by West 59th Street, on the west by Eighth Avenue. Along the park's borders however, these are known as Central Park North, Central Park South, and Central Park West respectively. Fifth Avenue retains its name along the eastern border of the park. Most of the areas immediately adjacent to the park are known for impressive buildings and valuable real estate.

The park has its own wildlife and also serves as an oasis for migrating birds, especially in the fall and the spring, making it a significant attraction for bird watchers; 200 species of birds are regularly seen. The 6 miles (10 km) of drives within the park are used by joggers, bicyclists, skateboarders (mostly longboards), and inline skaters, especially on weekends, and in the evenings after 7:00 p.m., when automobile traffic is banned.

New York City Ballet

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New York City Ballet (NYCB) is a ballet company founded in 1948 by choreographer George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein with musical director Leon Barzin and with founding choreographers Balanchine and Jerome Robbins. City Ballet grew out of earlier troupes: the Producing Company of the School of American Ballet, 1934; the American Ballet, 1935, and Ballet Caravan, 1936, which merged into American Ballet Caravan, 1941; and directly from the Ballet Society, 1946.

The company was named New York City Ballet when it became resident at City Center of Music and Drama in 1948. Its success was marked by its move to the New York State Theater, now David H. Koch Theater, designed by Philip Johnson to Balanchine's specifications. City Ballet went on to become the first ballet company in the United States to have two permanent venue engagements: one at Lincoln Center's David H. Koch Theater on 63rd Street in Manhattan, and another at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, in Saratoga Springs, New York. The School of American Ballet (S.A.B.), which Balanchine founded, is the training school of City Ballet.

After the company's move to the State Theater, Balanchine's creativity as a choreographer flourished. He created works that were the basis of the company's repertory until his death in 1983. His vision influenced dance both across the United States and in Europe. He worked closely with choreographer Jerome Robbins, who resumed his connection with the company in 1969 after having produced works for Broadway.

New York City Opera

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New York City Opera (NYCO) is an American opera company and the second largest opera company, after the Metropolitan Opera, in New York City. The company was founded in 1943 with the aim of making opera financially accessible to a wide audience, producing an innovative choice of repertory, and providing a home for American singers and composers. In addition to producing a busy opera schedule, the company has extensive education and outreach programs, offering arts-in-education programs to 4,000 students in over thirty schools.
In its early years, the NYCO's home base was at City Center on West 55th Street. Laszlo Halasz was the company's first director, serving in that position from 1943-1951. Given the company's goal to make opera accessible to the masses, Halasz believed that tickets should be inexpensive and that productions should be staged convincingly with singers who were both physically and vocally suited to their roles.

Metropolitan Opera

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Metropolitan Opera Association of New York City, founded in April 1880, is a major presenter of all types of opera including Grand Opera. Peter Gelb is the company's general manager. The music director is James Levine.
The Metropolitan Opera is America's largest classical music organization, and annually presents some 220 opera performances. The home of the company, the Metropolitan Opera House, is considered by many to be one of the premier opera stages in the world, and is among the largest in the world. The Met, as it is commonly called, is one of the twelve resident organizations at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.

The Met presents a wide array of about twenty-seven operas each year in a season which lasts from mid-September through May. The operas are presented in a rotating repertory schedule with seven performances of four different works presented each week. Performances are given in the evening Monday through Saturday with a matinée on Saturday. Several new opera productions are offered each season. Sometimes these are borrowed from or shared with other major opera houses. The rest are given in revivals of productions from previous seasons.

The Met's huge performing company consists of a large symphony-sized orchestra, a chorus, children's choir, ballet company, and many supporting and leading solo singers. The Met's roster of singers is drawn from the ranks of the world's most famous artists. Some of its singers' careers have been developed by the Met itself through its young artists programs. Others have been engaged from companies around the world. Many, such as Luciano Pavarotti, have achieved world fame while singing at the Met, and a number, such as Renée Fleming and Plácido Domingo, are longtime regular members of the Met's roster (Domingo has sung at the Met since the late 1960s).

The Met's artistic standards are considered to be among the highest in the world. The company's stage facilities and technical staff offer leading directors and designers a state of the art environment in which to create any kind of production. The Met's production designs range from elegant and traditional to highly innovative and avant-garde.

Beyond performing in the opera house in New York, the Met has gradually expanded its audience as new technologies have become available. It has broadcast live weekly on radio since 1931 and has regularly presented performances on television since 1977. In 2006, the Met further introduced the innovations of live satellite radio broadcasts four times a week and live high-definition video transmissions presented to audiences in cinemas throughout the world.

Metropolitan Opera Association was founded in 1880 to create an alternative to the Academy of Music. The Academy represented the highest social circle in New York society, and the board of directors were loath to admit members of new wealthy families into their circle. The initial group of subscribers included the Morgan, Roosevelt, Astor and Vanderbilt families. Their creation, The Metropolitan Opera, has long outlasted the Academy. Henry Abbey served as manager for the inaugural season 1883-84 which opened with a performance of Charles Gounod's Faust on October 22, 1883 starring the Swedish soprano Christina Nilsson. Faust, and all other operas during the first season, including those written in French and German, were performed in Italian.

New York Philharmonic orchestra

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The New York Philharmonic is a symphony orchestra based in New York City in the United States. It is one of the American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five".The Philharmonic's home is Avery Fisher Hall, located in New York's Lincoln Center.
Organized in 1842, the orchestra is older than any other American symphonic institution in existence by nearly four decades; its record-setting 14,000th concert was given in December 2004.
The orchestra was founded by the American-born conductor Ureli Corelli Hill in 1842 as the Philharmonic Society of New York, the third Philharmonic on American soil since 1799 , declaring as its purpose "the advancement of instrumental music." The first concert of the New York Philharmonic took place on December 7, 1842 in the Apollo Rooms on lower Broadway before an audience of 600. Led by Hill himself, the concert opened with Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 . Two other conductors, German-born Henry Christian Timm and French-born Denis Etienne, led parts of the eclectic, three-hour program, which included chamber music and several operatic selections with a leading singer of the day, as was the custom. The musicians operated as a cooperative society, deciding by a majority vote such issues as who would become a member, which music would be performed and who among them would conduct. At the end of the season the players would divide any proceeds among themselves.

United Nation tour

The United Nations is the site of some of the most significant events in recent history, from the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 to the unprecedented Millennium Summit in September 2000 that brought together about 150 heads of State and Government.
Guided Tours are conducted Monday through Friday from 9:45 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. Tours
last approximately 45 minutes.

The United Nations Headquarters in New York is located on First Avenue between 42nd Street and 48th Street.
The Visitors' Entrance is located on First Avenue at 46th Street. As the United Nations does not offer parking facilities, it is suggested that public transportation be used.
Subway: number 4,5,6 or 7 trains to Grand Central Station; walk on 42nd Street to First Avenue.
Buses: M15, M27, M42, or M104.

760 United Nations Plaza
New York, NY 10017
* phone: 212-963-8687
* fax: 212-963-0071

Bronx Zoo

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The Bronx Zoo is a zoo located within the Bronx Park, in The Bronx borough of New York City. The Bronx Zoo comprises 265 acres of park lands and naturalistic habitats, through which the Bronx River flows. The Bronx Zoo is south of the New York Botanical Garden.
History Bronx Zoo
Fordham University owned most of the land which became the Bronx Zoo and New York Botanical Garden. Fordham sold it to the City of New York for only $1,000 under the condition that the lands be used for a zoo and garden; this was in order to create a natural buffer between the university grounds and the urban expansion that was nearing. In the 1880s, New York State set aside the land for future development as parks. In 1895, New York State chartered the New York Zoological Society (later renamed to Wildlife Conservation Society) for the purpose of founding a zoo.
The zoo (originally called the New York Zoological Park) opened its doors to the public on November 8, 1899, featuring 843 animals in 22 exhibits.
The first zoo director was William Temple Hornaday. Heins & LaFarge designed the original permanent buildings as a series of Beaux-Arts pavilions grouped around the large circular sea lion pool. Many exhibits, for example World of Birds and World of Reptiles, maintain the original taxonomical arrangement, while others are arranged geographically, such as African Plains and Wild Asia.
In 2006, the Bronx Zoo is home to more than 4,000 animals, many of which are endangered or threatened species. Nearly two million people visit the Zoo each year.
The Zoo has been designated as a New York City landmark.

Bronx Zoo
Bronx River Parkway and Fordham Road
Bronx, NY 10460

* subway: 2, 5 to East Tremont Ave./West Farms Sq.
* bus: BxM11 to Bronx Zoo; Bx9, Bx19 to 183rd St. and Southern Blvd.; Bx12, Bx22 to Fordham Rd. and Southern Blvd.; Q44 to 180th St. and Boston Rd.
* phone: 718-367-1010
* fax: 718-220-6890

Central Park Zoo

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Central Park Zoo is located in Central Park in New York City and run by the Wildlife Conservation Society.
The zoo was not part of the original "Greensward" design for Central Park created by Olmsted and Vaux, but a Central Park menagerie near New York's arsenal, on the edge of Central Park located at Fifth Avenue facing East 64th Street, spontaneously evolved in 1859 from gifts of exotic pets and other animals informally given to the Park; the original animals on display included a bear and some swans. In 1864, a formal zoo received charter confirmation from New York's assembly, making it it the United States's second publicly owned zoo, after the Philadelphia Zoo, founded in 1859. The new zoo was given permanent quarters behind the Arsenal building in 1870.
By 1980, the zoo, like Central Park itself, was sadly dilapidated; in that year, responsibility for its management was assumed by the New York Zoological Society which is now the Wildlife Conservation Society. The zoo was closed in the winter of 1983, and demolition began. The redesign of 1983–88 was executed by the architectural firm of Kevin Roche, Dinkeloo. The old-fashioned menagerie cages were abandoned for more natural exhibits. The costs of the renovations, which had been originally budgeted at $22 million, reached a total of $35 million. The zoo reopened to the public on August 8, 1988.
Some of the original buildings, with their low-relief limestone panels of animals, were reused in the redesigning, though the cramped outdoor cages were swept away. Most of the large animals were rehoused in larger, more natural spaces at the Bronx Zoo. The central feature of the original zoo, ranged round the sea lion pool, was retained and the pool redesigned. Since its modernization the Central Park Zoo, traditionally available to parkgoers free of charge, charges admission to its enclosed precincts.

Central Park Zoo
address
830 Fifth Ave. (at W. 64th St.)
Manhattan, NY 10021
phone: 212-439-6500
fax: 212-988-0286

Prospect Park Zoo

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The Prospect Park Zoo located off Flatbush Avenue on the eastern side of Prospect Park, Brooklyn, New York City. Its precursor, the Menagerie, had opened in 1890. The present facility first opened as a city zoo on July 3, 1935 and was part of a larger revitalization program of city parks, playgrounds and zoos initiated in 1934 by Parks Commissioner Robert Moses. It was built, in large part, through Civil Works Administration and Works Project Administration (WPA) labor and funding. After 53 years of operation as a city zoo run by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, Prospect Park Zoo closed on June 1988 for reconstruction.
The closure signaled the start of a five year, $37 million dollar renovation program, that, save for the exteriors of the 1930s-era buildings, completely replaced the zoo. It was rededicated on October 5, 1993 as the Prospect Park Wildlife Conservation Center, joining an integrated system of four zoos and one aquarium managed by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).
Prospect Park Zoo presently offers children's educational programs, is engaged in restoration of endangered species populations, runs a Wildlife Theater and reaches out to the local community through volunteer programs.
Prospect Park Zoo
address
450 Flatbush Ave. (bet. East Lake Dr. and Ocean Ave.)
Brooklyn, NY 11225
* subway: B, Q to Prospect Park
* phone: 718-399-7339
* fax: 718-399-7337
* hours: 10am–4:30pm daily

Staten Island Zoo

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The Staten Island Zoo is a small urban zoo in northern Staten Island in New York City in the United States.

Zoo construction commenced in 1933 as part of the Federal Government’s works program on an 8-acre (32,000 m2) estate willed to New York City. The land, now called Barrett Park was willed to the City of New York by Mrs. Edward E. Hardin and reconstructed into a zoological park during the Great Depression by the Work Projects Administration. The zoo opened to the public in 1936 and was considered the first U.S. "educational zoo."

Initially the focus of the zoo was reptiles, in particular including the collection of snakes housed in the zoo's Serpentarium. Although the focus of the zoo has broadened, the zoo's collection of rattlesnakes is still regarded as among the largest and most complete in North America. The current collection comprises over 858 animals of over 222 different species. Among the zoo's current exhibits is the African Savannah at Twilight. The zoo is also the home of Staten Island Chuck, a groundhog who is the official Groundhog Day forecaster for New York City.

614 Broadway (Broadway/Colonial Ct)
Staten Island, NY 10310
* phone: 718-442-3101
* fax: 718-981-8711
* hours: 10am – 4:45pm – 7 days a week

Queens Zoo

Visit Zoo in NY the Queens Zoo to see playful pumas, Andean bears and the world’s smallest deer.
The Queens Zoo is a 5 acre zoo located in the New York City borough of Queens, located in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. The zoo is operated by the Wildlife Conservation Society in partnership with the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. The zoo was constructed on the site of the 1964 New York World's Fair, and the zoo's aviary is a geodesic dome, designed by Buckminster Fuller and used during the 1964 Fair.
The Zoo originally opened on October 26, 1968, with the ceremonial ribbon cut by Robert Moses. It reopened in 1992 after a four-year, 16 million dollar, renovation, redesign, and reconceptualization.

In its current incarnation, the Queens Zoo is home to animals native to the Americas. It is the only one of the five zoos in New York City to exhibit Spectacled Bears. The zoo is also home to Cougars, California Sea Lions, Coyotes, Owl, Lynx, Pudú, Thick-billed parrots, Alligators, Roosevelt elk, Sandhill Crane, Bald Eagle, the previously-mentioned Aviary, and a petting zoo with a variety of domestic animals.
Queens Zoo NY
Address
53-51 111th St. (at 52nd Ave.)
Queens, NY 11368
phone: 718-271-1500
fax: 718-271-4441

Radio City Music Hall - NY

Radio City Music Hall was designed to be “a palace for the people,” and has lived up to that ideal for more than six decades. Home to the world-famous Rockettes, who kick up their heels annually at the Christmas Spectacular, Radio City is also the place where past legends like Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald sang and today’s stars such as Elton John and Anita Baker still do. For a behind-the-scenes look, take the Radio City Music Hall Stage Door Tour.
Radio City Music Hall is an entertainment venue located in New York City's Rockefeller Center. Its nickname is the Showplace of the Nation, and it was for a time the leading tourist destination in the city. Its interior was declared a city landmark in 1978.
The 12 acre (49,000 m²) complex in midtown Manhattan known as Rockefeller Center was developed between 1929 and 1940 by John D. Rockefeller, Jr., on land leased from Columbia University. The Radio City Music Hall was designed by architect Edward Durell Stone and interior designer Donald Deskey in the Art Deco style. Rockefeller initially planned a new home for the Metropolitan Opera on the site, but after the Stock Market Crash of 1929, the plans changed and the opera company withdrew from the project.

The names "Radio City" and "Radio City Music Hall" derive from one of the complex's first tenants, the Radio Corporation of America. Radio City Music Hall was a project of Rockefeller; Samuel Roxy Rothafel, who previously opened the Roxy Theatre in 1927; and RCA chairman David Sarnoff. RCA had developed numerous studios for NBC at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, just to the south of the Music Hall, and the radio-TV complex that lent the Music Hall its name is still known as the NBC Radio City Studios.

The Music Hall opened to the public on December 27, 1932 with a lavish stage show featuring Ray Bolger and Martha Graham. The opening was meant to be a return to high-class variety entertainment. The new format was not a success. The program was very long and individual acts were lost in the cavernous hall. On January 11, 1933, the Music Hall converted to the then familiar format of a feature film with a spectacular stage show which Rothafel had perfected at the Roxy Theatre. The first film was shown on the giant screen was Frank Capra's The Bitter Tea of General Yen starring Barbara Stanwyck and the Music Hall became the premiere showcase for films from the RKO-Radio Studio. The film plus stage spectacle format continued at the Music Hall until 1979 with four complete performances presented every day
.
Radio City Music Hall
address
1260 Sixth Ave. (at 50th St.)
Manhattan, NY 10020
phone: 212-247-4777