Archtober in Prospect Park

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Prospect Park Meadowport Arch

Presented by the Center for Architecture, Archtober is an annual festival of lectures, tours, exhibitions, and films that celebrate all things architecture in New York City. These special tours of Prospect Park will focus on the park’s historic design and contemporary restoration, including an Art & Architecture Tour, a close look at the park’s water system and recently-restored 1869 Wellhouse building, and a tour with a special focus on the park’s east side, including the Rose Garden, Flatbush perimeter, Children’s Corner, and Lakeside.

Tour Programs

icon-gears  Art & Architecture Tour // FRI, Oct 11, 4pm 
 Waterways & Wellhouse Tour // SUN, Oct 13, 10:30am
icon-leaf  Exploring the East Side Tour // SAT, Oct 26, 1:30pm

Cass Gilbert’s New York: Explore the Woolworth Building & Brooklyn Army Terminal

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Mosaic in Woolworth Lobby showing figure of Commerce holding a globe

Join us for this special exploration of two of renowned architect Cass Gilbert’s most impressive works: the Woolworth Building and the Brooklyn Army Terminal. This 3-hour guided experience includes a tour led by the experts at Woolworth Tours of the building’s stunning lobby, with its soaring mosaic ceiling, intricate stained glass, and amusing corbel characters. We will then walk through the heart of the Financial District to Pier 11 to board the NYC Ferry to the Brooklyn Army Terminal to explore a building radically different in appearance, design, and function.  This engineering marvel on Brooklyn’s Sunset Park waterfront was built in 1918-1919, serving as a supply base for the American military for nearly 50 years. Today it is home to over 100 companies in industries ranging from precision manufacturers to biotech researchers, online retailers to chocolatiers. 

Public Tours

icon-calendar  Select SAT, 1:15pm
  3 hours
icon-male  icon-anchor  Walking & Ferry
  Woolworth Building, Lower Manhattan

Taste the Yard: Brooklyn Navy Yard Food Tour, August 16

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Close-up photo of microgreens growing in a tray in a greenhouse

The Brooklyn Navy Yard Yard is a growing community of food manufacturing businesses. On this tour, go behind the scenes at some of the Yard’s most delicious tenants! Participants will learn about different aspects of food production, distribution, and retail, while sampling treats along the way. In addition, guests will gain a better understanding about the history of theYard and learn more about the 450+ businesses that call the Yard home today. As a bonus, the tour gives visitors amazing views and access to the Yard that is only possible on a tour. Perfect for a Summer Friday outing with colleagues or friends, this new tour is not to be missed!

Taste the Yard Tour

icon-calendar  FRI, Aug 16, 1pm
  2 hours
icon-male Walking tour
  BLDG 92, Fort Greene, Brooklyn

Brooklyn Navy Yard: When Brooklyn Was Queer Tour, June 22

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Black and white photo of two men turned away from the camera with linked arms with pink text overlay that reads, "When Brooklyn was Queer"

Queer history is linked to Brooklyn’s diversity, creativity, and vibrancy as a borough, yet this history is often forgotten or overlooked. Join us for this special tour about the queer history of the Brooklyn Navy Yard, co-led by Turnstile Tours and scholar, curator, and author Hugh Ryan, as we discuss his groundbreaking book When Brooklyn was Queer.

This in-depth tour of the Yard’s history will include insights and excerpts from Ryan on queer histories at and around the Yard, from the nineteenth century and through World War II. The experience culminates at the Kings County Distillery’s Sands Street Gatehouses, a street once known for its bars and nightlife that provided rare spaces for expression of queer identities.  Hugh Ryan’s meticulous research and engaging storytelling have gained his book much praise, and we are so excited to partner with him on this experience as part of WorldPride2019. Books will be available for purchase and signing.

When Brooklyn Was Queer Tour

icon-calendar  SAT, Jun 22, 4:30pm
  2 hours
  Bus and walking tour
  BLDG 92, Fort Greene, Brooklyn

Jane’s Walk Around the Brooklyn Navy Yard, May 4

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landscape with wood board and grass

We are hosting a special experience for Jane’s Walks around the perimeter of the Brooklyn Navy Yard. For 165 years, the Yard was a leading naval shipyard, and today it is a city-owned industrial park and a center of manufacturing, technology, and craft, home to over 400 industrial and creative businesses, providing 9,000 jobs for New Yorkers. This walk will trace the Yard’s perimeter, starting at the Brooklyn Navy Yard Center at BLDG 92, and ending at the Brooklyn Greenway Initiative’s Naval Cemetery Landscape for a celebration of the park’s opening day. Along the way, we will discuss current development and adaptive reuse projects that are boosting the Yard’s workforce to levels not seen since the shipyard’s closure in 1966, and examine what remains of the rich historic landscape of the Yard.

Brooklyn Navy Yard Jane’s Walk

icon-calendar  SAT, May 4, 10am
  1 hour
  Walking tour (approx. 1 mile)
  BLDG 92, Fort Greene, Brooklyn 

Brooklyn Designs at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, May 10–12

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Brooklyn Designs logo black

Brooklyn Designs is a showcase of design, architecture, and art, celebrating the creative energy of the borough. Hosted by the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, this year’s design expo will be taking place at the Brooklyn Navy Yard in Building 77, where designers and manufacturers of furniture, lighting, tableware, art, textiles, jewelry and more will be displaying their work.

During the expo, we will be offering guided tours that delve into design and architecture at the Yard, highlighting examples of new development and adaptive reuse, and some of the 400+ businesses in the Yard, including designers, manufacturers, and the Brooklyn Grange Rooftop Farm. Join the Architecture & Infrastructure Tour to explore the the Yard’s complex built landscape and learn about new projects, or join the Past, Present & Future Tour to get a broad overview of 218 years of work at the Yard. If you want to see the work of Yard businesses up close, join an Inside Industry Tour, which will feature visits to places like New Lab, the Brooklyn Grange, and manufacturing spaces. Use the calendar below to see a full listing of tours.

Fundraiser for Sunset Park Fire Victims

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A brick apartment building on fire with the street sign 44th street in the foreground

On the afternoon of Wednesday, April 3, a fire broke out at 702 44th St, an apartment building in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, leaving more than 100 people homeless. The community has rallied to provide assistance to these families, and the local Business Improvement District has set up a GoFundMe campaign for them – please consider donating.

On Saturday, April 6, we are hosting our regular Brooklyn Army Terminal Tour but this week we will be donating 100% of all ticket sales to the fire victims. So please join us – we will put special focus on the Army Terminal’s long history of providing aid and refuge to victims of war and disaster, from the 1928 Puerto Rico Hurricane to the Andrea Doria sinking to the September 11 Boatlift.>> Continue reading

Guide to Fleet Week New York 2019 Ships

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USCG Cutter in front of a construction project with several office buildings in Downtown Brooklyn and the Williamsburg Savings Bank Tour in the background

New York City used to be a Navy town. Sailors were a regular sight at the city’s shipyards and bases, and ships made regular port calls. Now the Navy’s footprint is nearly gone, so we really have only Fleet Week New York to look forward to for sailor visits. Below is our annual guide to some of the units that will be in town – be sure to check out the full schedule of events on the official Fleet Week NYC website.

If you can’t make out to all of these spots during the week, join us on Memorial Day for our Fleet Week Harbor Tour with our friends at Classic Harbor Line, where we will cruise past all four docking locations, get a waterside view of the ships aboard a beautiful motor yacht, and discuss the rich naval history of the harbor.

>> Continue reading

National Manufacturing Day, Oct. 5

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Manufacturing Day Logo

Celebrate National Manufacturing Day with events across the country on Friday, Oct. 5, including two events hosted by Turnstile Tours and our manufacturing partners. At 9:30am, join us at the Brooklyn Navy Yard for a tour of Ferra Designs, a shop that designs and fabricates architectural metalwork and furniture. The tour will include an explanation of their methodology from founder Rob Ferraroni, as well as a walk through the shop floor to see the work of their skilled craftspeople and advanced manufacturing equipment.

At 10am, we will be exploring food manufacturing by visiting the factory of Wafels and Dinges, a purveyor of authentic Belgian wafels. At their Gowanus facility, they produce more than 7,000 wafels daily for their network of food trucks, carts, kiosks, and restaurants, and it also serves as their commissary garage, where they store and service their fleet for mobile food vending.

Friday, Oct. 5 | Multiple Locations | >> More Information <<

Lecture: “Wendy the Welder: Work in World War II,” Oct. 15

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An African-American female wearing a welder's helmet flipped up. She is smiling and looks surprised.

The Brooklyn Navy Yard reached its peak in World War II, employing 70,000 civilian workers. Desperately short of labor, the Navy employed more than 10,000 women at the Yard, in jobs ranging from seamstress to draftswoman to welder. This lecture by Andrew Gustafson will look back at the history of the Yard, and how World War II represented a major change in the culture of work, but also continued traditions of female labor dating back more than a century, utilizing documents, artifacts, and oral histories form the Brooklyn Navy Yard Archive, including many than we’re used in creating the world of Jennifer Egan’s bestselling novel Manhattan Beach.

Monday, Oct. 15, 6:30pm | New Canaan Library | >> More Information <<