Springtime in New York: Art Deco Centennial Weekend
About the Program
As we join the global celebration of World Art Deco Day on April 28th, the centennial of Art Deco, The Art Deco Society of New York (ADSNY) invites you this April to join us for a once-in-a lifetime series of events on a very special immersive extended weekend in our vibrant Art Deco capital.
ADSNY's Springtime in New York: Art Deco Centennial Weekend marks the 100th anniversary of the opening on April 28,1925, of the Exposition internationale des arts décoratifs et industriels modernes in Paris, which launched the Deco aesthetic that quickly spread around the world.
We'll see firsthand how, in just a few short years, the 1925 Paris Exposition helped transform New York City into the Art Deco capital of the world, with its architecture, design, and culture exemplifying the upward exaltation of the American spirit.
The weekend offers carefully curated programs led by acclaimed historians, taking us on a deep dive into the best of the best of Manhattan's famed Art Deco treasures, as well a look at stunning examples of Art Deco landmarks in nearby communities also influenced by the Exposition.
In addition to celebrating New York’s architectural treasures, we will dine in Jazz Age hotspots and be hosted in a home with unmatched views of Midtown's Deco skyscrapers.
If you think you already know New York Art Deco, think again, and join us when:
- We embark on a full-day guided motorcoach tour to visit Art Deco landmarks in all five boroughs - especially fitting, as April is also the 60th anniversary of the passage of the city's Landmarks Law.
- We explore Deco gems in the downtown financial district, including Hildreth Meière’s famed Red Banking Room at One Wall Street
- We take a fresh look inside the best of the best Midtown Deco icons to see and learn about the work of gifted preservationists and architects responsible for these stunning restorations, including the restored interiors and top of the Empire State Building. We'll visit Rockefeller Center and tour the interior of Radio City Music Hall. If completed in time, we hope to offer a special preview inside the Waldorf Astoria after its years-long restoration.
- We cross the Hudson River to visit stunning examples of Art Deco architecture and design in New Jersey, including a spectacular railway station, a Ralph Walker Bell Telephone Building, and an Art Deco high school.We'll also take a private tour of Art Deco pieces in the Newark Museum's collection before a special visit to the impressive restoration of an Art Deco air terminal hidden in plain sight.
- From a Deco collector’s Midtown apartment perched high above the city, we celebrate the centennial with dinner and a Champagne toast to the Art Deco gems glittering in the night sky.
Reserve your place today to experience this exceptional celebratory weekend, tailored to the Art Deco enthusiast, at the crossroads of the world, where Art Deco defined New York as the most celebrated modern city in the world.
There are two options for ADSNY's Springtime in New York: Art Deco Centennial Weekend: a four-day or three-day Weekend experience.
Three-Day Program: Celebrating Deco Gems in All New York City's Five Boroughs
April 26–28, 2025
Program begins early Friday evening, with a private cocktail reception and dinner in a private residence. Attendees are encouraged to arrive by Friday afternoon, April 25.
Four-Day Program: New York City's Deco Gems Plus Newark’s Marvelous Deco Treasures
April 25–28, 2025
This extended program offers an additional full day, Friday, April 25, devoted to exploring Newark, N.J., a city just across the Hudson River filled with Deco treasures by some of the same architects who transformed New York City.
Program begins Friday morning, April 25; attendees are encouraged to arrive by Thursday evening, April 24.
Highlights Include:
- Immersive tours led by New York's award-winning experts in Art Deco.
- Visits to major monuments, as well as delightful Deco surprises.
- A unique behind-the-scenes visit to see the stunning Deco interiors of Radio City Music Hall and a special visit to Rockefeller Plaza.
- A visit to the restored lobby of the Empire State Building.
- An all-day motorcoach tour of Art Deco landmarks in all five boroughs, during which we'll learn how the establishment and passage of the trailblazing Landmarks Law 60 years ago helped save these gems.
- An insightful tour of the Deco towers that have long made the fabled skyline of lower Manhattan a symbol of the world’s first modern metropolis.
- Dining together in eateries featuring special settings or ties to 1920s and 30s Jazz Age New York.
- A private cocktail reception and dinner in a residence boasting unparalleled vistas of Manhattan's Deco skyline.
- And more in store, befitting this important centennial celebration!
Centennial Dinner and Cocktail Reception: Toasting New York’s Glittering Deco Icons
A signature event will be an exclusive cocktail reception and dinner in the private residence of ADSNY's President, filled with Art Deco furnishings and design. The setting is perfect for this centennial weekend with its unmatched views of Manhattan's famed Deco skyline, including the Chrysler and Empire State Buildings, the Waldorf Astoria, and more.
Saturday Morning Kickoff Tour for Three Day Weekend: An Insider's Look at Radio City Music Hall and Rockefeller Center
April 26, 2025
The morning begins with a surprise visit that will thrill Deco enthusiasts followed by a rare inside look at America’s Art Deco showplace, Radio City Music Hall.
This guided tour will take you through the innovative mind of the pioneer industrial and share insights into interior designer Donald Deskey. Deskey won the commission of a lifetime when he created an elaborate Art Deco portfolio that so impressed the visionary developers of Radio City that he was hired instead of more famous, well-established designers.
After our tour of the beautiful Deco interior ornamentation of Radio City Music Hall, we'll explore Rockefeller Center, seeing its rich architectural design and decorative detail and after our busy morning, we'll relax over a three-course lunch in the heart of Rockefeller Center.
Morning activities include:
- A special look at the beautifully maintained, Donald Deskey-designed interiors of the Showplace of the Nation – Radio City Music Hall – including the private Roxy Suite and dazzling lounges as well as the relief sculptures on the façade designed by Hildreth Meière.
- A tour of Rockefeller Center’s architecture, design and art.
- A very special opportunity --just for ADSNY's weekend visitors-- to go inside a treasured New York icon before it re-opens to the public.
- A three-course lunch at an elegant restaurant in Rockefeller Center.
Saturday Afternoon: The Greatest of the Great!
April 26, 2025
After a leisurely lunch, we'll head to the Empire State Building, where, upon entering the magnificent, award-winning restored lobby, we will be greeted by a spectacular mural of the sky and a sense of elegance, with polished marble, intricate metalwork, and geometric patterns that define Art Deco style. Our architectural historian will point out details of the lobby’s painstaking restoration and tell us about the Indiana Jones-type search it took to bring the legendary ceiling back to its famed splendor.
If time allows, we'll ascend to the top of the Empire State to see up close the original dirigible mooring mast and the setting for so many famed film scenes. Once back on the ground, we will head along Fifth Avenue to 42nd Street, with visits to four landmarked architectural gems: the American Radiator, Chrysler, Chanin, and Daily News buildings.
Highlights of the afternoon include:
- A visit to the Chrysler Building.
- An inside look at the Chanin Building.
- A visit to the Daily News Building.
- A look at Raymond Hood's Gothic/Art Deco American Radiator Building.
Note: This day includes two walking tours with a leisurely lunch in between and a short NYC bus ride down Fifth Avenue from Rockefeller Center on 50th Street to the Empire State Building on 34th Street. We recommend you wear comfortable shoes, since with both the morning and afternoon tours, we'll be walking about 3.5 miles.
Sunday: Landmarked Deco Five Boroughs Bus Tour
April 27, 2025
New York City boasts the world’s greatest collection of Art Deco architecture. In honor of the 100th anniversary of the Paris exposition and the 60th anniversary of New York's Landmarks Law, both being celebrated in April 2025, ADSNY is offering a special bus tour of impressive Deco landmarks in all five boroughs, led by the architectural historian Matt Postal.
This tour will include:
- An up-close look at the great Deco residential skyscrapers of Manhattan's Upper West Side, including a look at an outstanding private lobby.
- A ride along the Grand Concourse, the "Champs-Elysées" of the Bronx, with stops highlighting the Bronx County Courthouse, the Fish Building and the restored interiors of the Dollar Savings Bank to view murals by Angelo Magnanti.
- Stops at the Bronx Zoo’s magnificent Rainey Gates by Paul Manship.
- A look at New York City's first landmarked school, revered by its former students Al Pacino and ADSNY's own President!
- A tour of the restored interior of Queens's beautiful Marine Air Terminal, including the once-lost mural Flight.
- A look at the recently completed restoration of the Most Precious Blood Catholic Church in Astoria. Lunch in a neighborhood restaurant reflecting the ethnic cuisine of the city’s most diverse borough.
- A visit to Brooklyn Central Library and its extraordinary bronze entrance screen and bas-reliefs.
- A drive along Brooklyn’s residential Ocean Avenue to Brighton Beach where we will view a cluster of Deco gems.
- Stops on Staten Island to see often overlooked residential, public, and medical buildings that showcase Deco design, including the Ambassador Apartments, boasting remarkable terracotta panels.
At the end of this all-day immersion in Art Deco landmarks in all five boroughs, we'll return to Manhattan. Our day of adventure concludes with a dinner in a very special setting on the eve of the 100th Anniversary of Art Deco.
Monday: Downtown Deco Treasures of the Financial District
April 28, 2025
We will join the architectural historian Anthony W. Robins for an informative look at Lower Manhattan’s Deco towers that have long made the fabled skyline a symbol of the world’s first modern metropolis. On this tour, you will see striking buildings that range from flamboyant skyscrapers to smaller, but equally imaginative, structures tucked between the towers of the Financial District.
Highlights of the day will include visits to:
- The Barclay-Vesey Building, Ralph Walker's first major skyscraper.
- Church Street Federal Office Building, with elegantly restored Cross & Cross interiors.
- Several buildings by Starret & Van Vleck, including the former American Stock Exchange and the tiered Downtown Athletic Club, which was once home to the Heisman Trophy.
- One Wall Street, a Deco masterpiece containing Hildreth Meiere's recently restored and reimagined "Red Room."
- Cites Service Building and its often unnoticed two-story landmarked lobby.
After this dazzling walking tour with inside access to many buildings not typically open to the public, the program will conclude with a lovely lunch in a French eatery, the perfect setting for our toast to Paris on the 100th birthday of the Exposition considered the birth of Art Deco!
Friday (Four-Day Option): Deco Finds Across the Hudson in Newark
April 25, 2025
This immersive walking and bus tour will feature special interior access to several notable Art Deco landmarks, including
- The Lefcourt Building, designed by the prominent Newark architect Frank Grad in 1929 and now known for its conversion into luxury residences called Eleven 80.
- Well-preserved ceramic subway art from the WPA era.
- An inside look at another 1929 stunner, a Ralph Walker-designed telephone building, an excellent example of restoration and adaptive reuse.
- Newark Penn Station, an expansive and impressive 1935 design by McKim, Mead & White, known for its Art Deco style.
- A series of original, large-scale painted murals from 1931 inside the 35-story Newark National Building, Newark's tallest building until 1989.
- A look at the Art Deco high school attended by the author Philip Roth.
- A private tour of a spectacular Art Deco 1930s airline terminal hidden in Newark International Airport.
- Lunch at one of the area’s celebrated Spanish restaurants.
As if seeing all these stunning interiors and artworks weren’t enough, the day’s festivities will also include a guided tour through 1920s and 30s highlights from the impressive collection of the Newark Museum. Cocktails and dinner at a private residence overlooking Manhattan’s Deco skyline will conclude the day.
Lodging
ADSNY has arranged special discounts for Springtime in New York: Art Deco Centennial Weekend attendees at The Beekman Tower, a splendid Art Deco-style hotel in the Midtown East area. Rooms are $250 per night + tax for a studio guest room and $285 per night + tax for a one-bedroom guest room.
Built in 1928, the iconic Art Deco tower on the East River was known as the Panhellenic Tower when it opened. It originally served as a clubhouse and residence for professional women affiliated with Greek-letter sororities. In 1932, the tower made accommodations available to men, and in 1934, the building was renamed The Beekman Tower. It received New York City landmark designation in 1998. Rooted in history, The Beekman Tower, within walking distance of many of the city's famed Deco treasures, combines the luxury and glamour of the 1920s with modern finishes and amenities.
You are responsible for booking your own hotel accommodations. Should you wish to extend your stay, The Beekman Tower will honor the discounted rate after the program. While special discounted pricing is arranged for this program at the host hotel, you have the option of lodging anywhere you choose. However, most scheduled activities will begin and end near the host hotel.
Upon receipt of your deposit for the program, ADSNY will provide you with instructions on how to contact the hotel to reserve your discounted room(s). Please check the hotel’s cancellation policies when booking.
Inclusions, Exclusions, and Details
The program price includes:
- All tours
- All admissions
- All gratuities
- A private cocktail reception and dinner with stunning Deco views
- All lunches at restaurants never before visited as part of ADSNY’s Deco Weekends
- All dinners (one glass of wine included with each dinner) at quintessential New York restaurants, never before visited as part of ADSNY’s Deco Weekends.
- Local transportation
The program price does not include:
- Travel to and from New York
- Ground transportation to and from airport/train station
- Hotel accommodations
- Non-scheduled transportation, visits and activities
- Trip Insurance: ADSNY strongly recommends that you purchase travel protection to protect yourself and your investment in the event of illness or other unforeseen circumstances before or during the trip. Insurance companies can be found online.
Registration and Fees
Attendees have the option of selecting a Four-Day or Three-Day Springtime in New York experience. The Four-Day program includes an additional day prior to the Three-Day program exploring the nearby city of Newark, N.J., a fascinating city that vividly illustrates how the Art Deco aesthetic permeated even smaller cities and towns across America and around the world.
Three- Day New York City Program
April 26–28, 2025
The program begins early morning Saturday, April 26; attendees are encouraged to arrive Friday, April 25.
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$1,890 per person Early Bird Special; full payment required by Jan. 28th.
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$2,025 per person - full payment due March 1.
Four-Day Program, Including Newark’s Marvelous Deco Treasures
April 25–28, 2025
This extended program includes an additional day, Friday, April 25. Attendees are encouraged to arrive by Thursday evening, April 24.
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$2,325 per person Early Bird Special: full payment required by Jan. 28th.
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$2,450 per person - full payment due March 1.
Space is extremely limited. We urge you to reserve your place quickly!
Payment Options:
Credit card Payments
A processing fee of 5.5% per ticket will be applied to all online payments.
- Click the gold Register button to the left of the "About the Program" section.
- Enter the requested information in the Registration Form and follow the instructions to pay online and complete your registration.
- Upon completion of your registration, confirmation will be sent to the email address you used to register. If you do not see this email in your inbox, please check your spam folder.
- You will receive an email with the tour's meeting location the week before the program.
If you have questions or need further assistance in registering, please email events@ArtDeco.org. Let us know if you are registering for the three or four-day option, and we will send you an invoice that can be easily completed without going through the ArtDeco.org website.
Check Payments
- Please email Info@ArtDeco.org to let us know you are mailing your registration
- Checks must be made payable to: Art Deco Society of New York and mailed to: Art Deco Society of New York, 400 East 56th Street Suite 39N, New York, NY 10022.
Zelle Payments
If you wish to make your payment via Zelle, please email events@ArtDeco.org for instructions.
Registration Forms
Each attendee must complete a Registration Form and submit it to ADSNY to secure registration. Hand-signed forms may be scanned and emailed to ADSNY at Info@ArtDeco.org or mailed to the above address.
Why tour with the Art Deco Society of New York?
- ADSNY trips reflect the organization’s extensive knowledge and expertise in Art Deco architecture, design and interwar culture, developed since its incorporation in 1982. All ADSNY programs are carefully curated to provide authentic and unique experiences, with special access to ADSNY’s experts, research and resources.
- ADSNY tours provide definitive immersive experiences with engaging experts, superb personal service, and experienced trip leaders and local guides. When you travel with ADSNY, you can be sure that your safety and well-being are always our top priority.
- ADSNY’s expert tour guides, who are extremely knowledgeable about each area of interest, make enjoyable and engaging learning the core of every trip.
- Each ADSNY trip attracts informed, intellectually curious, adventurous Art Deco enthusiasts who share your passion for learning and exploration.
- ADSNY provides small groups with big experiences. Now more than ever, the idea of traveling with a small group of fellow enthusiasts is reassuring. ADSNY’s trips allow you to get to know fellow travelers and trip leaders.
- ADSNY’s trips include recognized experts leading all guided tours, access to private spaces, all lunches and dinners, local transportation, and a knowledgeable ADSNY representative with the group each day to provide you with one-on-one service, ensuring an exceptional experience.
- When you travel with ADSNY, your participation benefits the work of this important non-profit organization. You are supporting ADSNY’s educational mission to preserve New York’s Art Deco heritage, spread knowledge of the interwar period and share our resources.
- You have the comfort of knowing you are traveling with an organization committed to sustaining and celebrating the special Deco character of New York and all the cities we visit through our use of distinctive local guides, consultation with local experts and in our choice of dining experiences and accommodations.
Our Team
Roberta Nusim, ADSNY's President, applies her years of Art Deco-related travel experience to guide the development of ADSNY's high-quality immersive travel experiences. Nusim's leadership ensures that every element of the weekend provides one-of-a-kind exposure to the best Art Deco architecture and design, Jazz Age culture, and unique regional experiences of the host city. As president of the International Coalition of Art Deco Societies, Nusim fosters collaboration among 28 Art Deco and Modernism societies around the world.
Matt Postal is an architectural historian who has had a long career as one of New York’s most knowledgeable, popular tour guides and speakers. Postal partners with ADSNY’s team to research new areas for Deco exploration and scholarship in neighborhood enclaves in the boroughs, including Queens and Brooklyn. He has offered numerous talks, written articles, including ADSNY's Exploring Deco in... self-guided walking tours, and developed ADSNY's popular series Telling the Art Deco Stories of our Neighborhoods. Postal is on the staff of the Landmarks Preservation Commission, researching and writing designation reports on New York’s extraordinary 19th- and 20th-century architecture, including many significant Art Deco buildings.
Current Safety Protocols for this Event
The well-being of guests, staff, and partners will always be ADSNY’s highest priority. By registering for this event, you are agreeing to follow ADSNY's safety protocols. Anyone who does not comply will be asked to leave the event and their registration fee will not be refunded.
Though positivity rates are declining, an inherent risk of exposure to COVID-19 exists in any public space where people are present. Those joining ADSNY'S in-person programming do so at their own risk to such exposure.
If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out at Info@ArtDeco.org.
Cancellations, Responsibility and Release
All payments are final, there are no refunds or exchanges. ADSNY strongly recommends that you purchase trip cancellation insurance. Insurance companies offering cancellation policies can be found online.
Payment of your fee represents your acceptance of the following terms and conditions. ADSNY shall not be liable and does not assume responsibility for any claims, damages, expenses or other financial loss whether to person or property arising out of any illness, injury, accident, death, cancellation, delay, alteration or inconvenience resulting from any act of omission, commission or inadvertence of any hotel, carrier, restaurant or other company or person rendering any of the services included in the tour or its pre- and post-tour arrangements, or caused by weather, sickness, strikes, or the willful or negligent acts of any other tour members or any cause whatsoever beyond the control of ADSNY. It is understood that there may be changes in the itinerary subject to weather or unexpected circumstances beyond ADSNY's control. In all cases, ADSNY will make every attempt to substitute other events of equal value and interest. By registering for this program, you confirm that you agree to follow all safety protocols outlined in the program materials. ADSNY events may be photographed or recorded by ADSNY. By attending this program, you consent to the use of your image and voice by ADSNY for all non-commercial, nonprofit purposes.
PHOTO CREDITS: RICHARD BERENHOLTZ, ANDREW MOORE
