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Park Avenue Armory
Critics' Pick
643 Park Ave.,
New York, NY 10065
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Official Website
Hours
Tue-Thu, 10am-8pm; Fri, 1pm-10pm; Sat-Sun, noon-7pm
Nearby Subway Stops
6 at 68th St.-Hunter College; F at Lexington Ave.-63rd St.
Parking
- Street Parking
Prices
$15 adult, $12 seniors and students, free for Armory members and children under 12
Payment Methods
Cash Only
Profile
The Park Avenue Armory encompasses a full city block and houses an eclectic set of distinct spaces under its enormous roof. The structure, which Armory staff describe as “part palace, part industrial shed,” was erected in the late 1870s for the Seventh Regiment of the National Guard, and was later a military-themed social club. These days, the Armory is used for a variety of cultural purposes ranging from plays and performance art to larger-than-life art installations. The building’s three floors are characterized by long corridors that lead to a collection of historic rooms, and a restoration that began in 2006 seeks to maintain fidelity to the rooms’ original states while repurposing many for their current uses. A guided tour of the halls (Tuesday and Thursday mornings) tells the history of the assorted rooms, which were conceptualized individually by the most prominent designers of the nineteenth century American Aesthetic movement. For instance, the Veterans Room, a meeting hall now used for everything from social gatherings to art exhibits, features Louis Comfort Tiffany’s early experimentation in glass. (A glass-and-mother-of-pearl mosaic of an eagle battling a sea monster remains intact.) Other notable spaces include the intimate Board of Officers Room (the perfect setting for the Armory’s chamber-music series) and the 55,000-square-foot Thompson Drill Hall, which often houses massive intersections of visual art and sound, such as "WS," a multimedia installation by sculptor and performance artist Paul McCarthy.