77 Water Street
This might look like a nondescript Financial District office building from the outside, but get a view from above its 26 floors and you’ll notice a runway on the building’s roof with a WWI fighter plane replica. Or pop into the lobby for a treat from its old school penny candy shop.
Red Square Apartments
The next time you’re walking along Houston St. (or in our case, the next time you’re grabbing a knish at Yonah Schimmel…), take a look East, up at the large brick apartment building between Avenues A and B. You’ll probably first notice the giant clock (if you look closer the numbers are out of order), but if you look just before the clock you’ll see an 18-foot-tall statue of Vladimir Lenin. Yup, THAT Lenin. If you look even closer you’ll notice he’s pointing towards Wall Street.
An art exhibit in SoHo doesn’t sound like anything special, but you’ll notice something different when you head to #141 Wooster and have to hit the nondescript buzzer for #2B (note: quickly enter and open the second door to the stairs just past the elevator before the buzzer stops and you’re locked out.). Take the narrow stairs up one flight and you’ll enter a room filled with dirt… sorry… we mean you’ll enter a room that holds an “interior earth sculpture”. Open since 1980, this exhibit by Walter De Maria holds 250 cubic yards of earth taking up 3,600 sq. ft. of floor space and weighing about 280,000 pounds.
The Berlin Wall (yes, really)
If you head to Paley Park (a small public space at 520 Madison Ave.) you can see five fragments of the Berlin Wall which have been on display since 1990. The art covered side visible was the Western Side of the wall and the side that isn’t visible (which is just blank concrete) was the Eastern Side.