Strap on your skates! Brooklyn Bridge Park’s first-ever ice skating rink is now open. Located under the Brooklyn Bridge at Emily Warren Roebling Plaza, the rink, called Glide at Brooklyn Bridge Park, offers skating for guests of all ages, rinkside food and beverages from the nearby Time Out Market, and spectacular Manhattan skyline views. The rink is open through March 1, 2024.

Last spring, the Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation issued a request for proposals (RFP), seeking out partners interested in constructing and operating a seasonal ice-skating rink in Emily Warren Roebling Plaza.

Under the RFP guidelines, Glide BK will be responsible for assembling and operating the temporary rink from November through mid-March and disassembling it. The management group is responsible for ticketing, maintenance, renting skate equipment, and programming, according to Brooklyn Bridge Park’s website.

Tickets start at $15 for adults and $10 for children during off-peak hours. The rink offers special pricing for groups and can be rented for large events. Additionally, a limited amount of discounted tickets (starting at $9) will be available daily for NYC residents with proof of residency.

More information on Glide BK can be found here.

RELATED:

• An ice skating rink is opening under the Brooklyn Bridge
• 14 ice skating rinks in NYC to visit this winter
• With the opening of Emily Warren Roebling Plaza, original plan for Brooklyn Bridge Park is complete

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Attention revelers: the streets of Midtown will soon be filled with fun, pedestrian-friendly cheer. As part of a special holiday open street, Fifth Avenue will close to cars and transform into a winter wonderland on three Sundays in December. The Fifth Avenue Association on Tuesday revealed the “Gift of Fifth” campaign that will turn the historic corridor from 49th Street to 59th Street into a holiday destination, with jolly decor, festive food and beverages, photo-ops, store giveaways, and more.

Last week, Mayor Eric Adams announced plans to fully pedestrianize Fifth Avenue from 48th and 59th Streets, expanding the open street by three blocks to reach Central Park. Additionally, select streets around Rockefeller Center and Radio City Music Hall will be closed to cars every day throughout the holiday season, ensuring that the hundreds of thousands of people visiting the festive area have a safe experience.

The Fifth Avenue Open Street will run on December 3, 10, and 17 from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. There will be 11 blocks of curated programming, 19 food and beverage partners, eight performance areas, 15 participating retail brands, and about 500,000 visitors.

“Fifth Avenue is always iconic, but during this holiday season everything will be even more exceptional and beautiful,” Marie Boster, president of FAA, said. “The Gift of Fifth gives all New Yorkers and visitors more beauty, more music, more creative seasonal food, and for the first three Sundays in December, more space beyond the sidewalks to take it all in. We are grateful to our partners for sharing in our vision to transform our streetscape into a winter wonderland for everyone.”

Kicking things off on November 20, the upper portion of Fifth Avenue will become a winter wonderland. The corridor will feature all-new sidewalk decor, including an installation of 150 live Fraser and Noble firs twinkling with warm white lights sitting atop 50 custom silver platforms. Visitors will also be able to snap a photo under a double arch made of holiday greenery outside GM Plaza at 767 Fifth Avenue.

On December 17, the Doris Duke Foundation will feature Grammy Award-winning jazz singers to pay tribute to Fifth Avenue’s intricate role in jazz history. The avenue was better known as “Swing Street” during the early 20th century due to its hosting of legendary jazz musicians like Miles Davis and Billy Holiday.

Other performers will include Michael Arenella & His Dreamland Orchestra, a jazz ensemble provided by Hire Juilliard Performers, the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, Metropolitan Klezmer, Brooklyn Youth Chorus, and the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts High School.

Food lovers will be able to enjoy blackcurrant donuts and non-alcoholic eggnog from the Modern, a two Michelin-starred restaurant at the Museum of Modern Art, hot chocolate from the world-famous Longchamp’s pop-up cafe, and bao buns and bubble tea from local vendors Mao’s Bao and Tea and Milk.

A selection of Fifth Avenue brands, including Assouline, Bergdorf Goodman, Coach, DIOR, P448, The Plaza, Puma, Tag Heuer, and Victoria’s Secret, will create fun pop-up retail experiences.

In October, it was revealed that last year’s Open Streets program on Fifth Avenue drove an additional $3 million in spending at businesses on pedestrianized streets. According to a study conducted by Mastercard, merchants on pedestrianized streets saw an average of $90,000 in additional spending per day.

RELATED:

• NYC holiday open streets return to Fifth Avenue and Rockefeller Center
• Last year’s holiday open streets in Midtown drove $3M in spending at local businesses
• NYC proposes pedestrian-friendly path on Fifth Avenue from Bryant Park to Central Park

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Hart Island, the nation’s largest public cemetery, will open to the public for the first time this month. The city’s Parks Department on Wednesday announced that free walking tours of the Bronx island will be offered twice per month starting November 21. Hart Island, which has served as the final resting place of more than one million people since the Civil War, has long been inaccessible to visitors, with extremely stringent security and once-a-month visitation days. Now, with NYC Parks managing the site, the public can get an up-close look at the island’s history, helping undo historical stigmas. The tours will last roughly 2.5 hours, with ferry transportation provided to and from the island.

Hart Island has served as the city’s public cemetery since 1869, with New Yorkers who were unable to afford private burials or who were never claimed by family. While currently only used for burials, the 131-acre island has previously been used as a quarantine station, a psychiatric hospital, a tuberculosis ward, a reform school, a homeless shelter, a rehabilitation facility, a military base, and a jail.

The highly-anticipated NYC Parks walking tours aim to enrich participants on the island’s public history, how the area became a municipal cemetery, its wildlife and natural features, the burial process, and current advocacy efforts to sustain it.

“We’re thrilled to begin offering free public history tours of Hart Island, allowing New Yorkers an intimate look at the island for the very first time. Our Urban Park Rangers have created informative and reflective programming that highlights the island’s important role in New York City history,” NYC Parks Commissioner Sue Donoghue said.

“As Hart Island will continue to be the City’s main burial ground for the foreseeable future, we’re also pleased to unveil, in collaboration with sister agencies, the positive improvements and beautification efforts that have taken place to improve the experience at gravesite visits for those visiting loved ones buried on the island. I encourage New Yorkers to join the Urban Park Rangers to explore Hart Island’s unique past, present, and future.” 

The first tour is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, November 21. To attend a tour, interested participants must register through an online form and then be selected by a lottery.

Additional public tour dates include:

• December 5, 2023
• December 19, 2023
• January 16, 2024
• January 30, 2024
• February 13, 2024
• February 27, 2024
• March 12, 2024
• March 26, 2024
• April 9, 2024
• April 23, 2024
• May 14, 2024
• May 28, 2024

The free public walking tours aren’t the only activities coming to the island. New nature classes, known as the Urban Park Rangers Weekend Adventures, will be offered in the next few months. These classes include activities like canoeing, hiking, archery, and fishing.

In November 2019, the City Council approved legislation transferring ownership of Hart Island from the city’s Department of Corrections to the Parks Department and the NYC Human Resources Association (HRA). The transfer of management took place in 2021, following years of advocacy from groups who wanted to ease the process of visiting the island to pay respects to loved ones buried there, improve its dilapidated conditions, and make it more publicly accessible.

Since the island’s transferral, the area has seen significant upgrades that improve the visitor experience for guests, including the demolition of deteriorating buildings, new plantings, and additional beautification efforts.

HRA, which manages the island’s burials and landscaping, cleared overgrowth that previously blocked graves for decades and created a landscaped area with seating near the ferry dock.

Future plans include the creation of a 3.5-mile shuttle bus from the 6 train to the ferry, or a new dedicated water route from the Bronx, according to the New York Times.

Additionally, the Department of Design and Construction (DDC) recently finished a $32 million project that removed 15 old structures from the island, which resulted in better views and a more open feel. DDC is continuing to work on stabilizing the island’s historic chapel.

More information on the tours can be found here.

RELATED:

• City Council votes to make Hart Island, nation’s largest public cemetery, more accessible
• NYC might get a COVID-19 memorial on Hart Island
• NYC Council considers turning mass gravesite on Hart Island into a city park

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The 97th annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is ready to kick off the holiday season. Taking place on Thursday, November 23, the parade this year will run an extra 30 minutes (with a start time of 8:30 a.m. instead of 9 a.m.) and include a performance by Cher (who will open for the real star of the show, Santa Claus). This year’s parade features 32 novelty and heritage inflatables, 16 giant character balloons, 26 floats, 12 marching bands, 700 clowns, and eight performance groups, all made by possible thanks to roughly 5,000 volunteers.

“For nearly 100 years, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade has been synonymous with the beginning of the holiday season, celebration and togetherness,” Will Coss, executive producer of Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, said.

“Our talented team of Macy’s Studios artisans and production specialists work year-round to deliver the nation’s most beloved holiday event, live on Thanksgiving morning. We are proud to hold this responsibility and look forward to sharing our unbelievable designs, larger-than-life character balloons and first-class entertainment, all sure to create lifelong memories for Parade fans nationwide.”

History of the parade

The very first Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade was actually a Christmas Parade. Macy’s President Herbert Strauss announced a pre-Christmas celebration to draw customers to the store for holiday shopping. On November 27, 1924, the parade included a “retinue of clowns, freaks, animals and floats,” along with Macy’s employees, professional entertainers, and live animals from Central Park Zoo. The original march stretched six miles long, much longer than today’s route, starting in Harlem at 145th Street and ending in Hearald Square, where Macy’s unveiled its new holiday windows. In 1927, the live animals were replaced with balloons, with Felix the Cat as the first balloon animal featured in the parade. The parade was canceled in 1942, 1943, and 1944 because of the need for rubber and helium during World War I. During the coronavirus pandemic, the 2020 parade was downsized and closed to the public. Today, the parade sees roughly 3.5 million in-person spectators and millions more watching from home.

The route

This year, the parade kicks off at 8:30 a.m., 30 minutes earlier than previous years. The route starts at 77th Street and Central Park West, moving down the 2.5-mile route to Columbus Circle, turning onto Central Park South, and then parading down 6th Avenue. Upon hitting 34th Street, the parade makes its final turn onto 7th Avenue and ends in front of Macy’s Herald Square.

Best spots for spectators

Central Park West between West 75th and West 61st Streets and on Sixth Avenue from West 59th to West 39th Streets are open for public parade viewing. Please note you won’t be able to watch the parade at 77th Street, Central Park West between West 59th and 60th Streets, and Columbus Circle, or Herald Square.

How to watch the inflation of giant balloons on Thanksgiving Eve

Watch the parade’s giant character balloons come to life on Thanksgiving Eve. The inflation event takes place on Wednesday, November 22 from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. Visitors can enter at West 72nd Street and Columbus Avenue and view the balloons up to 81st Street around the Museum of Natural History with a behind-the-scenes look at the floats up through 86th Street.

Balloons

The parade will feature 32 heritage and novelty balloons and 16 signature character balloons, including seven making their debut: “Beagle Scout Snoopy” by Peanuts Worldwide, “Blue Cat & Chugs” by Cool Cats, “Kung Fu Panda’s Po” by Universal Pictures’ Dreamworks Animation, “Leo” by Netflix, “Monkey D. Luffy” by Toei Animation Inc., “Pillsbury Doughboy,” by Pillsbury, and “Uncle Dan” by Illumination.

Returning characters include “Bluey” by BBC Studios, “Diary of a Wimpy Kid,” by Abrams Books, “DINO and Baby DINO” by HF Sinclair, “Goku” by Toei Animation, “Chase from Paw Patrol” by Spin Master and Nickelodeon, “Pikachu and Eevee” by The Pokémon Company International, “Red Titan from ‘Ryan’s World’ by Sunlight Entertainment and pocket.watch, “Ronald McDonald” by McDonald’s, “SpongeBob SquarePants and Gary” by Nickelodeon, and “Stuart the Minion” by Illumination.

Expect to see “Smokey Bear” by the USDA Forest Service, “A Merry Moment” with candy cane and poinsettia balloons and dancing Christmas Trees from Universal Orlando Resort, and Macy’s own reindeer, “Tiptoe.”

Floats

The 97th parade will include 31 floats, conceived by an amazing team of carpenters, engineers, painters, sculptors, balloon technicians, designers, and metal fabricators. Four new floats will join this year’s lineup: “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem,” “Palace of Sweets by Brach’s,” “Igniting Memories” by Solo Stove, and “The Deliciously Delectable World of Wonka.”

The one and only Santa Claus and his reindeer will be making their famed finale appearance on the parade’s largest float (it’s 60 feet long and 3.5 stories tall).

Entertainment and performers

Big performers to watch during the parade include Cher, who will kick off the season with a new holiday song, Jon Batiste, Bell Biv DeVoe, Brandy, Chicago, En Vogue, David Foster and Katharine McPhee, Drew Holcomb and The Neighbors, Jessie James Decker, Ashley Park, Pentatonix, Paul Russell, Amanda Shaw and Alex Smith, and Manuel Turizo.

Enjoy music from 12 marching bands from around the country and performances from groups like the Big Apple Circus, Cornell Bhangra, Tiptoe’s Winter Guard, the Harlem Globetrotters, Maria Verdeja School of Arts dancers, St. John’s Dance, and the Tap Dancing Christmas Trees. A group of more than 1,200 dancers and performers from Spirit of America Dance and Spirit of America Cheer will also participate. Plus, the Radio City Rockettes will be there, a tradition since 1959.

How to watch at home

The parade will be shown on NBC and Telemundo from 8:30 a.m. to 12 p.m., with streaming available on Peacock. Typically, 50 million people tune in.

RELATED:

• The 97-year history of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade
• Festive facts and figures about the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade

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New York’s oldest museum, the New-York Historical Society Museum and Library, begins construction this month on an 80,000-square-foot renovation and expansion project. As 6sqft previously reported, the $140 million five-story extension at the rear of the museum’s Upper West Side location will be designed by architect Robert A.M. Stern. New-York Historical president and CEO Louise Mirrer announced Monday the new addition will feature a Democracy Wing. When construction is completed in 2026–just in time for the nation’s 250th anniversary–the new wing will offer educational programs and a home for valuable materials on American democracy.

The Landmarks Preservation Commission-approved addition will also provide the first real home for the American LGBTQ+ Museum, a partner institution dedicated to LGBTQ+ history and culture. The new space will also feature a courtyard and rooftop garden terraces with Central Park views.

On the wing’s second floor, the Tang Academy for American Democracy will offer the New-York Historical’s award-winning American history educational program. The Dorothy Tapper Goldman Center for Teaching Democracy will offer a space for teachers, scholars, and museum professionals to collaborate on explorations of history and political theory.

“As construction begins on our new wing, we are fulfilling a vision set into motion in 1937 by the Trustees of New-York Historical Society, who had the foresight to purchase the lot adjacent to our building, knowing that our growing collections and evolving programs for scholars, students, educators, and the public would someday need room to expand,” said Dr. Mirrer in a statement.

“As we look ahead, our new wing will serve as a beacon for democracy education, a powerhouse of inclusive history, and a home for history enthusiasts of all backgrounds and perspectives. We look forward to seeing Robert A. M. Stern Architects’ design, which was crafted with extraordinary skill and sensitivity, come to realization.”

The expansion will also house the Klingenstein Family Gallery, The Stuart and Jane Weitzman Shoe Museum, a conservation studio for painting and paper, and storage stacks for collections in the Patricia D. Klingenstein Library. The new addition’s facade will be constructed from granite from the same quarry in Deer Isle, Maine that yielded the stone used in the original 114-year-old building.

“It’s a privilege to work with the New-York Historical Society on this expansion of its landmark building, enabling it to extend its broad and vital mission to a growing audience that ranges from local schoolchildren to international visitors,” Stern, founder and senior partner of Robert A.M. Stern Architects, said.

“With input from engaged and supportive neighbors and in response to the historic neighboring townhouses, the design of the expansion is sympathetic to the palette and rhythm of the 1908 building and its 1938 additions.”

RELATED:

• New-York Historical Society expansion includes a home for the American L.G.B.T.Q.+ Museum
• See the Museum of Natural History’s sparkling new Halls of Gems and Minerals
• NYC agency approves removal of racist Theodore Roosevelt statue at AMNH
• Intrepid Museum gets a branding makeover with updated name and logo

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A new exhibition at the American Museum of Natural History dives into the astounding 60-million-year history of elephants. Now open, the exhibit, known as “The Secret World of Elephants,” explores new science about modern and ancient elephant relatives, delves into the species’ extraordinary minds and senses, explains their vital importance to the health of their ecosystems, and shares efforts that are currently underway to ensure their survival. The exhibition is located on the fourth floor of the museum in the LeFrak Family Gallery.

Throughout “The Secret World of Elephants,” visitors are introduced to the elephant family tree, which reveals information that might be shocking to some: not all of its relatives are hulking mammals with thick skin like hippos and rhinos, but instead include aquatic sea cows and rabbit-sized hyraxes.

The exhibit features life-size models of elephants and their relatives, including an accurate representation of a woolly mammoth shedding its fur. Museum visitors can view fossils and casts, engage in interactive displays, and watch videos that tell the story of these towering animals.

“Elephants are the world’s largest land animal, but we understand surprisingly little about them,” Ross MacPhee, curator of the exhibit and curator emeritus in the museum’s Department of Mammalogy. “Researchers are working toward assembling a much more complete picture of elephants and we’re learning new secrets about their minds, bodies, and ecological importance every day.”

“We also know elephants face an uncertain future. The global demand for ivory, along with climate change and habitat loss, are pushing them along the path to extinction. If we don’t act quickly, elephants could be gone before we ever truly get to know them.”

Visitors will learn about the animal species through a variety of contexts; including their bodies, minds, habitats, and relationships with humans. In exploring the science behind elephants’ bodies, guests can interact with a station that allows them to feel the extremely low sound waves known as infrasound that elephants use to send messages through the ground and the feet of other elephants.

A life-sized model of an African elephant with a video projection on one side of its body allows spectators to see the massive skeleton of the animal, get an inside look at how it processes the 300 to 500 pounds of food it eats every day, and learn about its gestation process, which can last up to almost two years, longer than any other living mammal.

Another part of the exhibit allows visitors to touch two teeth, one from a mammoth and another from a mastodon-like species, providing valuable insight into the ways the species chewed food.

An interactive display allows visitors to turn a wheel and flap the ears of a miniature elephant model, a process that elephants use to keep themselves cool in hot environments. Finally, an exploration of elephant poop, featuring a replica of elephant dung, explains how the animal’s excrement provides essential nutrients for plants and other animals.

Next, visitors will learn about the mind of elephants, including the animal’s five different vocalizations, and learn how to “speak elephant” by observing videos of elephant communication. Guests will learn how the animals greet, court, play, and mourn for one another.

An interactive mammoth tusk model shares ways that scientists use isotope “fingerprints” to discover how mammoths traveled across what is now Alaska roughly 17,000 years ago.

The exhibition also dives into elephants’ interesting relationship with humans, one that has grown over thousands of years. While never having been truly domesticated, the animals have long been used for work and war.

Cultural artifacts on display throughout the exhibit illustrate this ancient connection, including puppets from Vietnam that depict the Tru’ng sisters, national heroes that are said to have rode elephants into war 2,000 years ago against a Chinese army, and a large figure of the Hindu god Ganesh, who has an elephant’s head and a human-like body.

“We are delighted to present ‘The Secret World of Elephants’, a comprehensive look at these intriguing and important animals and the latest scientific thinking about their abilities, environmental roles, social structure, history, and future,” Sean M. Decatur, President of the AMNH, said.

“This exhibition is an example of what the American Museum of Natural History does so well: by starting at a point of shared curiosity and fascination we can share larger stories about evolution, the environment, animal behavior, and the interactions between human and animals, thereby expanding understanding of the natural world and our impact on it.”

“The Secret World of Elephants” is curated by Ross MacPhee, curator emeritus in the AMNH’s Department of Mammology, with consultation by Raman Sukumar, honorary professor at the Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, and Alexandra van der Greer, a researcher at the University of Leiden, Netherlands.

The exhibition is designed and produced by the AMNH’s award-winning Exhibition Department under the guidance of Lauri Halderman, senior vice president for exhibition.

Tickets start at $28 for adults, $16.50 for children, and $22.50 for seniors and students. AMNH members can see the exhibition for free during every visit.

Tickets must be reserved in advance here.

RELATED:

• Get a sneak peek of AMNH’s Studio Gang-designed Gilder Center before it opens
• AMNH’s revamped Northwest Coast Hall features exhibits curated by Indigenous communities
• See the Museum of Natural History’s sparkling new Halls of Gems and Minerals

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A roller rink is opening inside the World Trade Center’s Oculus this month. “Winter Whirl” invites skaters of all ages to skate inside the Lower Manhattan shopping mall and underneath the architecturally stunning skylight designed by Santiago Calatrava. The rink will open for the season on Friday, November 24, and operate through late January.

Skaters will be able to snap photos, make lasting holiday memories, and enjoy a fun skating experience with the backdrop of live music.

“The Winter Whirl roller rink offers visitors a holiday experience like never before, paired with world-class shopping, dining and live music performances,” Diana Grasso, Vice President of Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, said.

“We’re thrilled to introduce this skating experience and look forward to welcoming all New Yorkers and visitors from across the world to the Shops at the Oculus for festive skating and creating cherished memories this holiday season.”

Winter Whirl will be open from Wednesdays through Sundays from Friday, November 24 through late January from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., with the last admission at 9 p.m. On Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve, the rink will be open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., with the last admission at 5 p.m.

Tickets for Winter Whirl start at $30 for adults and $25 for minors ages eight to 18. Admission includes 45 minutes of skating time and one pair of rental roller skates.

More information and ticket purchases can be found here.

RELATED:

• Coney Island’s Luna Park will stay open this winter for the first time ever
• An ice skating rink is opening under the Brooklyn Bridge
• 14 ice skating rinks in NYC to visit this winter

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The country’s largest Veterans Day commemoration takes place in New York City this Saturday. On November 11, the 104th annual Veterans Day Parade kicks off with 20,000 marchers and 150+ vehicles traveling up Fifth Avenue in Manhattan in honor of the military. This year’s parade starts at 9:30 a.m. from 26th Street and Fifth Avenue and moves north until ending at 47th Street. The Army is this year’s featured service.

New York City’s first parade honoring veterans took place on September 10, 1919, in commemoration of the end of World War I. The parade, known as the Victory Parade, welcomed home General John J. Pershing, the commander in chief of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF), along with 25,000 soldiers who served under his command.

The parade continued to be hosted annually by the American Legion, following the same route on Fifth Avenue. However, in 1968 when soldiers returned home from the Vietnam War, they realized they weren’t receiving the same enthusiastic homecoming that veterans of the country’s previous wars had experienced. As 6sqft reported, the 1973 Home with Honor Parade through Times Square was barely covered by any of the country’s media.

In 1986, a Vietnam vet named Vince McGowan formed the United War Veterans Council, an organization devoted to honoring all of America’s veterans, regardless of which war they fought in.

This year, Lieutenant General Mike Linnington, CEO of the Wounded Warrior Project, will serve as the parade’s Grand Marshal. Mike led troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and since retiring has devoted his time to serving veterans.

“I am deeply honored to be chosen as this year’s Veteran’s Day Parade Grand Marshal,” said LTG Linnington. “The 20th anniversaries of the War in Iraq and the Wounded Warrior Project call attention to the ongoing needs of veterans and their families who face a lifetime of visible and invisible wounds. All veterans deserve a successful and meaningful civilian life. I am proud to celebrate all the veterans who have served our nation, especially those in need of ongoing support.”

Those interested in watching the parade are encouraged to take public transportation to avoid the traffic caused by road closures. You can take the R, W, and 6 subway lines to 23rd Street near Madison Square Park for the kick-off, and take the B, D, F, or N trains at the Bryant Park and Grand Central Terminal stations at the end of the parade’s route.

The Department of Transportation has announced the following street closures for the duration of the parade:

Formation:

• 24th & 25th Street between 6th Avenue and 5th Avenue
• 26th – 29th Street between 6th Avenue and Madison Avenue
• 5th Avenue between 23rd Street and 26th Street
• Broadway between 23rd Street and 29th Street

Route:

• 5th Avenue between 26th Street and 45th Street

Dispersal:

• 45th Street between Madison Avenue and 6th Avenue

This year’s Veterans Day Parade honors a few key anniversaries, including:

• 70th anniversary of the end of the Korean War
• 50th anniversary of the withdrawal of combat units from Vietnam
• 40th anniversary of the Beirut Barracks Bombing in Lebanon and the Grenada Invasion
• 30th anniversary of the Battle of Mogadishu in Somalia

Spectators can view the parade on Fifth Ave, from 27th Street to its endpoint at 47th Street. The parade will also be broadcast live on TV and online via WABC.

RELATED:

• A history of the New York City Veterans Day Parade
• This map shows the diversity of NYC’s veterans in every neighborhood

The post What to know about NYC’s 2023 Veterans Day Parade first appeared on 6sqft.

These gingerbread creations take the holiday cookie tradition to the next level. The Museum of the City of New York is hosting its second annual gingerbread competition, Gingerbread NYC: The Great Borough Bake-Off, featuring the work of professional and independent bakers tasked with creating festive displays depicting New York City icons in neighborhoods across the five boroughs. The installation will be on view at the museum from November 10 through January 15 and visitors are invited to vote for their favorites.

This year’s theme is “iconic New York,” with submissions representing all five boroughs that will be judged by a panel of well-renowned NYC bakers, curators, and restaurant owners. Prizes will be awarded for a range of categories including “best borough spirit,” “grandest,” and “most iconic.” Visitors will be able to vote for their favorite submission by scanning a QR code.

“We are savoring MCNY’s centennial year and celebrating the holidays with our second annual Gingerbread NYC installation,” Stephanie Wilchfort, Ronay Menschel Director and President of the MCNY, said.

“Last year’s installation was a joy to behold (not to mention to smell). Now, we again have the sweet opportunity to highlight the special ingredient that makes New York, New York, creative people — professionals and amateurs alike — who hail from around the city.” 

This year’s participants and their creations include:

Bronx

• Camaxtli Gallegos – Bronx Zoo
• Egidio Pastry Shop – Yankee Stadium
• Patty Pops – Hip-Hop
• Valerie Carrington – Yankee Stadium

Brooklyn

• A Cake Baked In Brooklyn – Brooklyn Icons
• Kathryn Irizarry & Kayla Wong – Brooklyn Icons
• Ida Kreutzer – Water Street
• L’Appartment 4F – Brooklyn Bridge
• Holly Longworth – Circo’s Pastry Shop
• Leonard Marino – Brooklyn Botanic Garden
• SottoVoce & Something Sugared – Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Arch (Grand Army Plaza)
• Debbie Wee – Brooklyn Museum

Manhattan

• César Aldrete – The Met Cloisters
• Cray Cray for Cakes LLC – Jefferson Market Library and Garden
• Lorenzo Delgado – Rockefeller Center
• Loretta Bricchi Lee – American Museum of Natural History
• Ma Smith’s Dessert Café – The Apollo Theater
• Sonia Dębek – New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center

Queens

• Karen Chin – New York Hall of Science
• Filiz Cihan Cemberci – Engine 293 Firehouse
• Sherry Kozlowski – Louis Armstrong House Museum
• Nishat Shahabuddin – 74th Street, Jackson Heights

Staten Island

• Chua Cookie – Historic Richmond Town

This year’s participating judges are:

• Bobbie Lloyd, CEO and Chief Baking Officer, Magnolia Bakery
• Jonah Nigh, Senior Vice President for Development and Alumni Engagement, The New School; Semi-finalist, NBC/Peacock’s Baking It (Season 1)
• Nadine Orenstein, Drue Heinz Curator in Charge, Department of Drawings and Prints, Metropolitan Museum of Art; Former Judge, National Gingerbread House Competition in Asheville, NC
• Amy Scherber, Owner and Founder, Amy’s Bread; Member, Bread Bakers Guild of America
• Melba Wilson, Owner, Melba’s Restaurant; Author, Melba’s American Comfort: 100 Recipes from My Heart to Your Kitchen (2016)

Don’t miss other exciting gingerbread installations coming to the city this holiday season. Jon Lovitch, who holds the Guinness World Record for the largest gingerbread village, is returning with a new NYC-themed creation to Chelsea Market from November 26 through January 7, according to TimeOut.

And London’s Museum of Architecture will host a gingerbread exhibition at the Seaport from November 18 through January 7. Dubbed “the Gingerbread City,” the installation features the work of more than 50 architects and designers who contributed creations resembling buildings, museums, schools, parks, and more; all structures found in a real city.

The post See gingerbread recreations of iconic NYC landmarks first appeared on 6sqft.

The Empire State Building is celebrating the 20th anniversary of the holiday classic “Elf” with new festive decorations and screenings of the movie in the skyscraper’s 80th-floor observatory. Visitors will be able to snap photos with a life-sized cutout of Buddy the Elf, view ground-floor window displays featuring Elf-themed merchandise for purchase, and more.

“Elf” debuted in 2003 and featured Buddy the Elf, played by Will Ferrell, who travels from the North Pole to New York City to meet his father in his office in the Empire State Building. In the two decades since it was released, the movie has become a holiday classic and a favorite of New Yorkers.

As part of the festive celebrations, the 86th-floor Observatory and the building’s Fifth Avenue lobby will be decked out in themed decor. The lobby will feature snowy scenes of Buddy the Elf as he travels from the North Pole to the Empire State Building.

Guests will also be able to take pictures with a life-size version of Buddy the Elf in the corner of the Observatory’s 86th floor starting on November 10.

Fans of the movie can purchase tickets to view the movie at one of four screenings on the Observatory’s 80th floor on December 3, 10, and 17. Tickets include holiday-themed drinks and snacks and full access to the ESB’s second-floor museum and 86th-floor Observatory. Get more information and purchase tickets (which cost $135 and include snacks and drinks) here.

“The Empire State Building plays a lead role in hundreds of films and television shows, and ‘Elf’ has become a celebrated classic,” Jean-Yves Ghazi, president of the Empire State Building Observatory, said. “Now, our guests can walk in Buddy the Elf’s footsteps in a special holiday experience that brings his adventures to life at the very place where the movie was filmed.”

Last December, Santa Claus visited the ESB’s Observatory for the first time in celebration of the holidays. On December 4 and 11, building tenants and visitors were able to meet Santa Claus in a festively-decorated corner of the 80th floor where they could take pictures and make everlasting holiday memories.

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