New York City (Fodor's, 2012) - Fodor's [52]
B. Altman Building/New York Public Library–Science, Industry, and Business Library (SIBL).
In 1906 department-store magnate Benjamin Altman gambled that his fashionable patrons would follow him uptown from his popular store in the area now known as the Ladies’ Mile Historic District. His new store, one of the first of the grand department stores on 5th Avenue, was designed to blend with the mansions nearby. Note in particular the beautiful entrance on 5th Avenue.
In 1996 the New York Public Library set up a high-tech library here. A 33-foot-high atrium unites the building’s two floors, the lending library off the lobby and the research collections below. Downstairs a wall of electronic ticker tapes and TVs tuned to business-news stations beams information and instructions to patrons. Tours are offered Thursday at 2. | 188 Madison Ave., between E. 34th and E. 35th Sts., Murray Hill | 10016 | 212/592–7000 | www.nypl.org | Mon. 11–6, Tues.–Thurs. 10–8, Fri. and Sat. 11–6 | Subway: 6 to 33rd St.
Koreatown.
Despite sitting in the shade of the Empire State Building, and within steps of Herald Square, Koreatown, or K-Town as it is locally referred to, is not a tourist destination. In fact, it feels decidedly off-the-beaten track and insulated, as though New Yorkers wryly planted their own place to eat, drink, and be merry, and then detoxed right on the beaten track and under the noses of millions of tourists.
Technically, Koreatown runs from 31st to 36th streets and between Fifth and Sixth avenues, though the main drag, and the only street you really need to know, is 32nd Street between Fifth and Broadway. Known as Korea Way, this strip is home to 24-7 Korean barbecue joints, karaoke bars, and spas. Fill up on kimchi (spicy pickled cabbage), kimbap (seaweed rice), and red bean doughnuts (delicious), then afterward try some authentic Asian karaoke. Expect bang for your buck and bragging rights over other visitors who missed the experience. | Bordered by 31st and 36th Sts., 5th and 6th Aves., Murray Hill | 10001 | Subway: B, D, F, N, Q, R, M to 34th St./Herald Sq.; 6 to 33rd St.
Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower.
When it was added in 1909, the 700-foot tower resembling the campanile of St. Mark’s in Venice made this 1893 building the world’s tallest; it was surpassed in height a few years later (by the Woolworth Building).
It was stripped of much of its classical details during renovations in the early 1960s, but it remains a prominent feature of the Midtown skyline today. The clock’s four faces are each three stories high, and their minute hands weigh half a ton each. A bench across the street in Madison Square Park is the perfect place to appreciate this National Historic building with its lighted tower and quarter-hourly chimes. | 1 Madison Ave., between E. 23rd and E. 24th Sts., Flatiron District | 10010 | Subway: R, 6 to 23rd St.
New York Life Insurance Company Building.
Cass Gilbert, better known for the Woolworth Building, capped this 1928 building with a gilded octagonal spire that is stunning when illuminated. Its soaring lobby’s coffered ceilings and ornate bronze gates are equally grand. The building sits on the site of the former P. T. Barnum Hippodrome and the original Madison Square Garden designed by Stanford White. | 51 Madison Ave., between E. 26th and E. 27th Sts., Flatiron District | 10010 | Subway: R, 6 to 28th St.
Sniffen Court.
In a gated cul-de-sac two blocks from the Morgan Library, these 10 brick Romanesque Revival carriage houses were built in 1863–64 on a small court perpendicular to East 36th