Terra Cotta Midtown

[In-person tour] Terra-Cotta, or “fired earth” is the clay chameleon of the concrete jungle: it can mimic stone or sport a rainbow of Technicolor glazes. Both lightweight and highly malleable, it’s ideal for both slim curtain walls and ornate sculptural ornaments. By the turn of the 20th century, many of the city’s most eminent architects, including Cass Gilbert, Henry Hardenbergh, George B. Post and Ely Jacques Khan, worked in terra-cotta, and the clay faced some of the city’s most iconic facades, including the Flatiron Building, the Woolworth Building and the Plaza Hotel. On this tour of Midtown Manhattan with Lucie Levine, we’ll see terra cotta in some of its most beautiful and diverse forms, from a multi-color Moorish-Revival Temple to a French Renaissance Chateau to an Italian Mannerist school. Along the way, stop by New York’s most ornate apartment building, check out one of the city’s earliest co-ops and find out how New York’s most illustrious theaters and finest hotels were clad in clay produced right here in the five boroughs!

In-person tours are limited to 25 attendees and are held outdoors.  Walking tours bring individuals into close proximity with each other, we therefore recommend that all tour goers wear masks during the tours, regardless of vaccination status.  Your tour guide and your fellow tour participants will thank you for your cooperation.  Should the tours happen to venture indoors, many places require masks and/or proof of vaccination, so please be prepared to have both with you.

MAS Walking Tours last approximately 2 hours. Meeting location is provided with registration.