22 Best Sights in New York City, New York

With an iconic silhouette recognizable virtually worldwide, the Empire State Building is an art deco monument to progress, a symbol of NYC, and a star in many romantic scenes—on- and off-screen. Built in 1931 at the peak of the skyscraper craze, this 103-story limestone giant opened after 13 months of construction. The framework rose at a rate of 4½ stories per week, making the Empire State Building the fastest-rising skyscraper ever built.

Enter the visitor experience in the building's designated Observatory lobby—a two-story hall off 34th Street—and exit through the building's iconic 5th Avenue lobby. Purchase or retrieve prepurchased timed tickets at kiosks, then head to the 10,000-square-foot Second Floor Galleries to learn all about the skyscraper—from its engineering to its role in modern culture (including a fun photo op with King Kong himself). There are interactive experiences, along with marvelous art deco design details throughout.

Rise from Floor 2 to reach Floor 80's enclosed observatory, then head to the 86th-floor observatory (1,050 feet high) to find another enclosed area and the spectacular wraparound outdoor deck. The views from the compact 102nd-floor observatory are better still, though it comes with an extra price tag. A new Sunrise@ESB experience ($135) provides preopening access to the 86th floor observation deck on Saturday morning to watch the sunrise with pastries and a custom Starbucks coffee. 

Expect long lines during peak tourist times/seasons—best avoided with weekday morning or winter visits. Plan for three-plus hours to absorb the full experience and to pass through security. Save time by purchasing tickets online in advance.  The building opens the stairs from the 86th floor down to the 80th floor on busy days so visitors can bypass any potential lines.

Housed in a sparkling renovation of an enormous 19th-century warehouse, this collection of shops and restaurants features a 7,000-square-foot rooftop garden with East River and Manhattan views. Tenants include creative agencies and West Elm's global HQ, as well as Time Out Market, upscale Italian restaurant Cecconi's, and Dumbo House, offshoot of Soho House. There are rotating art exhibits throughout the building, plus programming with pop-ups and installations.

The four towers of this complex (once known as the World Financial Center) range from 34 to 51 stories high and are topped with different geometric ornaments designed by Cesar Pelli. Inside are the company headquarters for the likes of American Express and Dow Jones. But the main attraction is the glass-domed Winter Garden atrium with its signature palm trees—a pleasant open space that hosts music and dance performances and links to a sweeping array of stores and restaurants. A concourse passes underneath West Street, connecting Brookfield Place to the World Trade Center site. There's also a pedestrian crosswalk at grade across West Street. The massive windows at the top of the Winter Garden's grand staircase on the north side of the atrium provide a view of the 9/11 Memorial Plaza and Westfield World Trade Center (the Oculus) to the east.

A monument to modernity and the mighty automotive industry, the former Chrysler headquarters wins many New Yorkers' vote for the city's most marvelous and beloved skyscraper, despite the fact that you can only love it from a distance. Architect William Van Alen, who designed this 1930 art deco masterpiece, incorporated car details into its form: American eagle gargoyles, made of chromium nickel and resembling hood ornaments used on 1920s Chryslers, sprout from the 61st floor; winged urns festooning the 31st floor reference the car's radiator caps. Most breathtaking is the pinnacle, with tiered crescents and spiked windows that radiate out like a magnificent steel sunburst. While the current owner has been given permission to reopen an observation deck on the 71st floor that closed in 1945, for now you have to make do with appreciating it from afar or ducking in for a quick look at the amazing time-capsule lobby replete with chrome "grillwork," intricately patterned wood elevator doors, marble walls and floors, and an enormous ceiling mural saluting transportation and human endeavor. You may enter the lobby during business hours (8 am–6 pm).  For a great view/photo, walk to the northeast corner of 44th Street and 3rd Avenue.

Built in 1840 for merchant and developer Don Alonzo Cushman, this string of redbrick beauties between 9th and 10th Avenues represents some of the country's best examples of Greek Revival row houses. Original details include small wreath-encircled attic windows, deeply recessed doorways with brownstone frames, and striking iron balustrades and fences. Note the pineapples, a traditional symbol of welcome, on top of the black iron newels in front of No. 416.

The landmark lobby of this art deco tower contains an illuminated 12-foot globe that revolves beneath a black-glass dome. Around it, spreading across the floor like a giant compass and literally positioning New York at the center of the world, bronze lines indicate mileage to various international destinations. Movie fans might recognize the building as the offices of the fictional newspaper The Daily Planet in the original Superman movie. On the wall behind the globe, you can check out meteorological gauges, which read New York City's weather—especially fun on a windy day when the meters are whipping about. The Daily News hasn't called this building home since 1995; only the lobby is open to the public (but that's enough). The globe was last updated in 1967, so part of the fun here is seeing how our maps have changed; note Manchuria and East and West Germany.

When completed in 1902, the wedge-shape Fuller Building, as it was originally known, caused a sensation. Architect Daniel Burnham made ingenious use of the triangular wedge of land at 23rd Street, 5th Avenue, and Broadway, employing a revolutionary steel frame that allowed for the structure's 22-story, 286-foot height. Covered with a facade of limestone and white terra-cotta in the Italian Renaissance style, the building's shape resembled a clothing iron, hence its nickname. When it became apparent that the building generated strong winds, gawkers would loiter at 23rd Street hoping to catch sight of ladies' billowing skirts. Local traffic cops had to shoo away the male peepers—one purported origin of the phrase "23 skidoo."

You may spot famous film and television locations around the city, but no firehouse is quite as eye-catching as the one whose exterior was made famous by the 1984 blockbuster Ghostbusters. (Its interiors were filmed in a studio.) The 1903 building is still the active home of FDNY Hook & Ladder Company 8, which ran with the ghost-busting theme for its logo—you’ll find the movie’s iconic ghost and red-circle strikethrough combined with the FDNY badge painted on the pavement out front. Movie buffs can buy a T-shirt with the logo, too, at  www.fdnyshop.com.

In 1909, with the addition of a 700-foot tower resembling the campanile of St. Mark's in Venice, this 1893 building became the world's tallest—but it was surpassed in height in 1912, when the Woolworth Building was completed. The Met Life Tower was stripped of much of its classical detail during renovations in the early 1960s but remains a prominent feature of the Midtown skyline. The clock's four faces are each three stories high, and their minute hands weigh half a ton each. If the view from the street doesn't quite cut it, you can reserve a room in the skyline itself: Marriott International and Ian Schrager operate a luxury hotel, the New York EDITION, in the clock-tower portion of the building.

Comprising more than 100 shops and 50 eateries, the Rockefeller Center complex runs from 47th to 52nd Street between 5th and 6th Avenues; special events dominate the central plazas in spring and summer. In December an enormous, twinkling tree towers above the ice-skating rink, causing crowds of visitors from across the country and the globe to shuffle through with cameras flashing.

The world's most famous ice-skating rink occupies Rockefeller Center's sunken lower plaza from October through mid-April and converts to a roller-skating rink in summer. A gold-leaf statue of the Greek hero Prometheus hovers above. The lower plaza also provides access to the marble-lined concourse underneath Rockefeller Center, which houses restaurants, a post office, and clean public restrooms.

Rising from the Lower Plaza's west side is the 70-story art deco GE Building. Here John D. Rockefeller Jr. commissioned and then destroyed a mural by Diego Rivera. He replaced it with the monumental American Progress by José María Sert, still on view in the lobby, flanked by additional murals by Sert and English artist Frank Brangwyn. Up on the 65th floor is the landmark Rainbow Room, a glittering big-band ballroom dating from 1934. Higher up, Top of the Rock has what many consider the finest panoramas of the city. Rockefeller Center guided walking tours are available several times daily (tickets start at $27), with the option to add a visit to the observation deck.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, a pioneer of modernist architecture, built this boxlike bronze-and-glass tower in 1958, and it remains a must-visit for architecture buffs. The austere facade belies its wit: I-beams, used to hold buildings up, here are merely attached to the surface, representing the idea of structural support. The Seagram Building's innovative ground-level plaza, extending out to the sidewalk, has since become a common element in urban skyscraper design, but at the time it was built, it was a radical announcement of a new, modern era of American architecture. With its two giant fountains and welcoming steps, the plaza also is a popular lunch spot for Midtown workers. Visit late in the afternoon to avoid crowds.

Built from 1833 through 1837, this series of Greek Revival and Federal row houses along Washington Square North, between University Place and MacDougal Street, once belonged to merchants and bankers, then to writers and artists such as John Dos Passos and Edward Hopper. Many are now owned by NYU and used for housing and offices. Although the facades remain beautifully preserved, the interiors have been drastically altered over the years.

In 1925, prominent real-estate developer Fred F. French was among the first Americans ever to buy up a large number of buildings—more than 100, in this case, most of them tenements—and join the properties into a single, massive new complex. He designed a collection of nine apartment buildings and two parks in the "garden city" mode, which placed a building's green space not in an enclosed courtyard, but in the foreground. French also built a 39-by-50-foot "Tudor City" sign atop one of the 22-story buildings, best viewed from the eastern end of 42nd Street. The development's residential towers opened between 1927 and 1930, borrowing a marketable air of sophistication from Tudor-style stonework, stained-glass windows, and lobby-design flourishes. Tudor City has been featured in numerous films, and its landmark gardens—sometimes compared to Gramercy Park, only public—remain a popular lunch spot among office workers. The neighborhood was designated a historic district in 1988.

A rarity in Manhattan, this pretty, brick-covered street—really a glorified alley—is lined on the north side with the former mews (carriage houses) of the area's homes. Although the street is private, gated, and owned by New York University, which uses many of the buildings for clubs and offices, it's open to pedestrian traffic.

Until 40 Wall Street stole the title in 1930, the 792-foot, neo-Gothic Woolworth Building, opened in 1913, was the world's tallest building. For security, the spectacular lobby is no longer open to the public on a daily basis, though exclusive-access architecture tours are sometimes available through Open House New York. The lobby is home to a stained-glass skylight and carved wooden sculptures set into the portals to the left and right: one represents namesake F. W. Woolworth counting his nickels and dimes; another depicts the architect, Cass Gilbert, cradling in his arms a model of his creation. But even if you don't make it inside, the tower's exterior is exquisite, too.