Coming up: Open House New York

Another great event that gets people out and about. Open House New York opens doors to places you didn't even know about. I'm really intrigued by: The General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen of the City of New York, the Grand Lodge of the Masons, the House of the Redeemer, Instituto Cervantes at Amster Yard, New York City Marble Cemetery and its sister, the New York Marble Cemetery (why are they not the same?), Tenri Cultural Institute, the Terrapin Chelsea Art Gallery and the Thirteen/WNET studios.

Note that many of these places are in Manhattan. I initially thought more highly of the event because it involved all five boroughs, but changed my mind when I realized that they were mostly a handful of well-established institutions worth checking out if you've never been to them. The exceptions are the Edgar Allen Poe House in the Bronx and Eero Saarinen's JFK Terminal 5.

A couple ideas for other places, outside of Manhattan, that should open their doors are the Noguchi Museum, Greenpoint Manufacturing and Design Center, and a few Brooklyn Heights, Bed-Stuy, Fort Greene, and Prospect Heights brownstones.