If you want to learn VIZ/MAX, Ted Boardman is one of the best I want to be taught. You can email him to see if he will lecture in NYC or nearby area. His email is: [email protected]

there's form z training also, you can find it by going to the form z website, and looking under the training link. i think it's called the architect's toolbox. pretty sure you can pick what days you want or do the whole week.

thanks very much for the suggestions.
what about rhino, maya, 3d studio? necessary/helpful tools or not?

You can take online courses in some of these things at sessions.edu also.

I think these days knowing a little of some - any - 3D application could be seen as almost necessary (I won't say absolutely, as many firms don't do any 3D modeling at all.) It's not necessary though to know all of them, unless you wish to find a niche as a 3D specialist. If this is your calling, or even your great interest of the moment, then great learn everything (though you probably won't find an architecture firm that has them all, and the versions change so fast that learning them all today won't keep you at an expert level 2 or 3 years from now...)
If you don't see a short- or long-term future as a 3D specialist then consider whether concentrating on software is the best idea for your career down the line. In a lot of offices the 3D person is often being handed things that are already at more or less of a stopping point in their design and being asked to create presentation models/renderings. Your involvement in the projects in this situation can become very fragmentary.
Yes, I know that the 3D model could/should be part of the design process/a tool for testing ideas, etc. (and this discussion is going to wake up our friend Per any second now, who'll tell you all about that...) It doesn't always happen that way though. Consider learning just one or two applications at this point.

I like the combination of Rhino, 3d max and sketch up with Vectorworks myself...they all work vert well together and don't take a migraine to learn.