Archtober 2020, New York City's month-long celebration of architecture and design, commenced last week with a hybrid mix of virtual and in-person events in Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens, and Staten Island.

For the tenth year in a row, Archinect & Bustler are proud to partner with Archtober and present you our weekly highlights from a packed calendar of events. Below are our recommendations for Archtober 2020 Week 2, October 9–16.

If you are looking for this year's Building of the Day list, click here.

Building of the Day: High Line | Friday, Oct. 9

Since its opening in 2009, the High Line has been lauded as an icon for innovative design, a defining feature in Manhattan’s West Side, and an inspiration to cities worldwide. The design is characterized by an intimate choreography of movement, with alternating vistas and experiences. Distinctive paving, planting, furnishing, lighting, and social spaces create an authentic and memorable New York City experience, drawing diverse visitors from around the world and adding significant green space and ecology to the city.

J. Max Bond Jr. Lecture | IMPATIENCE | Friday, Oct. 9

Join the New York Chapter of the National Organization of Minority Architects (nycoba | NOMA) and the AIANY Diversity & Inclusion Committee in celebrating the 10 Year Anniversary of the founding of the J. Max Bond Jr. Lecture. [...] This year, our honored speaker is June A. Grant, RA, NOMA, Founder and Design Principal at blink!LAB architecture; a boutique research-based architecture and urban design practice.

Remnants of the World’s Fairs in Flushing Meadows Corona Park | Saturday, Oct. 10

Didn’t make it to the 1939/40 or 1963/64 World’s Fairs? Well here’s your chance! Explore in-person the many remnants of the World’s Fairs in today's Flushing Meadows-Corona Park including time capsules, Andy Warhol mosaics and more unnoticed treasures!

Family Art Project: The Earth on the Turtle’s Back | Saturday, Oct. 10

For Indigenous People’s Day, learn more about the history of the land on which you now live. Learn the story of how the ancestral lands of the Iroquois-speaking people came to grow from a turtle’s back. Create screenprints of this special turtle and imagine the indigenous tradition of the “Honorable Harvest,” then use dirt to create drawings that honor the history of the ancestral lands of the Iroquois-speaking people.

The Remnants of Dutch New Amsterdam | Sunday, Oct. 11

Discover the many hidden Dutch relics south of Wall Street, as you trace the streets of Manhattan in 1667 in this small group walking tour. You will hear about New York’s founding myths and facts while standing in the very spots where they all happened.

(Socially Distanced) Walking Tour of 19th Century NoHo: A Century of Change | Sunday, Oct. 11

Join us for a socially distanced journey back in time to the elite ‘Bond Street area,’ home to wealthy merchant families like the Tredwells. You’ll see how the neighborhood surrounding the Merchant’s House evolved from a refined and tranquil residential enclave into a busy commercial and cultural center during the 19th century.

Building of the Day: Domino Sugar Refinery | Monday, Oct. 12

PAU is designing the adaptive-reuse of the Domino Sugar Refinery, an industrial landmark that will again become the nerve center of Brooklyn’s waterfront. Rather than navigating misaligned floors across the combined masonry shell, PAU tried a different approach: nesting a new building into the existing envelope to create a state-of the-art workspace within an idiosyncratic urban artifact. The project is unique to post-industrial Williamsburg, offering a singular experience for inhabitants and the larger community alike. 

Lecture: Al Borde | Monday, Oct. 12

Al Borde is a Quito, Ecuador-based studio, whose Principals Pascual Gangotena, David Barragán, Marialuisa Borja and Esteban Benavides champion an improvisational, collaborative approach to design. Resisting theory and dogma, their projects seek to enhance local development and engage communities in social innovation.

Visualize NYC 2021: Housing | Tuesday, Oct. 13

This discussion will look at housing issues we believe will be relevant to the 2021 local elections in NYC. The speakers will be Jessica Katz, Executive Director, Citizens Housing and Planning Council and Catherine Trapani, Executive Director, Homeless Services United.

Building of the Day: Paul R. Williams’ Los Angeles | Tuesday, Oct. 13

This event is part of the Archtober’s virtual Travel To series. Travel To seeks to highlight iconic architecture and historically significant sites across the United States. [...] Join us for a virtual tour of a selection of Paul Williams’ Los Angeles projects with LA Conservancy.

Protest Streets | Wednesday, Oct. 14

This first session in our series, Another City: New Meanings in New York's Public Spaces, will focus on (but not be limited to) the protests that followed the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. We will ask how moments of protest and social unrest have remade New York City's public spaces—and how, in turn, public space has shaped the movements that have helped transform our world. We will also dig into how those spaces affected how the movement was represented.

Building of the Day: Staten Island Museum at Snug Harbor | Wednesday, Oct. 14

One of five connected historic buildings at Snug Harbor, Building A is a former sailor’s dormitory, renovated by Gluckman Tang Architects as the new home of the Staten Island Museum. To achieve the environmental conditions necessary for a museum, Gluckman Tang upgraded the building envelope by installing a new liner inside of the neo-classical building’s exterior walls. The replacement of the building’s internal structure allowed for generous galleries to be created at both ends of the building. The project opened to the public in 2015 and was certified LEED Gold.

Building of the Day: Little Island | Thursday, Oct. 15

Following a design competition the Hudson River Park Trust and businessman and philanthropist Barry Diller appointed Heatherwick Studio to build a new pier on Manhattan’s southwest riverside. The pier needed to be both a public park and a world class outdoor performance space. Interested in the hundreds of old wooden piles which stuck out of the Hudson River as the structural remains of the old piers that had previously existed, the studio wondered if the identity of the new pier could come from focusing on its structural piers.

Student Lecture Series | Michelle M. Wright, The Physics of Diaspora: Why All Black Lives Matter | Thursday, Oct. 15

Michelle M. Wright is the Augustus Baldwin Longstreet Professor of English at Emory University in Atlanta, where she teaches courses in African American, Black European, and African Diaspora literature and theory. [...] In this talk, Wright will discuss the ethical conundrums that are often suppressed in Black Studies when it comes to academic representations of Blackness in a diasporic framework. How does one formulate critique within and of a vulnerable population within the Ivory Tower? The answer, she argues, lies in straight lines, Black physics, and Epiphenomenal time.

Building of the Day: Marcel Breuer Buildings at Bronx Community College | Friday, Oct. 16

In 1956, Marcel Breuer was asked to develop a master plan for New York University's "Uptown" campus in the Bronx overlooking the Harlem River. From 1959 to 1970, five buildings were constructed to Breuer's designs. They offer a Modern counterpoint to the Beaux Arts works of Stanford White that form the adjoining original campus core. In 1973 NYU sold the campus and it became Bronx Community College, part of the CUNY system.

Leadership Breakfast with Kim Yao, AIA | Friday, Oct. 16

The AIANY Women in Architecture Committee is honored to have Kim Yao, AIA, as our featured Archtober Leadership Breakfast speaker. Yao is a Principal at Architecture Research Office (ARO), which received the 2020 AIA Architecture Firm Award for their notable architectural contribution. She is also this year’s AIA New York Chapter President.

Don't forget to check back for our Week 3 recommendations! If you missed it, here's our Week 1 list.

For the full list of events and activities from October 1–31, head over to the Archtober event list, like the Facebook page, or follow Archtober on Twitter and Instagram.