Sunnyside Art Deco Walking Tour

ADSNY walking tours do fill quickly, so we encourage you to claim your space today.

Audio assistance devices will be provided for all attendees.

Members $39; Jazz Age Order Members $29; Non-Members $54

Join ADSNY for a newly developed walking tour led by architectural historian, Matt Postal, which will give you the opportunity to see many rarely explored architectural treasures in this diverse Queens community.

Like many New York neighborhoods, Sunnyside grew exponentially in the early twentieth century due to the development of mass-transit rail services; roadways, such as Queens Boulevard; and in this case, the completion of the Queensborough Bridge in 1909. Almost all of the buildings in Sunnyside were either built before or during the height of the Art Deco style. Postal notes that many of the sites we’ll see feature richly decorated façades, entrances, and even lobbies!

Between 1924 and 1929, convenient rail services and bridge accessibility to and from Manhattan lead to the creation of complexes and apartment houses, such as Sunnyside Gardens. This complex, consisting of apartment building and attached two and a half story houses, each with basements and attics, front and rear gardens, and a landscaped central court, was one of the nation’s very first planned communities. Hailed for its innovative design by such scholars as Lewis Mumford, the area is a subject of study among architecture students worldwide.

Nearly all of the buildings we will see are apartment houses dating to the 1930s, with highlights including the iconic black and gold terra-cotta entrance of the Golden Gate Apartments, the beautifully restored Packard Towers, and back-to-back twin apartment buildings by Kavy & Kavovitt.