22 OCT 2018: Back before office towers were just boxes of concrete, steel and glass, artisans in New York created grand lobbies filled with whimsy. The Big Apple’s theaters were showcases of art and even banks were gilded temples of finance.
You may have even seen a few of these show-off spaces, like the vast Grand Central Station with its constellations in a night sky painted across the ceiling, or the cathedral-like arches of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. But there are many beautiful hidden bites of the Big Apple that you can sample in a day before or after a cruise. Even a visit to a few makes for a fascinating free tour of the richness and artistic vision of the city’s past that even native New Yorkers may have never noticed.