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City Walks New York

A trip to New York City is inevitably a whirlwind, whether it's your first visit or your five hundredth. Even a day in the life of a local usually happens at high speed. And while the sea of taxis and tangle of subway lines pull a lot of weight when it comes to transporting the city's millions, New York is a pedestrian's metropolis to be sure.

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Los Angeles-based writer Alissa Walker (whose last name could as easily be a vocational title) is a great advocate of getting around on foot. She is the author of a newly released collection of architectural walking tours of New York City, published by Chronicle Books as part of their City Walks series (as well a Dwell contributor and creator of the blog-cum-brand Gelatobaby).

The tour guide is designed as a deck of 25 individual, pocket-size cards, making it easy to embark on a street hike unfettered by the weight of a book. Each card features a map, some architectural history of the area, and modern-day commentary on each destination, which range from the gleaming "green" skyscrapers of Manhattan to the well-aged row houses of Harlem.

Below, Alissa answers a few questions about how she compiled this custom pack of urban treks and what kind of footwear preserves both sanity and vanity while walking in New York City.

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Would you say this book is geared toward tourists in New York more than locals?

Well, we were sure to include enough information so that people who were interested in architecture but might not know exactly what makes a building, say, Art Deco or Modern, could learn those things about New York. But even people who know a lot about architecture have told me that they learned new information about certain architects or lesser-known architectural details---even a few longtime New Yorkers have found out about buildings they did not know existed.

How long did it take you to put all these walks together?

I spent about a month researching, then two months "on the pavement" in New York, which included taking photos, walking the routes, and writing them up. Then I spent about another month editing with my wonderful editor Christina Henry deTessan.

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Did you discover architectural attractions you previously didn't know about?

So many. I feel like as writers who cover architecture, we sometimes write New York off as being "done." Historical buildings in need of preservation. But there are so many buildings that are so incredibly innovative for that very reason: Either they are built over something that came before, or have to occupy a very tiny footprint. That's what's so amazing about New York to me. As far as buildings I didn't know about, or knew very little about, I made a post about my top ten favorites, with a mix of knowns and unknowns that can be found here. Most New Yorkers will be really pleasantly surprised by the incredible Victorian mansions on Staten Island, which are just a short walk from the ferry.

What is the average distance of the walks?

They are pretty short, I would say most are 1-1.5 miles long. A few are as long as 3 miles. But they are organized in a way so that one ends where another begins, so you can easily string a series together and walk all day if you'd like.

What kind of shoes did you wear to do your research?

I looked long and hard for a worthy pair of shoes that would be comfortable and durable enough to last throughout the summer, but fancy enough that I could wear them out meet my friends at the bars at night. TOMS Shoes, specifically the gold glitter color, proved to be an amazing $49 investment. I have more information about the TOMS and my other gear in this post.

Keep an eye out for upcoming events with Alissa Walker celebrating the release of City Walks Architecture: New York, running October 18-25. And if you want to get behind the scenes of the making of this project, check out Alissa's live documentation, written while she was walking all over town last summer.

  • Published: October 13, 2009

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