A Tour With Head Tilted Up - new york architectural landmarks

By SETH KUGEL

TO see 25 of America's 150 favorite architectural structures in a day, you could hire a private plane and try to spot the Sears Tower, the St. Louis Arch, the Milwaukee Art Museum and 22 more from the air as you cross the country.

Or you could take a Saturday stroll through Manhattan.

To celebrate the American Institute of Architects' 150th anniversary, its members picked 248 of their favorites, then used a survey of Americans (by Harris Interactive) to rank the top 150 as “America's Favorite Architecture.” New York scored 33 spots, by far the most of any city. (Washington was second with 17, then Chicago with 16.) Seeing 25 in a day is easily possible on foot, but bring comfortable shoes, because it's about a nine-mile urban hike.

With about 10 Starbucks stores along the way, there's one thing you won't need: a thermos of coffee. But for those who despair as street-level Manhattan turns ever more chain-store oriented, this tour should bring relief: tilting your head upward makes all the Big Macs disappear.

Start (by coincidence) at the new New York Times Building (ranked No. 68) at 40th Street and Eighth Avenue, across from the Port Authority Bus Terminal and near the Times Square subway stop. The building, still under construction but partly occupied, was designed by Renzo Piano, the architect whose work includes the Pompidou Center in Paris.

Then head up Eighth Avenue toward the hard-to-miss triangular frames of the Hearst Tower (No. 71) between 56th and 57th Streets, which contrast sharply with the ancient, fire-escape-tattooed tenement buildings on the block before it, and its own 1927 base (the old Hearst headquarters). The public can enter far enough to see the three-story water feature inside (it's recycled rain), slashed through with an escalator. But you'll get no farther, even if you try the “but I'm an architect who came all the way from Belgium to see this ...” bit. The guards have heard it all before.

After marching across 57th Street to Carnegie Hall (No. 48), tramp up Seventh Avenue and turn left on Central Park South for the 750-foot-tall Time Warner Center towers (No. 105), which loom ahead like something out of a postmodern knife drawer. Enter to admire the male and female sculptures by Botero in the lobby, or to eat at the Whole Foods downstairs.

Saunter up Broadway to Lincoln Center (No. 86), and then up Columbus Avenue past a row of restaurants (the last for a while, should you want lunch). For caffeine addicts who have soldiered past the six Starbucks locations so far, take a right on West 70th Street and stop for iced coffee at the Sensuous Bean, a vestige of what friendly coffee stores used to be.

Next stop, the Dakota Apartments (No. 87), John Lennon's former home, a luxurious French Renaissance-style building that will probably make your own place look like a rat hole. Continue up to the American Museum of National History's Rose Center, which may have reached No. 33 on the golfer vote. The 87-foot sphere inside the glass wall visible from 81st Street looks like a Titleist built for a T-rex.

Traverse Central Park on foot, skirting the north side of the Great Lawn to see distant views of the Midtown skyline (including the Hearst Tower and the Chrysler Building). Cut up the East Drive of the park and exit at 90th Street to begin the trek down Fifth Avenue.

First, you'll pass the Guggenheim (No. 74), from the outside just a masterpiece of modern scaffolding as the museum undergoes renovations, but you can see its famous spiral shell design from the inside without paying an entrance fee. (Until September, the lobby also has “The Shape of Space,” a sparkling plastic sculpture that looks, to the coiffure-conscious, like a tidal wave of hair gel.)

Next is the Metropolitan Museum of Art (No. 17), and from there you can either hike down Fifth Avenue or hop onto the M1, M2, M3 or M4 buses for a well-deserved break. At 59th Street, there's the Plaza Hotel (No. 81) to the right and, to the left, the Apple Store (No. 53), with a 32-foot-high glass-cube entrance from which you descend into iPod Land.

Then go past the St. Regis Hotel (No. 16) on the left at 55th Street, and at 53rd cut over west to the (pitifully No. 146) Museum of Modern Art. Meander east across 53rd Street to the Citigroup Center (No. 125) then back (or skip it, it's better from afar), and stride down Park Avenue to the Waldorf-Astoria (No. 46), whose luxe interior lobbies are open even to the sweatiest of the public.

From there, it's back to Fifth past St. Patrick's Cathedral (No. 11). Enter Rockefeller Center (No. 56) and walk over to Radio City Music Hall (No. 100) at the corner of 50th and Avenue of the Americas. Walk back to Fifth on 55th past the Royalton Hotel (No. 133) and down to 42nd and the grand, lion-guarded main building of the New York Public Library, completed in 1911 (No. 47). (Are you out of breath yet?)

From there, a trip east across 42nd Street will take you past Grand Central Terminal (No. 13) and the Chrysler Building (No. 9) to the United Nations (lucky to be No. 111) and back; you can continue down Fifth Avenue to the Empire State Building (No. 1, no surprise) at 34th and the Flatiron Building (No. 72) at the 23rd Street finish line, where a cheeseburger from the Shake Shack in Madison Square Park is your reward.

Save the World Trade Center site (No. 19) and the Woolworth Building (No. 44) for the next day, or the next trip, unless you have the energy to make it way downtown. If you think you will, I have a nearby bridge (No. 20) to sell you.