NEW YORK CITY—The American Institute of Architects' New York guide pointed to buildings in architectural headlines and lesser known sites during the CREW New York chapter's summer outing. Traveling on the Hudson, Harlem and East rivers, the tour highlighted some of the city's storied architecture.

The Starrett Lehigh Building with alternating bands of brick and green, steel-framed windows, is significant in architectural history because the structure lacks vertical columns in the façade. It was seen as a "stepping stone" to all glass building enclosures.

At Hudson Yards, the developers could not add to the landfill, so the Related Companies and Oxford Properties Group built a platform over the active railyard. Designed by British architect, Thomas Heatherwick, Vessel is a hive of 154 flights of stairs with no other function but being a structure to climb. The developer wanted something iconic like the Eiffel Tower to draw people to the location.

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Betsy Kim

Betsy Kim was the bureau chief, East Coast, and New York City reporter for Real Estate Forum and GlobeSt.com. As a lawyer and journalist, Betsy has worked as the director of editorial and content for LexisNexis Lawyers.com, a TV/multi-media journalist for NBC and CBS affiliated TV stations in the Midwest, and an associate producer at Court TV.