"Air conditioning is not an aspect of urbanism whose implications we often consider. What follows is Alison Carafa’s fresh and cheerful journey through some of the unintended uses for, hacks to and consequences of this unloved but, for many, indispensable addition to urban windows."

"The goal: to walk from the Empire State Building, on West Thirty-third Street, to Rockefeller Center, on West Forty-eighth, without ever setting foot on Fifth or Sixth Avenue—to knife through tall buildings in a single bound, or at least in stepwise forays. A writer for this magazine accomplished the feat in 1956, and a photographic attempt appeared on our Web site last year. A recent lazy Friday seemed like a good time to try the experiment again."

"New York-based HWKN has been selected for this year’s MoMA/PS 1 Young Architects Program. Their proposal, called “Wendy,” uses standard scaffolding to create a visually arresting object that straddles the three outdoor rooms of the PS 1 courtyard. Tensioned fabric coated in smog-eating paint provides shelter and programming areas including a stage, shower, and misters."

On why the New York skyline isn't a product of bedrock depth, but is a result of various economic, societal and geographical pressures.

"artist and designer George Maciunas conceived of Fluxus Editions—affordable and portable publications and multiples meant to introduce revolutionary art into everyday experience and to publicize the group’s ideas on an international scale." Closes 15 January 2012.

"The Greatest Grid: The Master Plan of Manhattan, 1811-2011 celebrates the 200th anniversary of the Commissioners’ Plan of 1811, the foundational document that established Manhattan’s famous street grid." Closes 15 April, 2012.

"“Carsten Höller: Experience” is the most comprehensive US exhibition to date of the artist’s engaging work. The current show gathers together a number of the artist’s signature works in an arrangement that transforms the viewer’s experience of time and space. Originally trained as a scientist, Höller is frequently inspired by research and experiments from scientific history." Closes 22 January 2012.

"In the spring of 1980, I began to photograph the New York subway system." A great read from the photographer of the amazing Subway series.

bruces: http://t.co/D9oAWQU *The elite among urban "stuffed animals" #GothicHighTech #Chic #NYHighLine

"A recent trip had me in London for four days, and I thought, [what if] I started from the outside and worked my way in? Since Heathrow is right at the edge of Greater London, it made perfect sense just to land, clear customs, and start walking." Eighteen miles from Heathrow to the City.

"It believes it can save time and money by simply leaving [the tunnel boring machine] behind, dormant and decayed, within the rocky depths of Midtown Manhattan. The drill’s final resting place: 14 stories beneath the well-tended sidewalks of Park Avenue."

"One of the main exhibits at the Center, “Mapping the Cityscape”, features a dozen or so wall-mounted 8-foot-high maps of Manhattan — different representations and views from 1609 to the present." Center for Architecture, closes 27th August.

"Weekend trips have doubled in the past 20 years, far outpacing the growth of ridership during the workweek. Last year, the subway had 5.36 million rides on average during weekends, one of the highest counts on record." I wonder if the same thing's happening in London; there's certainly always grousing at weekend engineering works.

"Joel Grey/A New York Life examines the enduring impact that performer and photographer Joel Grey and his adopted city have made on each other. Through rare artifacts from his stage and screen career, objects from his personal collection, and his own photography, the exhibition offers a unique look at New York through Grey’s eyes."

David Zwirner / Art in General / New Museum of Contemporary Art  / Christopher Henry Gallery / Sperone Westwater / Storefront for Art and Architecture / The Drawing Center / The New York Earth Room / Greene Naftali / L&M Arts

"The primary activity of WHC is the sponsorship of tours of New York and New Jersey's working waterfront – places that are normally hidden from the eyes of most area residents and visitors."

To do in NYC: visit this street art (literally) version of the NY subway map.

A table of hours and prices for museums in New York City, complete with sortable columns and a map. Could be handy.

Subtitled "a Travel bag by Britta Gustafson", this is a pretty good list of things for me to do. (I've visited the transit museum before, but I had a rubbish camera, and it was years ago, so I'm happy to go back.)

Looks like this might be worth a visit if I get to NYC again.

"Board a Manhattan-bound Q or B train from DeKalb Avenue in Brooklyn (or on weekends, currently due to constructions, the R train runs on this track as well) and look out the right side just before the train emerges out of the tunnel onto Manhattan Bridge." Nice.

As Joe Moran put it in his link on Twitter: "Hugh Pennington on bedbugs, and why they like the London Tube less than the NYC subways." A good read.

What has been forgotten in this hysterical nostalgia is that our current Penn Station is also a miracle: pitiless and comically jury-rigged, sure, but miraculous.

"Using New York City as its point of reference, The Works takes readers down manholes and behind the scenes to explain exactly how an urban infrastructure operates." If it hadn't have been for this book, I'd never have realised there were still steam networks (naturally, NYC's is the largest, but apparently Paris has one also).

"Bruce Davidson's Subway series documents life in the New York subway, recording the animated energy of train carriages and station platforms across the metropolis." It's only a room, but it's in the free part of the museum, and you never know when things are going to move. Might make a nice taster for Exposed, too.