- Best Historic Building: Grand Central Terminal. A Beaux Arts gem, this railroad station was built in 1913 and restored in the 1990s to its original brilliance. You can take a tour with the help of a smartphone once you’re in the building.
- Best Skyscraper: The Chrysler Building. Its cap is iconic and as jaunty as ever, a heartening site to behold. Alas, the Chrysler has no observation deck, but this Art Deco masterpiece can be viewed from outside or from nearby observation decks, such as the Empire State Building’s.
- Most Impressive Place of Worship: Cathedral of St. John the Divine. Construction began on the world’s largest Gothic cathedral in 1892—and it’s still going on. This is one structure that benefits from being a work in progress.
- Most fun building to "decipher": National Museum of the American Indian. Every sculpture on this building, including four by Daniel Chester French (creator of the Lincoln Monument in Washington, D.C.), has a story to tell.
- Kookiest masterpiece: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Frank Lloyd Wright’s only New York edifice—built in 1959—is a brilliant feat of architecture. The Babylonian-style "inverted ziggurat" has been compared to a wedding cake or a nautilus shell, and it is full of life and movement.
- Best complex of buildings: Rockefeller Center. Rock Center was erected mainly in the 1930s, when the city was mired in the Depression and in thrall to Art Deco. The buildings and commissioned art works—from statues to murals to decorative stonework—are harmonious masterworks.
Note: This information was accurate when it was published, but can change without notice. Please be sure to confirm all rates and details directly with the companies in question before planning your trip.