When Doris Freedman, as the first Director of Cultural Affairs in the Lindsay Administration where she introduced the Percent for Art Program; her first commission was to Tony Rosenthal who created Alamo

Alamo - 1966 - The Alamo, a 15-foot tall cube, is more commonly referred to as the "Astor Place Cube." It was installed at Astor Place as part of Doris C. Freedman's "Sculpture in Environment" project, and it was the first permanent contemporary outdoor art sculpture installed in New York City. According to scholars Edward Ablee and Sam Hunter, employing the outdoor cube established Rosenthal as a "master of monumental public sculpture." The cube is poised on its tip, and is able to be rotated by those who pass by the work. Rosenthal created this sculpture to interact with the public, literally; one person alone can move the work on its axis.

Five in One (5 in 1) - 1974 - As its name suggests, Rosenthal's "Five in One" contains five interlocking circles that represent the five Boroughs: Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island. Although the artist intended for the work to be painted bright red, a lack of funds caused it to be originally created with the exposed cor-ten steel on the exterior. Throughout the decades, however, graffiti plagued the sculpture. Years later, money was raised to paint the work a brilliant red hue, which both protected the sculpture and completed Rosenthal's original vision.

The New York Times Building (2007 - Present) - 2007 - In contrast to the solid aesthetic of many urban office buildings, the 52-story New York Times Building is sheathed entirely in layers of clear glass. This transparency—revealing the activity within—embodies the paper`s mission of transmitting an unclouded, lucid report of the news to its public. The most innovative feature of the curtain wall design is an exterior veil of ceramic tubes that functions as an aesthetic device and provides critical sun shading by deflecting the sun and mitigating the solar heat gain. The unique shape of the tower floor plate allows daylight to penetrate deeply into every floor. A daylighting and shading system is programmed to use the position of the sun and inputs from an extensive sensor network to act as determinants to raise and lower shades in the New York Times Company space. The systems work in concert to ensure that the building efficiently uses natural light whenever possible. Additionally, as part of the team`s effort to enhance the indoor environmental quality and energy efficiency, The New York Times Company space incorporates the first underfloor air distribution system of its size in New York City. The tower rises from a base that covers most of the block, which is the large floor plate of the newsroom of The New York Times Company. With a split core – a technological breakthrough – the ground floor lobby is open and permeable, allowing for three entry points. Visible from the street, the building`s internal garden is a rare amenity in the city, both physically and visually for a dense neighborhood devoid of open spaces.

The New York Times' Printing Plant - 1997 - This printing plant, which is highly visible to a million passing motorists each week, provides a new architectural identity and expands the newspaper’s production capabilities. The result of an intense collaboration among the client, the design architect, engineering firms and the construction manager, the design recomposes the typical industrial shed into a series of dynamic building forms, whose volumes are distilled from and dramatize the printing process. Distinct volumes express the paper storage, printing, sorting and distribution elements of the program. Expanses of glass afford views of the presses and of papers threading through the building. This device harkens back to the paper’s original facility in Brooklyn where the public could view the complete printing, collating and folding operations. Bold colors and graphics enliven the long highway facade, and the skin of the plant employs simple and inexpensive materials in unpredictable ways, becoming a vibrant billboard along the adjacent highway.

The 1st Restaurant Review in the NYT - 1859 - The first restaurant review to appear in the Times, with a byline “by the Strong-Minded Reporter of the Times”“Very well,” replied the editor-in-chief. “Dine somewhere else to-day and somewhere else to-morrow. I wish you to dine everywhere, — from the Astor House Restaurant to the smallest description of dining saloon in the City, in order that you may furnish an account of all these places. The cashier will pay your expenses.”His list of the types of American dinner to be found in New York, from most comfortable to least: 1. The Family dinner at home. 2. The Stetsonian dinner. 3. The Delmonican, or French dinner. 4. The Minor dinner of the Stetsonian principle. 5. The Eating-house dinner, so called. 6. The Second-class Eating-house dinner. 7. The Third-class Eating-house feed.Once let Delmonico have your order, and you are safe. You may repose in peace up to the very moment when you sit down with your guests. No nobleman of England — no Marquis of the ancienne nobless — was ever better served or waited on in greater style that you will be in a private room at Delmonico`s. The lights will be brilliant, the waiters will be curled and perfumed and gloved, the dishes will be strictly en règle and the wines will come with precision of clock-work that has been duly wound up. If you “pay your money like a gentleman,” you will be fed like a gentleman, and no mistake… The cookery, however, will be superb, and the attendance will be good. If you make the ordinary mistakes of a untraveled man, and call for dishes in unusual progression, the waiter will perhaps sneer almost imperceptibly, but he will go no further, if you don`t try his feelings too harshly, or put your knife into your mouth.

The New York Times Capsule - 2000 - This capsule is made of welded stainless steel, and is described by the artist as resembling a flower. It contains diverse artifacts of the late 20th century and will be permanently on display atop a polished black granite base until the year 3000, at which time the capsule will be opened. Derived from a sculpture series that explores the formal properties of folded spherical frames, the form of the capsule has been sliced through horizontally, forming two halves. The four top segments are hinged to the bottom four. The cavities of the segments are hollow and together contain about 50 cubic feet of storage space, allowing four tall containers to be housed inside. The items were selected from suggestions by visitors to the Museum of Natural History and the New York Times web site. They were treated with preservative, surrounded with a layer of Nanopore insulation, packed in special steel containers, and sealed.

Search for the Past, New York - Explore New York City’s Layered Histories for the 250th Anniversary of the U.S. The New York Times hosted an in-person search for places that hold centuries of the city’s history on July 25, 2026.