Manhattan · New York County
26 Astor Place
POPS - Outdoor Plaza
- Location
- 26 Astor Place, East Village / NoHo
- Size
- 0.10 acres
- Hours
- Open during building hours
- Type
- POPS - Outdoor Plaza
26 Astor Place is a Privately Owned Public Space at Astor Place, one of the most symbolically loaded intersections in downtown Manhattan. The outdoor plaza provides public space near the famous Alamo sculpture (the Astor Place Cube) and Cooper Union.
The Alamo, a large black rotating steel cube by Tony Rosenthal installed in 1967, has become one of the most beloved public artworks in New York. The cube sits in the traffic island at Astor Place, and spinning it has been a ritual for generations of downtown visitors.
Cooper Union, the tuition-free college founded by industrialist Peter Cooper in 1859, occupies the landmark Foundation Building at Astor Place. The institution has educated generations of architects, artists, and engineers, and Abraham Lincoln delivered his famous Cooper Union speech here in 1860.
Astor Place marks the boundary between the East Village's counterculture energy and NoHo's more refined loft district. The intersection has been a gathering point for downtown bohemia since the 1960s.
This POPS sits at one of downtown Manhattan's most historically and culturally significant crossroads, where art, education, and counterculture have intersected for over a century.