Archinect has been a proud sponsor of Archtober since 2011
Archtober, a New York City-based platform that promotes the discovery of architecture and design through experiences and content, celebrates the next installment of its annual festival from October 1–31, 2026. In collaboration with nearly 100 partners and sponsors across the city, the 2026 festival gathers events, exhibitions, resources, and activities across the five boroughs to raise awareness of the importance of architecture and design in New York City. For the fourth consecutive year, a theme will steer part of the festival’s programming and prompt participants to consider their role in shaping our city.
“Our world is changing rapidly, bringing new challenges and new opportunities for the architecture and design community,” says Jesse Lazar, Assoc. AIA, Executive Director, AIA New York and the Center for Architecture. “This year’s Archtober theme, In Our Hands, is a reminder that the future isn’t something that simply happens to us—it’s something we shape together. As architects, designers, and engaged citizens, we have both the responsibility and the opportunity to create a more just, resilient, and inclusive city for the communities we serve.”
New in 2026, the festival is excited to introduce a newsstand activation on the downtown 6-train platform at 51st & Lexington, in collaboration with Data Vandals. “Archtober has always been about helping people see the city through a new lens, and this collaboration with Data Vandals brings that mission directly into the everyday experience of New Yorkers,” says Katie Mullen, Director of Archtober and Director of Exhibitions and Programs at the Center for Architecture. “The subway is where people from every neighborhood and background intersect, making it an ideal setting for conversations about the city we share and the one we want to build together. We hope this installation reminds people that great design isn’t confined to museums or iconic buildings—it’s all around us, and we all have a stake in its future.”
Data Vandals at 51st Street & Lexington Avenue, opening. Photo by Mark Shaw.Festival Theme: In Our Hands
In Our Hands invites us to realign ourselves towards community and optimism. Encapsulating a need for togetherness, the theme In Our Hands offers a sense of grounded fortitude amid climate change, rapidly evolving technologies, and divisive policies. This theme and the festival’s programming celebrate a collective desire for sensorial, inclusive design, handcrafted practices, and resilient structures. It is also a reminder of our agency and responsibility as architects, designers, and citizens in fostering a more just and joyful living environment.
Supporting our theme and the collaborative nature of design, every event hosted across our partners and platforms this Archtober will be categorized into one of five umbrella topics:
Nature explores our relationship with the living systems that shape and sustain the world around us, prompting discussion on how design can cultivate a more sustainable and interconnected future.
Media highlights the power of storytelling to shape what we see, value, and imagine, revealing how narratives can inspire action and expand our collective vision of what is possible.
Culture celebrates the traditions, identities, and creative expressions that give meaning to place and connect us across generations; it examines how architecture and design both reflect and influence the evolution of our communities.
History reveals the ideas, people, movements, and decisions that have shaped our built environment over time, uncovering the forces that continue to influence our cities and legacies today.
Education forefronts the exchange of knowledge that empowers individuals and communities to shape their own future. Through teaching, learning, mentorship, and public engagement, this category explores how ideas are shared, challenged, and transformed into action.
Gowanus Lowlands by SCAPE. Image by SCAPE & Ty Cole.Archtober x Data Vandals: An MTA Newsstand Activation
For the first time in festival history, Archtober is partnering with Data Vandals to activate a former newsstand on the downtown 6-train platform at 51st & Lexington. Archtober was invited by Data Vandals, a NYC art duo comprised of artist Jen Ray and dataviz expert Jason Forrest (read a recent interview with the duo here), to collaborate on the next iteration of their newsstand meets data-art gallery as part of the MTA’s Vacant Unit Activation Program.
Driven by the conviction that meaningful change happens when art meets community, Data Vandals has engaged thousands of people around the world through exhibitions, performances, and workshops. Their artwork transforms data into experiences that invite curiosity and create conversations, turning passive observers into active participants. The Data Vandals newsstand at 51st & Lexington is a place for conversation, featuring rotating surveys, changing exhibitions, in-person events, talks, music, and a free newspaper. Riders can share their experiences with others (see survey results here) and build a new community in an unusual place in the city. While the newsstand interior is open during set hours, the exterior mural is open 24 hours and details New York’s history, showcasing data and facts for the 52,000 straphangers that pass by daily.
For the Archtober x Data Vandals collab, the festival will introduce a series of new surveys inside the newsstand, intended to make participants reexamine their own role in the city—and their hopes for its future. Designed in partnership with the festival’s longstanding design agency, Greater, the new surveys and accompanying exterior murals will include key architectural sites nearby and remind straphangers that architecture is all around them. Stay tuned for our September launch date and live events happening at the Archtober x Data Vandals newsstand during the month of Archtober.
Data Vandals at 51st Street & Lexington Avenue, opening. Photo by Mark Shaw.Program Highlights
Planned partner programming for this year’s festival spans a variety of event types, from panels to tours to celebrations and more: The festival launches October 1 at the Center for Architecture with the opening of three concurrent exhibitions, touching on the categories of History and Culture: Dark Matter U: Justice, Pedagogy, Design, Humanist modernity: Maciej and Stanisława Nowicki, and Why Design?. Dark Matter U will explore one of the first BIPOC-led transdisciplinary networks in the built environment, centering not only DMU’s collaborative work but the shared purpose that comes from organizing collectively. Humanist modernity focuses on the work of Maciej (Matthew) Nowicki and Stanisława Sandecka-Nowicka, two significant figures in the history of American and Polish architecture. Why Design? celebrates the Center for Architecture’s Learning and Engagement programs, showcasing student design work from the organization’s Learning By Design: NY in-school residencies and youth and family workshops.
On October 28, Pumpkitecture—the festival’s signature pumpkin-carving event—will return to the Center for Architecture, as teams of architects go gourd-to-gourd to compete for the Pritzkerpumpkin! Members of the public are invited to join the festivities and cast their votes in the competition.
Pumpkitecture at the Center for Architecture, 2025. Photo by Samuel Lahoz.
On the weekend of October 3–4, the Amateur Comedy Club hosts a series of tours at their historic 150 E. 36 St building, a National Register property, and Sniffen Court, part of the same NYC historic district as the club. The 90-minute tours commence at 10am, 12pm, 2pm, and 4pm each day.
Venture out of the city to Rhinebeck, NY, with T Space for full-guided tours of the Steven Myron Holl Foundation woodland campus. On October 4 and 18 at 2pm, explore the relationship between architecture, nature, culture, and the creative process, including the Architecture Archive’s 1,200 models, watercolors, and research library. While you’re there, see their current site-specific installation, Threads: Anne Lindberg + H. L. Hix, a collaboration between the two artists inviting visitors to walk beneath and around the installation as it shifts with the natural light of the day.
In New Canaan, CT, The Glass House opens its doors throughout September and October for various programming events, including a September 24 dinner with architect Liz Diller, and an October 6 conversation with author Mark Lamster on his new book Welcome to Paradox City.
T-Space at the Steven Myron Holl Foundation by Steven Holl Architects. Photo by Paul Warchol.
On October 8, 1014 hosts Made There, Shaped Here? How Cultural Exchange Shapes Creative Identity, an event exploring the ways these values emerge from an ongoing dialogue between local context and global trans-Atlantic exchange.
Throughout the month, the Van Alen Institute’s fall exhibition Open Access: Exploring 130 Years of American Design will be on view. Five emerging designers were tasked with responding creatively to the Institute’s archive, positioning it as something to be questioned, reinterpreted, and held accountable to the present. Additionally, the Institute’s annual open house, Van Alen Fall Fest, will take place on October 17, 12–4pm.
On October 24, Grace Farms invites visitors to its New Canaan site for Founders Architecture Talk | Creative Visions Inspired by the Landscape, featuring four founders who discuss their organizations and inspire greater connection with our planet and people through architecture.
Van Alen Fall Fest. Photo by Cameron Blaylock.
Join Transportation Alternatives on October 28 and 29 for their 13th annual Vision Zero Cities conference, uniting city officials, planners, engineers, advocates, scholars, and industry leaders dedicated to achieving Vision Zero. The conference includes keynotes, in-depth breakout sessions, immersive field tours, and networking opportunities, all geared towards advancing better streets and public spaces.
On October 29 at 6pm, the Fashion Institute of Technology hosts Perkins&Will, recipients of the 2026 Lawrence Israel Prize, to present a comprehensive overview of their history, projects, and design philosophy. Named as a Sustainability Giant by Interior Design, this presentation includes showcase innovations in sustainable design as well as its commitment to designing for neurodiversity and accessibility across needs.
The Architectural League of New York’s programming will explore some of the most urgent issues facing the built environment, including an event series focused on the impact of Artificial Intelligence on the built environment. Signature League programs, including the popular After Hours event series for members, will also return.
Grace Farms River Building. Photo by Melani Lust.
The Bard Graduate Center welcomes visitors to its forthcoming exhibition, Goddesses in the Machine: Fashion in American Silent Film, on view September 18, 2026–January 3, 2027. This exhibition reveals the untold story of costume and style in early silent-film era Hollywood, from actors wearing their own clothes to the birth of the movie costume designer.
In Morningside Heights, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine is hosting special Halloween-themed behind-the-scenes tours all month long, exploring the Cathedral Crypt, the first Cathedral construction and worship space. See tombs, artifacts, and rarely seen subterranean architecture on this limited-time tour.
Classic Harbor Line continues its exploration into the many ways New York City’s architecture is shaped by the waterfront experience. Through its partnership with AIA New York, Classic Harbor Line offers tour programming centered on waterfront resiliency, adaptive reuse, historic preservation, industrial infrastructure, public space, and the evolving relationship between the city’s working waterfront and its neighborhoods.
AIANY Classic Harbor Line Boat Tour
The Indigenous Society of Architecture, Planning and Design (ISAPD) will host a series of virtual lectures during the month of October, highlighting the work of their members, professionals, and student chapters. All their work focuses on upbuilding Indigenous individual practices and growing Indigenous architecture, engineering, and construction communities at different scales.
During the month of October, the Jacques Marchais Museum of Tibetan Art on Staten Island continues to offer architectural tours of its historic grounds, live heritage concerts, and expert lectures, diving deeper into wellness, mindfulness, and diasporic music and arts to connect global traditions with contemporary lives.
At the New York School of Interior Design, the exhibition Art + Furniture: Designers, Makers, and Advocates opens on September 24 and will remain on view through the month of October. Curated by Thomas Mellins and Donald Albrecht, this exhibition features the work of 20 pioneering artists, highlighting those who redefined furniture as a form of artistic expression.
SoHo Design District, Live Art In SoHo 2025. Photo by Matthew Carasella.
Visit Poster House all month long and see their upcoming exhibitions, spotlighting the legacy and impact of design across time and culture. Experience the power of creative sovereignty in Designed to Be Red: Native American & Indigenous Poster Works, where Indigenous graphic art rewrites design history in opposition to past colonial narratives. Concurrently, Cuteness, Conservatism, & Consumption: Lefor-Openo and Postwar France spotlights one of the midcentury’s most unsung—and most politically significant—female design duos.
SoHo Design District returns this October with its Live Art in SoHo, an after-hours open house format event, with select neighborhood showrooms hosting art installations, live music, and more.
New Museum by OMA. Photo by Jason O’Rear.Building of the Day Tours
For 2026, the festival’s popular Building of the Day series of architect-led tours will take place almost daily and includes:
October 1: New Museum Expansion – Tour by OMAOctober 2: Shirley Chisholm Recreation Center – Tour by Studio GangOctober 7: Calvary Baptist Church – Tour by FXCollaborativeOctober 8: Gowanus Lowlands – Tour by SCAPEOctober 9: Tang Wing for American Democracy at The New York Historical – Tour by RAMSAOctober 10: Welcome Pavilions at Storm King Art Center – Tour by WXYOctober 14: Studio Museum in Harlem – Tour by Adjaye AssociatesOctober 15: Nolen Study Room, Thomas J. Watson Library, Metropolitan Museum of Art – Tour by Young & AyataOctober 16: The Green-House at Green-Wood Cemetery – Tour by Architecture Research Office (ARO)October 17: NYC Parks Luis Lopez Playground Modular Public Restroom – Tour by 1100 ArchitectOctober 21: Condé M. Nast Galleries, Metropolitan Museum of Art – Tour by Beyer Blinder Belle and Peterson Rich Office (PRO)October 24: Marcus Garvey Village Extension by Marcus Garvey Village Extension – Tour by Curtis + Ginsberg ArchitectsOctober 31: Brooklyn District 3 Department of Sanitation Facility – Tour by Dattner Architects
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Condé M. Nast Galleries by Peterson Rich Office, Beyer Blinder Belle Architects & Planners. Photo by Nicholas Calcott.The Archtober Guide on Bloomberg Connects
At its core, the Archtober festival is meant to encourage and inspire audiences to engage with the architecture and design that surrounds them. Building on our efforts to create year-round Archtober experiences, the festival continues its partnership with Bloomberg Connects, the free arts and cultural app created by Bloomberg Philanthropies, to offer the Archtober Guide. Over the past 15 years, Archtober has toured hundreds of projects across the five boroughs. The Archtober Guide on Bloomberg Connects allows you to explore a selection of these sites from your phone, allowing you to dive deep into some of NYC’s most exciting contemporary and historical projects. View project images and listen to exclusive, app-only interviews with the architects and landscape architects who are shaping the future of New York City!