{"id":368009,"date":"2026-10-08T17:22:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T17:22:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/368009\/"},"modified":"2026-10-08T17:22:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T17:22:11","slug":"is-the-nycs-hottest-attraction-the-free-observation-deck-at-1-centre-street","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/368009\/","title":{"rendered":"Is the NYC\u2019s hottest attraction the free observation deck at 1 Centre Street?"},"content":{"rendered":"

This column originally appeared in the Looped In NYC newsletter. Sign up here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If you live in New York City, there\u2019s no better time than early autumn to play tourist in your own town. Peak vacation season is over \u2014 kids are back in school and holiday travelers haven\u2019t arrived yet \u2014 but the weather is perfect and the mood is festive.<\/p>\n

So I recently took the opportunity to visit one of the city\u2019s newest and most hyped<\/a> attractions: the observation deck at the top of the David N. Dinkins Municipal Building at 1 Centre St.<\/p>\n

At 36 stories, it\u2019s not the tallest observatory\u00a0\u2014 Top of the Rock is 70 stories up, the Empire State Building\u2019s deck is on the 86th floor and One World Trade Center\u2019s observatory reaches the 102nd floor. It\u2019s also not the biggest; only eight visitors can go up at a time, in 15-minute increments.<\/p>\n

But for the admission price of $0, Centre 360 at \u201cThe Dink<\/a>\u201d (apologies to the Dinkins family) is the best deal.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also among the most historically significant. Completed in 1914, the Manhattan Municipal Building, as it was then known, was the largest municipal building in the world and remains one of the biggest, according to Yume Kitasei, the commissioner of the Department of Citywide Administrative Services.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u200aIt was built when we consolidated the city\u201d she said. \u201cAll of the boroughs weren’t all one city before \u2026 in Brooklyn, they called [the merger] \u2018The Great Mistake<\/a>.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

To reach the top, visitors have to go through a metal detector, up an elevator to the 25th floor \u2014 alongside any other city workers on the way to their offices \u2014 and then down a hallway to a separate tiny elevator that reaches the cupola. In other words, this isn\u2019t a ride or an \u201cexperience.\u201d It\u2019s just a real place.<\/p>\n

Watch our video from the top of The Dink<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u200aI’ve been looking at this thing for 50 years just thinking, \u2018I wonder what it’s like up there?\u2019\u201d said Q. Mackey, a retired paramedic and one of my tourmates. \u201c\u200aIt was virtually impossible to get up here unless you knew a friend or a relative who worked in the building who could escort you up.\u201d He gave it \u201cfive stars.\u201d<\/p>\n

As it happens, some of those workers were my colleagues \u2014 the building was the home of WNYC from the first broadcast in 1924 until our move to Varick Street in 2008. (WNYC, once owned and operated by the city, became an independent public radio station in 1997<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Katya Rogers, now the executive producer of \u201cOn The Media,\u201d fondly remembered the building as having \u201ca general kind of lawlessness,\u201d with city employees, critters and newlyweds all mingling in one structure.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u200aMyself, I got married in that building,\u201d she said. \u201c\u200aI was editing. I looked at my watch, I was like, \u2018Oh, damn. It’s my slot.\u2019 I said, \u2018Anyone want to join me? Anyone want to be my witness?\u2019 And Brooke [Gladstone] was like, \u2018Yeah, I’ll come.\u2019 And then we came back to work, and I smoked a cigarette on the roof to celebrate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smoking is no longer permitted on the roof (when I think of it, most stories I\u2019ve heard about the old office involved smoking), but I can confidently report that the romance and the rustic spirit still dwell inside The Dink.<\/p>\n

Kitasei issued a challenge to would-be fianc\u00e9s: \u201c\u200aWe’re really hoping that somebody comes up here to propose and then goes down to the marriage court right after.\u201d<\/p>\n