This year marks the 15th anniversary of Archtober, New York City's month-long Festival of architecture and design! Since its inception, Archtober has partnered with hundreds of NYC-based organizations across the five boroughs to present tours, lectures, workshops, panels, exhibitions, and events to build its annual Festival and year-round platform. Together, these programs celebrate the city's vibrant built environment and invite New Yorkers and visitors alike to engage deeper with the spaces that shape our everyday lives. For the past two years, we have introduced an overarching theme for the annual Festival that celebrates the discovery of architecture while encouraging conversation and dialogue through a particular contemporary lens...

This year, we are excited to announce our theme: Shared Spaces! In 2025, this theme considers a world where space and resources are shared responsibly, inviting participants to re-envision how we move, connect, and live together in New York City. Shared Spaces also points to the cast of collaborators who are actively shaping and experiencing the city, such as architecture firms, urban developers, civic organizations, activists, and the public. It holds our collective wonder, anxiety, learning, and joy, making room for the complexity of the human experience in 2025.

Planned partner programming for this year’s festival spans a variety of event types, from panels to tours to celebrations and more: embark with Classic Harbor Line on an AIANY Industrial Waterway Tour to Freshkills Park on October 5—a fully narrated three hour, fifteen-minute cruise from Chelsea Piers through bustling industrial channels into the heart of Freshkills, where AIANY guides and Freshkills Park planners will reveal the remarkable landfill-to-park transformation, showcasing thriving ecosystems, expansive wetlands, and inspiring views of New York Harbor.

Grace Farms will be commemorating its 10th anniversary on October 11, hosting a day of music, conversation, and celebration. The program will feature Grace Farms CEO and Founder Sharon Prince and Grace Farms architects Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa of SANAA, as well as music by cellist Arlen Hlusko and a talk on natural pigments with artist Hannah Rose Thomas, PhD.

On October 14, n+1 will host a discussion at the Center for Architecture about the architecture and built environment of 21st-century urban social democracy titled "What Could Mamdani’s New York Look Like?" At once gleefully speculative and firmly grounded in the reality of governance, the conversation will roam from bike lanes to social housing to the mechanics of policymaking.

What does it mean to create spaces that are not only affordable and functional, but also joyful, safe, sustainable, and ours? On October 15, 1014 will host “Not Just Livable – Lovable: Urban Quality, Human Reality and the Shape of Home.” This panel is an open invitation to think about what it really means to make a home in a place where housing is expensive, neighborhoods are changing fast, and public space matters more than ever. We’ll explore the full spectrum of the urban experience, from the private to the public.

On October 18, Van Alen Institute will celebrate Van Alen Fall Fest 2025, in partnership with Gowanus Open Studios, opening its doors for the public to gain insight into community-led design projects across New York City.  

The METROPOLIS Sustainability Lab + Conference, hosted on October 17 at Parsons in New York, will be the premier gathering of visionaries shaping the future of the built environment. This year’s event, themed SYNERGY, brings together top leaders from corporate America, higher education, healthcare, and hospitality to discuss strategies, tackle challenges, and uncover opportunities at the intersection of design, wellness, and sustainability.

Later in the month, on October 22, Female Design Council will host its annual "Archtober Mingler for Women Architects and Designers" at the Ligne Roset flagship in New York. This is a free event for women in the architecture and interiors space to socialize, enjoy drinks, and meet other collaborative, creative women, and to learn about the work of the Female Design Council, the premier professional network for women in design. The event is open to both FDC members and non-members, with an RSVP required.

The festival will feature numerous exhibitions across the city, including Sketching the Surface: Exploring the New York School of Interior Design Archives and Contemporary Pattern Design (September 25, 2025–April 2, 2026) at the New York School of Interior Design Gallery. The exhibition presents works by textile and wallpaper designers active in the second half of the 20th century, alongside selections by current practitioners.  

The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture, The Cooper Union will open an exhibition on October 14 featuring Archigram: The Magazine, the facsimile reprinting of all 10 issues of the original Archigram publications issued from 1961 to 1974. This work is being published by D.A.P. in conjunction with Designers & Books.

An exhibition at Leroy Street Studio, Brick & Mortar (& Curtains) (October 2–December 5, 2025), will provide a behind-the-scenes look at their collaboration with independent entertainment company A24 on its first brick and mortar venture: the revitalization of Cherry Lane Theatre, New York City’s oldest continuously operating Off-Broadway theatre.

Shared Spaces also nods to 2025 AIA New York President Benjamin Gilmartin’s theme, “See You IRL: Designing Public Space” and its event series, “Designing for Public Life,” focusing on our shared social, cultural, and civic experiences in real life. The six-part dialogue series examines the forces reshaping both our contemporary public life and the physical spaces being designed to support it—how are large-scale public spaces addressing questions of health, safety, equity, and inclusivity? How are these spaces becoming infrastructures for both climate and social resiliency? The upcoming fall exhibition at the Center for Architecture, Searching for Superpublics (October 3, 2025–March 2026), will showcase projects around NYC that illustrate new design approaches to large-scale civic and social spaces, as well as speculative ideas that expand the very nature of our public sphere. We'll celebrate the official launch of the Archtober Festival in conjunction with the fall exhibition openings at the Center for Architecture on October 3—stay tuned for more details.

Keep following along for more on this year's Festival programming, including Building of the Day tours (registration available September 15), interviews with NYC cultural institutions involved in this year's theme, opportunities to get involved, and more. Be sure to check out our recently launched Postcard Competition, "Wish You Were Here!"