Learning and Reimagining the City with CUNY Graduate Center

April 2021

We’re fully embarked on the third decade of the 21st century, and New York City and its people have exciting decisions to make about how we’re going to grow and thrive in an increasingly complex and sophisticated society. Residents of the luxury Midtown rentals at 555TEN will reap many of the benefits of living in our world city/cultural mecca, including the beauty of Hudson River Park to the west and the attractions and delights of the Theater District seemingly everywhere around them. A walk of just over 20 minutes to the east will also bring them to CUNY Graduate Center, one of the academic institutions that help define New York City.

Like many colleges and universities, CUNY Graduate Center has a public programming component. Its Public Events Email List keeps interested New Yorkers apprised of future happenings at the school, and a tax-deductible Community Membership allows them to support and “receive special access” to the programming, which is often free to the public.

The Center’s spring semester 2021 public events are virtual, although many require an RSVP. On April 21st at 4 pm, “What Matters Now? CUNY Teaches Living History” discusses “transformative activism” as a response to health emergencies like COVID-19. Later in the evening (at 7:30 pm), “City of Science” will reveal the ethical dimensions of artificial intelligence.

In May, there will be an exploration of hip hop activism (on May 7th), a dissertation showcase (on May 19th) in which Graduate Center students are challenged to present their scholarship “in language for a general audience,” and a presentation (on May 20th) on Asian American New Yorkers’ contributions to “educational equity and diversity.”

The Graduate Center’s YouTube channel is a resource for live broadcasts and archives of past events like the recent four-part “Rethinking NYC” series, which discussed bias in the city’s criminal justice system, economic “opportunity escalators” to move the city forward, the central role of the city’s “abundant cultural activities and its magnificent public spaces,” and the challenges of leadership as the city prepares for the mayoral election.

In the coming months, CUNY Graduate Center will continue to serve as an anchor and icon in Midtown. Its Italian Renaissance Revival building, located on a stretch of Fifth Avenue, is itself an example of NYC reinvention. For decades, it was the site of B. Altman & Co., one of the most elegant of the Midtown department stores in the 20th century. Evolution is surely a constant in the city, and learning and reimagining your own place in New York City (both metaphorically and physically) will keep you engaged in its transformations. If you want to inhabit a stylish home in a neighborhood with deep history, a vibrant present, and a strong sense of the future, contact us to find out more about the Midtown Manhattan apartments at 555TEN.