United Nations Headquarters
A patch of Midtown that, by treaty, isn't legally the United States.
Coming soon on iOS — be first to walk New York offline.
Completed in 1952 by a multinational board of architects — Wallace Harrison directing, with final plans from Oscar Niemeyer and Le Corbusier. The grounds sit under the sole administration of the UN and hold the seats of the General Assembly and Security Council; the International Court of Justice sits in The Hague instead.
What to look for
- The tall Secretariat office tower rising over the East River
- The Dag Hammarskjöld Library among the complex's buildings
- River water drawn in to cool the buildings — a practice that's actually illegal in the city
Find it in the Turtle Bay neighborhood along First Avenue, between 42nd and 48th Streets in Midtown Manhattan.
United Nations Headquarters is one of 38 sights worth the detour in New York, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the New York pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in New York
- Statue of LibertyFrance's gift to the U.S.: a crowned, robed woman raising a torch over New York Harbor, long read as a welcome to immigrants arriving by sea.
- Empire State BuildingRide up to the 86th- or 102nd-floor deck and look straight down on Midtown Manhattan.
- World Trade Center & 9/11 MemorialTwo reflecting pools now sit in the exact footprints where the Twin Towers stood until September 11, 2001.
- Wall StreetUnder 2,000 feet of pavement that stands in for all of American finance — named for a wall that hasn't existed since 1699.
- The Met (Metropolitan Museum of Art)1.5 million works under one roof, from Sumerian stone to modern American rooms — a day here barely scratches it.
- Central ParkThe most visited urban park in the US — an estimated 42 million visits a year — built by hand on the razed land of a Black settlement, Seneca Village.