Archtober, New York City’s annual Architecture and Design Month, is celebrating its fifth year with huge roster of activities, programs and exhibitions designed to raise awareness of the built environment and to build a lasting connection among its inhabitants.

While the list of events and programs may seem daunting, Archtober’s website includes a calendar so well designed that everyone can zero in on something to do on every day of the month. Calendar

This weekend, for example there will be a nature hike at Freshkills Park. The city’s soon to be largest park at 2,200 acres, or three times the size of Central Park, Freshkills’ design, ecological restoration and programming will showcase environamental sustainability and offer a new natural landscape that has become habitat for a large variety of birds and mammals. The breathtaking 360-degree views offer a completely new appreciation for New York’s five boroughs. 
Nature Hike, Freshkills Park, Saturday October 24, 1-4 pm. Information. Virtual tour. Above: Freshkills Park, Main Creek viewed from North Mound. More photos here.

Among the 14 events scheduled for this weekend, Saturday also brings a walking tour of South Street Seaport. You can trace the development of New York City from the 17th to the 21st centuries on these interactive architectural walking tours that uncover the city’s history, hidden in plain sight in the city’s buildings and streetscapes. Become familiar with key elements of design and learn how to “read” buildings for information about NYC’s growth and development. Information.
South Street Seaport Architectural Walking Tour, Center at the Seaport, 181 Front Street, NY, NY. Information.

Among the exhibitions running through the end of the year is Sea Level: Five Boroughs at Water’s Edge. Like the government-sponsored U.S. coastal surveys of the nineteenth century, Sea Level is a water’s-eye view of New York – the city documented by photographer Elizabeth Felicella from its tidal edge. The panorama begins at Fort Wadsworth, which has, since the Revolutionary War, guarded the city and the Upper Bay of New York Harbor from the most eastern tip of Staten Island, the Verrazano Narrows. It bends 25 miles north, to Fort Totten, another ancient strategic post that stands at the place where the East River ends and Long Island Harbor begins. Large photographic collages will explore the construction of the panorama itself. 
Sea Level: Five Boroughs at Water’s Edge, Center at the Seaport, 181 Front Street, NY, NY. Information.

In the wake of Sandy’s destruction of numerous cultural and retail locations at South Street Seaport  a group of developers and civic-minded people formed the Seaport Culture District to offer exhibitions, cultural programs and more than one hundred lunchtime and after-work events, including educational talks, panel discussions, screenings, walking tours, sketching workshops, and photography classes. Extensive K-12 after-school educational programs will also be available, along with additional family offerings on weekends. Calendar

Correction: The opening for Brea Souders | Hole in the Curtain is Thursday, October 29, 6-8 pm.  Bruce Silverstein Gallery, 535 West 24^th Street, NY, NY.