The free deck atop 1 Centre Street is letting more people up

The cupola atop the David N. Dinkins Municipal Building at 1 Centre Street, the Beaux Arts tower facing City Hall Park in Lower Manhattan's Civic Center, has become one of the hardest free tickets in town. The city now says it is letting more people up.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Department of Citywide Administrative Services Commissioner Yume Kitasei announced that Centre 360, the city-run observation experience, will take groups of up to eight people per reservation slot, up from five, and will accept walk-ins when cancellations or no-shows open space. DCAS says that adds up to nearly 2,000 visitors a month. According to the agency, reservations have sold out within two minutes each month since the deck opened in June after a $6 million restoration of the cupola.

What the visit is like

Each session lasts about 15 minutes, including the ride up. Visitors check in at the CityStore on Centre Street, pass building security with photo ID, take one elevator high into the tower and then a smaller tower elevator to the cupola balcony, which wraps all the way around the building. DCAS puts the balcony more than 500 feet above the street. Gothamist, which sent a reporter up this week, described it less as an attraction than as a working city building with a view: city employees share the elevators on the way.

From the top, the Centre 360 site says you can trace the skyline from the Empire State Building to the harbor, with the East River bridges laid out below. The balcony sits directly beneath Civic Fame, the gilded statue Adolph Weinman sculpted for the building in 1914.

How to get in

• Address: 1 Centre Street, New York, NY 10007. Enter through the CityStore.
• Hours: Weekdays, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. DCAS lists eight sessions a day.
• Cost: Free. Reservations open on the first day of each month on the Centre 360 website.
• Rules: Children under 18 must be with an adult and at least 42 inches tall. Phones and cameras are fine; tripods and drones are not.
• Subway: Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall and City Hall stations on the 4, 5, 6, J, Z, R and W.

The balcony is open-air, so the city warns visits depend on weather.