New York City’s South Street Seaport, a historic area in lower Manhattan, is getting a festive installment this year: The Gingerbread City. From now through Jan. 7, 2024, visitors can experience a gingerbread display unlike anything else — a spectacle to behold for all ages.
The concept first debuted in 2016 in London and features a miniature city of buildings all made from frosting, candy, and, of course, gingerbread cookies. This marks the first time it’s coming to The Big Apple and more than 50 leading NYC architects and designers were tapped to construct for The Gingerbread City’s New York debut.
The theme of this year’s city is “inspired by the theme of water in cities” and, according to a press release provided to Travel + Leisure, the contributors were “asked to think about how we can design and build water-sensitive cities and protect this vital resource.” It has houses, train stations, bridges, airports, museums, and parks — all in delectable sugar form. There are also three train tracks, with real moving, miniature trains going around, as well as viewing bubbles so people can get up close to some of the structures from the inside of the islands.
Of notable mention is the Sugar Lake Opera — a grand hall and cultural hub looking out over a sugar lake created by stormwater run-off from the building’s roofs. This took a 13-person team over 100 hours to complete and required 10 pounds of gingerbread, two pounds of icing, and one pound of Starbursts. Other constructions include a floating house project that focuses on supplying clean water in a site vulnerable to flooding by David Ling Architect with Soo Yoon Chung and In the City’s Canal Zone Marvel’s Marsh-Meadow Bridge.
But this exhibition isn’t just for spectators. Upstairs in the museum daily gingerbread house-making workshops will be held. Visitors can make their own floating house — a very special type of gingerbread house – created exclusively for the exhibition with gingerbread baked by iconic New York baker Balthazar.
Tickets start from $25 and are available at thegingerbreadcity.com/newyork.