# NYU Family Weekend, October 22 to 25, 2026: the Arch and the weekend's sunrise and sunset to photograph around Washington Square and in the Village > NYU Family Weekend, October 22 to 25, 2026: sunrise and sunset beside the weekend's listed events, the Washington Square Arch lit square on for the family picture, what to do in the Village between events, and the days the campus walls line up with the sun in December and June. This is the Markdown form of https://hengedays.com/articles/buildings-to-photograph-nyu-family-weekend-2026, with the same words as the page. Part of [Family Weekends 2026](https://hengedays.com/articles/family-weekends-2026), school 15 of 26. Previous school: [Columbia University](https://hengedays.com/articles/buildings-to-photograph-columbia-family-weekend-2026). Next school: [Fordham University](https://hengedays.com/articles/buildings-to-photograph-fordham-family-weekend-2026). *The [Silver Center for Arts and Science](https://hengedays.com/at/40.73034,-73.99560?q=Silver+Center+for+Arts+and+Science%2C+New+York%2C+NY&b=osm%2Fway%2F248166211&facade=10&d=2027-06-17), NYU's Main Building on Washington Square East, in Henge Days. Pink marks its front on the park, which the setting sun lines up with from June 17 to 24, 2027. No wall around the square lines up with the sun on Family Weekend with a clear view.* For October 22 to 25, 2026. NYU Alumni and Families Weekend runs from Thursday, October 22, to Sunday, October 25, 2026. Henge Days checked every named building around Washington Square, in Greenwich Village, in the East Village and in SoHo for a wall that the rising or setting sun lines up with on those days. No wall passed every check. This guide gives the weekend's light beside its listed events, a spot at the Washington Square Arch for the family picture, and the days the campus walls line up later in the year. Post your pictures with #HengeDays. In this article - [The weekend's schedule and the light](#the-weekend-s-schedule-and-the-light) - [Part 1: the campus around Washington Square](#part-1-the-campus-around-washington-square) - [Part 2: Greenwich Village, the East Village and SoHo](#part-2-greenwich-village-the-east-village-and-soho) - [How the list was made](#how-the-list-was-made) - [How to read each entry](#how-to-read-each-entry) - [Plan a trip of your own](#plan-a-trip-of-your-own) All times are US Eastern time. The sun rises at 7:14 AM on Thursday and 7:18 AM on Sunday, at 104 to 105 degrees. It sets at 6:05 PM on Thursday and 6:01 PM on Sunday, at 254 to 256 degrees. ### The weekend's schedule and the light NYU's own pages did not load from where this guide was written. The dates and events below come from search-engine summaries, on October 17, of the Stern School of Business reunion pages and the Rory Meyers College of Nursing page for the weekend. Those summaries included no university-wide schedule and listed no times. Check with NYU and your student's school before you plan around them. - Thursday, October 22, to Sunday, October 25: NYU Alumni and Families Weekend. Sunrise is at 7:14 AM on Thursday. No wall around Washington Square lines up with the sunrise this weekend with a clear view. - Friday, October 23: an open house at the nursing college's Joan K. Stout Clinical Learning Simulation Center, 433 First Avenue, about 2 km northeast of Washington Square. Sunrise is at 7:16 AM. - Friday, October 23, evening: faculty talks and a reception for the Stern School's reunion. The search results gave no place. Sunset is at 6:03 PM. Pier 45, on the Hudson about 1.3 km west of the Arch, has the open view of it. Part 2 has the details. - Saturday, October 24: the nursing college's Dean's Leadership Awards Luncheon and keynote at The Library at The Public, 425 Lafayette Street, by Astor Place, and the Stern reunion's luncheon with the Dean. At 2:32 PM the sun stands square to the south face of the Washington Square Arch, about 500 m from The Public. That is the family photo spot below. - Saturday, October 24, evening: the Stern reunion's class celebrations at the Waldorf Astoria New York, in Midtown. Sunset is at 6:02 PM. - Sunday, October 25: the search results list no events. Sunrise is at 7:18 AM and sunset at 6:01 PM. The Arch's south face is lit square on at 2:32 PM. ### Part 1: the campus around Washington Square No campus wall lines up with this weekend's sunrise or sunset with a clear view. The NYU buildings around the square share one street grid, with walls facing 33, 123, 213 and 303 degrees. This weekend the sun meets the east walls head-on between 8:55 and 8:59 AM, 16 to 17 degrees up, and the south fronts at 2:31 or 2:32 PM, about 31 degrees up. It sets at 254 to 256 degrees, well south of the west walls. One campus wall does line up with the low sun: the short west end of Warren Weaver Hall on Mercer Street, 8 m long, at 5:26 PM on Saturday and 5:27 PM on Sunday. Tisch Hall stands in front of it and rises 55 degrees toward the sun. Family photo spot. The Washington Square Arch, from the fountain side. The Arch's south face looks toward the fountain, at 213 degrees, and the sun stands square to it at 2:31 PM on Thursday and Friday and at 2:32 PM on Saturday and Sunday, 31 to 32 degrees up. The face and the piers are lit straight on then, with Fifth Avenue through the opening behind them. Stand the family on the paved plaza between the Arch and the fountain, with their backs to the Arch, and stand south-southwest of them, toward the fountain, with the sun behind you. The buildings on Washington Square South rise no more than 8 degrees from in front of the Arch, well below the sun. The park's trees are not part of that check. The light is high, so faces get short shadows under the brows. Post it with #HengeDays. Computed from the building outline and the sun's position, and not checked on the ground. The campus walls line up in December and June. The east walls on the square's grid face 123 degrees, and the rising sun lines up with them at the horizon in the second half of December. The days and times below are from the Henge Days engine for each wall, computed from the building outline and the sun's position, and not checked on the ground. Each name opens the wall in Henge Days. Each of these walls faces a taller building across a street or a walk. That building stands higher than the sun at the head-on moment, so none of these walls is a stop in this guide. - [Bobst Library](https://hengedays.com/at/40.72943,-73.99722?q=Bobst+Library%2C+New+York%2C+NY&b=osm%2Fway%2F248166208&facade=1&d=2026-12-14), 70 Washington Square South: the east wall, 63 m long, lines up from December 14 to 29, best on Saturday, December 19, at 7:26 AM. The Kaufman Management Center stands in front of it. - [Silver Center for Arts and Science](https://hengedays.com/at/40.73034,-73.99560?q=Silver+Center+for+Arts+and+Science%2C+New+York%2C+NY&b=osm%2Fway%2F248166211&facade=10&d=2027-06-17), the Main Building on Washington Square East: the east wall lines up from December 16 to 27, best on Friday, December 18, at 7:26 AM, with Kimball Hall in front of it. The west front, 58 m long, faces the park. The setting sun lines up with it from June 17 to 24, 2027, best on Thursday, June 17, at 8:28 PM. An apartment tower on Washington Square West, 66 m tall in the map data, stands above the sun then. - [Vanderbilt Hall](https://hengedays.com/at/40.73054,-73.99949?q=Vanderbilt+Hall%2C+40+Washington+Square+South%2C+New+York%2C+NY&b=osm%2Frelation%2F3343762&facade=1&d=2026-12-16), the law school on Washington Square South: the east wall lines up from December 16 to 26, best on Saturday, December 19, at 7:27 AM. Furman Hall stands in front of it. - [Paulson Center](https://hengedays.com/at/40.72657,-73.99748?q=NYU+Paulson+Center%2C+181+Mercer+Street%2C+New+York%2C+NY&b=osm%2Fway%2F247848680&facade=1&d=2026-12-16), 181 Mercer Street: the east wall, 112 m long, lines up from December 16 to 27, best on Friday, December 18, at 7:26 AM. The buildings across Mercer Street stand in front of it. - [Palladium Hall](https://hengedays.com/at/40.73331,-73.98841?q=Palladium+Hall%2C+140+East+14th+Street%2C+New+York%2C+NY&b=osm%2Fway%2F586442726&facade=3&d=2027-05-26), on 14th Street, faces Manhattan's main grid at 299 degrees. Its west wall lines up with the sunset from May 26 to June 3 and from July 8 to 17, 2027. Those are the days of the sunset alignment known as Manhattanhenge, and 14th Street is one of the streets where people gather for it ([PBS NewsHour](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/what-to-know-about-manhattanhenge-and-how-to-see-it)). University Hall stands in front of the wall. *A year of head-on days for every wall of the Silver Center. The pink marks on the ESE 123° row are the December sunrise days, and those on the WNW 302° row the June sunset days.* ### Part 2: Greenwich Village, the East Village and SoHo West of the square, MacDougal Street and Bleecker Street are lined with cafes and restaurants. Christopher Street leads west to Sheridan Square and Christopher Park, across the street from the Stonewall Inn. The park is the center of Stonewall National Monument, established in 2016 as the first national monument to LGBT history ([National Park Service](https://www.nps.gov/npnh/learn/news/fact-sheet-ston.htm)). A few blocks north, the Jefferson Market Library on Sixth Avenue was built from 1874 to 1877 as a courthouse and opened as a branch of the New York Public Library in 1967 ([Museum of the City of New York](https://mappingnyc.mcny.org/o/mcny/c/0109979a-e99c-424b-baaa-5a58889f032c)). East of the square, Astor Place, Cooper Union and The Public are a few minutes' walk along Eighth Street, and St. Mark's Place leads on to Tompkins Square Park. SoHo's cast-iron blocks start south of Houston Street, on Greene Street and Broadway. For Friday's or Saturday's sunset, walk west along Christopher Street to Pier 45 in Hudson River Park, at the foot of Christopher Street and West 10th Street. The sun goes down across the Hudson, over New Jersey, at 255 degrees: 6:03 PM on Friday and 6:02 PM on Saturday. The neighborhood walls that face this weekend's low morning sun are south of Houston Street, in SoHo, Nolita and the Lower East Side, where the street grid turns and east fronts face 105 to 112 degrees. Each faces a taller building across a narrow street at that moment. The east wall of the Puck Building faces a building that rises 61 degrees toward the sun, and the east wall of Saint Patrick's Old Cathedral one that rises 40 degrees. In the Village west of Sixth Avenue, with its own older street angles, the one named wall that lines up is the west end of the Lorraine Hansberry Residence near Sheridan Square. A building in front of it rises 70 degrees toward the sun. ### How the list was made Henge Days computed every named building within 250 to 300 meters of 12 points: Washington Square Park and the Arch, Washington Square East with the Silver Center and the Brown Building, Washington Square South with Bobst Library, the Kimmel Center and Vanderbilt Hall, the Stern School and the Paulson Center on Mercer Street, Tisch School of the Arts on Broadway and Grace Church, Astor Place and Cooper Union, the Palladium on 14th Street, MacDougal and Bleecker Streets, Sheridan Square with Christopher Street and the Jefferson Market Library, St. Mark's Place, Tompkins Square Park, and SoHo's Greene Street and Broadway below Houston. It used OpenStreetMap outlines. The outline service returns at most 200 buildings for one search. In these blocks that reached only 100 to 250 m from each point, so a second pass ran 108 smaller searches on a grid 200 m apart, from Spring Street to 14th Street and from Hudson Street to Avenue B. The two passes fetched 7,829 buildings from 121 searches, counting one more on Clinton Street. Henge Days kept the 19 walls where the sun lines up with the wall within 6 degrees of the horizon on at least one day from Thursday, October 22, to Sunday, October 25. It then traced the sun's path from each wall and dropped the walls where a neighboring building stands higher than the sun. Against the outlines of each wall's own search, 9 walls looked clear, all south of Houston Street. Against every outline fetched for this guide, none did. The last one standing was the east wall of Congregation Chasam Sofer on Clinton Street, on Sunday at 7:55 AM. A search east of it found a building in front that rises 40 degrees toward the sun. Manhattan's main grid above Houston Street runs about 29 degrees east of north, and the blocks around Washington Square about 33 degrees. Their walls face the sun head-on only when it is well up at this time of year. The walls that turn toward 105 degrees stand in narrow streets with taller buildings across them. Trees, bridges and the park's canopy are not part of that check, and the times assume a level horizon. Where a blocking building's outline carries no height, the check assumed 9 m. Every date and time comes from the Henge Days engine for the wall's own bearing, in US Eastern time. ### How to read each entry Each building name above opens the building in Henge Days. The map marks the building's outline from OpenStreetMap, gives every wall its compass bearing, and highlights the wall named in the text. Below it, the Henge days list shows that wall's next days, with a Save button that keeps a day in your planner, and the year chart shows the head-on days for every wall. ### Plan a trip of your own - Search for a building, or tap one on the map, and pick the wall you want lit. Your student's hall works too. - The Henge days list shows the next days the sun lines up with that wall, at the horizon or in golden light, with the time. - The Today tab shows the sun's path for one day and when it is square to each wall. Check the cloud forecast there before you go. - Save a day to your [planner](https://hengedays.com/planner) to get a reminder and a calendar entry, or use [Along a street](https://hengedays.com/route) to find every wall that lines up along one road. Post your picture from the Arch, the Village or the river with #HengeDays. [Find a wall in Henge Days](https://hengedays.com/) [Open your planner](https://hengedays.com/planner) ### Sources - [NYU Stern: Stern Reunion 2026](https://www.stern.nyu.edu/portal-partners/alumni/alumni-events/events/events/stern-reunion-2026) - [NYU Stern: Reunion](https://www.stern.nyu.edu/portal-partners/alumni/alumni-events/reunion) - [NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing: NYU Alumni and Families Weekend 2026](https://nursing.nyu.edu/node/262756) - [National Park Service: Stonewall National Monument fact sheet](https://www.nps.gov/npnh/learn/news/fact-sheet-ston.htm) - [Museum of the City of New York: Jefferson Market Library (formerly Courthouse)](https://mappingnyc.mcny.org/o/mcny/c/0109979a-e99c-424b-baaa-5a58889f032c) - [PBS NewsHour: What to know about Manhattanhenge](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/what-to-know-about-manhattanhenge-and-how-to-see-it) - [Building outlines: OpenStreetMap contributors](https://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright) ### The newsletter Henge Days also has a newsletter. It covers what each release of the site adds and how to use it, and the buildings the #HengeDays community photographs in head-on light. [Read it on Substack](https://hengedays.substack.com/). The address goes to Substack, which sends the email and asks you to confirm. Henge Days does not keep it. --- Every date and time on Henge Days is computed from a building outline in OpenStreetMap and the position of the sun. Nobody has checked it on the ground. Hills, trees and other buildings can block a low sun. Treat each date as a plan to confirm before you travel. See https://hengedays.com/terms.md. Henge Days is free to use; sign in only to save days to a planner. Contact: hello@hengedays.com.