Tours Details
Start time: TBD
Duration: 2-4 hour
Meeting Point: TBD
Participants limit: 60
Student Group Architecture & City Tours in New York
Discover New York City with your students through immersive, educational walking tours. Our expert PhD architect guides transform the streets of New York into a living classroom, where history, art, and architecture come alive. Our NYC student group tours are designed for schools, universities, and educational programs that want to explore the city while learning from its iconic buildings and neighborhoods.
Popular Student Group Tours in NYC
Our tours cover iconic NYC neighborhoods and landmarks, each offering unique lessons in architecture, culture, and urban history.
- Financial District & World Trade Center Tour
Explore the birthplace of New York City, from Wall Street to the 9/11 Memorial and World Trade Center. Students learn about resilience, commerce, and the transformation of Lower Manhattan. - Midtown Manhattan Tour
Experience the city’s most famous icons—the Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center, Chrysler Building, and MoMA. This tour reveals how design and ambition shaped Manhattan’s skyline. - SoHo & Greenwich Village Tour
Dive into the heart of New York’s cultural and artistic revolutions. From creative movements to activism and architectural innovation, this tour shows how downtown neighborhoods shaped the city’s identity. - Chelsea & High Line Tour
Walk along the High Line, visit Chelsea Market, and explore Hudson Yards to see how industrial areas have been reimagined into some of NYC’s most innovative urban spaces. - Upper East Side Tour
Discover the elegance of the Gilded Age, Fifth Avenue mansions, and world-class museums, offering students a glimpse into the history of wealth, design, and culture in NYC. - Custom Educational Tours
Looking for a specific focus? We create custom student tours in New York City to align with academic themes—architecture, art history, social change, or urban studies.
Languages
Our student tours are available in English, Spanish, Italian, French, Russian, Bulgarian and Catalan.
Who we work with
Build Tours offers customized architectural and cultural tours designed specifically for student groups visiting New York. We work with institutions from the U.S. and abroad, providing safe, engaging, and academically aligned experiences.
Universities and Colleges
High Schools & Youth Groups
DMCs & Educational Travel Planners
Your PhD Architect Guide
Ivan R. Shumkov, PhD
CEO and Founder
Ivan is a New York based architect, urban planner, entrepreneur, and professor with more than 20 years of experience across the private, public, and academic sectors. He is the founder of Build Tours, Build World and Build Academy, organizations dedicated to providing professional solutions and education for the built environment. He is currnetly a professor of architecture and urban design at Columbia Univeristy GSAPP, and has previously taught at Harvard, NYU, Pratt, Parsons, UIC and UPC Barcelona.
Ivan combines his experience of practicing and teaching architecture with his passion for discovering and sharing the history and secrets of New York. His tours provoke curiosity, show hidden urban gems, and provide opportunities for experiencing and understanding art and architecture in a unique way. He helps his guests to see and connect the city through the eyes of an architect. They are activated and transformed by these immersive experiences and view the city in a new way.
Ivan earned his PhD in Architecture in 2009 at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia and Columbia University GSAPP, as fellow of the Fondation Le Corbusier. He graduated with four masters degrees from ETSA Barcelona, University of Florence, and Harvard University GSD, as a Fulbright scholar.
Ivan is a licensed NYC tour guide. Being fluent in multiple languages, he can conduct tours in English, Spanish, Catalan, Bulgarian, French and Italian.
Why Choose Build Tours for Student Tours in NYC?
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Educational & Engaging: Students discover New York through its architecture, public art, urban spaces, and cultural landmarks—engaging directly with the city’s history and design in a way that sparks curiosity and invites exploration.
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Expert Guides: Our tours are led by architects, historians, and design professionals who make NYC’s architecture and history accessible and exciting.
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Immersive Learning Experience: Our tours combine storytelling, visual observation and discussion to deepen learning and help students engage with NYC.
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Clear & Connected: Every student gets an individual headset so they can hear the guide clearly, even in large groups.
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Tailored to Your Needs: Whether it’s a school field trip or a university program, we design tours to match your student knowledge level, curriculum and goals.
Plan Your Private NYC Tour Today
Book one of our private NYC neighborhood tours to experience and enjoy the architecture, art and design of New York all to yourself.
