For a tightly local design option, Archtober lists an October 9 tour connected to the Tang Wing for American Democracy at the New-York Historical Society. Check the live event page for exact time and capacity before walking over; the building is the draw, not merely the convenience. Archtober calendar
If Midtown East is workable, Japan Society's Gen’ichirō Inokuma’s NYC Salon has a free public window 5–7 p.m. Inokuma lived in New York from 1955–1975, and he and Fumiko used their apartment as a cross-cultural salon for figures including Jasper Johns, Rauschenberg, Noguchi, Yoko Ono and John Cage. The show uses paintings, photographs, film and ephemera to recover that social infrastructure—not just the finished objects. Japan Society