On the southeast corner of 86th Street, you’ll see the Neue Galerie, an elegant Beaux-Arts mansion by Carrere & Hastings commissioned in 1914 by industrialist William Starr Miller; for nine years it was the residency of Grace Wilson Vanderbilt, widow of Cornelius Vanderbilt III. It now houses a definitive collection of early 20th-century Austrian and German Expressionist art. That it does so with such aplomb is due to the expertise of the restoration’s architect, Annabelle Seldorf, and the generosity of cosmetics heir and benefactor Ronald Lauder, who also purchased the gem of the collection, a shimmering portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer by Gustav Klimt, for the most money paid for a single work of art: over $140 million.

As you walk north, you will pass the neo-Renaissance No.1060, one of nine luxury apartment houses in the neighborhood, designed by architect J. E. R Carpenter.

Next door is the oldest apartment building on our stretch, the exquisite 1917 French Gothic No.1067, designed by C. P. H. Gilbert. 1067 Fifth Avenue was the second luxury apartment building to be built on the entire avenue (after McKim, Mead & White’s 1910 No. 998 on 81st Street).

At 2 East 88th Street the sleekly Moderne apartment house, designed by Pennington & Lewis in 1930, is topped with piers bearing enormous stone heads resembling Greek goddesses; for best-viewing step across Fifth Avenue.

Instantly recognizable is Frank Lloyd Wright’s iconic Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the showcase for modern art that stretches between 88th and 89th Streets. Its vigorous 1959 coil is offset by a self-effacing blond slab by Gwathmey Siegel, which caused an uproar when unveiled to the public in 1992. Today the museum complex elicits no adverse commentary, and welcome restoration work underscored the institution’s rightful spot on the National Register for Historic Places. Popular, too, is the museum’s airy café and lively shop; its underground theater hosts a variety of programs.

A few steps north, at 1083 Fifth Avenue, the suave Beaux-Arts Archer M. Huntington House. The building was modified in 1915 by Ogden Codman, Jr. (a neo-Renaissance wing was added at No. 3 East 89th Street) co-author of the influential. In 1940, Archer Huntington donated his home at 1083 Fifth Avenue to the National Academy of Design, for its headquarters, and Archer and Anna moved to Pelham Bay Park in the Bronx. Dedicated to American art, the academy maintained an active art school next door, at 5 East 89th Street. Painters of an en plein air persuasion were often seen with their art supplies as they headed towards the Engineers' Gate. The Engineers' Gate provides access to Carnegie Hill’s bucolic “backyard,” Central Park, and the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir. Lingering nearby, shaded by trees, stands a statue of Fred Lebow, founder of the New York Road Runners Club, which is quartered at 9 East 89th Street. His spirit presides over the annual New York Marathon, as well as many other local road races for worthy causes.

At the stair to the reservoir is a bust of John Purroy Mitchel, at 34 New York City's youngest mayor, from 1914 to 1918. Shortly after his term ended, while training for World War I, Mitchell fell from an Army Air Force plane, apparently from having neglected to fasten his seat belt. In the wall at 91st Street is a bas-relief monument to W. T. Stead, a renowned British journalist who died on the Titanic, while, it is said, reading and smoking a cigar in the First Class smoking room.

The prominence and influence of the owners of the exuberantly detailed Andrew Carnegie Mansion, designed by Babb, Cook & Willard in 1903, gave the neighborhood its name. Straddling the block from 90th to 91st, the Carnegie complex, now the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum includes two landmarked mansions on East 90th Street, the Beaux-Arts McAlpin Miller house at No. 9 and the McAlpin-Minot at No. 11. It also embraces one of the few grand enclosed gardens in the city.

At 91st Street is a second magnificent dwelling by C. P. H. Gilbert, the Italian Renaissance Otto Kahn mansion, now the Convent of the Sacred Heart.

The Otto Kahn Mansion is followed by 1107 Fifth Avenue, an apartment house designed in 1925 by Rouse & Goldstone for Marjorie Merriweather Post Hutton to house her 54-room triplex "mansion in the sky;" a separate entrance on 92nd Street led to her private elevator.

Next up the Avenue are the spires and finials of a third C.P.H. Gilbert masterpiece, the 1908 Felix and Frieda Warburg mansion, now the Jewish Museum. Since 1963 was linked to an eye-sore of an addition. In a skillfully 1993 "restoration" the architect Kevin Roche seamlessly appended gallery space, creating a facade to echo the French Gothic Chateau style of the original exterior.

Two neo-Renaissance J.E.R. Carpenter buildings, 1115 and 1120 Fifth Avenue stand across from each other on 93rd Street and are commonly referred to as "twins," although close scrutiny will reveal their distinct personalities.

At 94th Street stands 1130 Fifth Avenue, the 1915 neo-Georgian mansion designed by Delano & Aldrich for Willard and Dorothy Payne Whitney Straight. Now a private residence, it formerly housed the International Center for Photography.

Continuing north you will spot a diminutive J.E.R. Carpenter building at 1143, and two more imposing Carpenters, 1148 and 1150 Fifth Avenue, at the north and south corners of 96th Street.

Cross Fifth Avenue and check out the pocket park at 97th Street: Presiding over the tiny space is a full-size copy of a self-portrait of Albert Bertel Thorvaldsen, with a hammer in hand. The Danish/Icelandic sculptor's claim to fame in the United States is his "Resurrected Christ" which was replicated on Temple Square in Salt Lake City.

Two final Carpenter apartment houses, 1165 and 1170 Fifth Avenue tip their elegant hats - and canopies - to each other across 98th Street. If you are in the mood to continue, walk up to the Museum of the City of New York at 103rd Street and the Museo Del Barrio at 104th Street; both are well worth your time. For a final treat and delightful respite, discover the magnificent three-part Conservatory Garden, entered through the Vanderbilt Gates at Fifth Avenue and 105th Street.