We wanted to expand on our reply to a question Alyssa asked on Wednesday about the framed map shown below:
The piece in the white frame is one of the cards from the City Walks: New York boxed set. City Walks produces compact boxes that each contain 50 walking adventures for a given city. Every card presents a short walking route with a simple map, turn-by-turn directions and interesting notes about landmarks and neighborhoods along the way.
I received the New York set as a gift when I moved there. After we relocated to Richmond I wasn’t sure what to do with the cards, but when we needed inexpensive artwork for our first apartment they felt like a perfect, personal solution. Each roughly 4×6 card fit neatly into budget white frames from IKEA, and the result was a playful collage that quietly celebrated our former city.
We picked eight cards that highlighted neighborhoods and routes that were meaningful to us — places we lived, worked and loved — and framed them together. Those cards have traveled with us ever since we first put them up two years ago, moving through many rooms and arrangements but always keeping that small connection to New York on display.
City Walks publishes editions for a wide range of cities, including Washington DC, Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Paris, London, Rome, Amsterdam, Barcelona and Vancouver. There are also kid-friendly versions and a few focused on smaller regions and villages like Tuscany, Provence and Ireland. Sets typically retail for around $15, which works out to only a few dozen cents per card when used as tiny pieces of art. And if the City Walks team ever wants to develop a Richmond edition, we’d happily contribute route ideas.