New York rewards people who look up. A vintage sign in the East Village, a cast-iron facade in SoHo, the Brooklyn Bridge framed from an elevated track — design is woven into the city itself. Condé Nast Traveler has mapped out a weekend itinerary for aesthetes who've already exhausted the big museum blockbusters, spanning four boroughs with artist houses, stationery shops, vintage Levi's walls and a spa worth photographing.

Uptown is the natural starting point. The Cooper Hewitt, housed in Andrew Carnegie's former mansion, stretches the definition of design across centuries — an Egyptian ceramic from 1100 BCE might share a floor with a Swedish midcentury lamp — and its garden is free to enter with Wi-Fi, no ticket needed. Nearby, the Neue Galerie, devoted to early 20th-century German and Austrian art and furniture by Josef Hoffmann and Adolf Loos, reopens November 12 for its 20th anniversary; until then, its Viennese café, Sabarsky, serves whipped-cream-topped coffee worthy of an intellectual salon. Brutalism fans should book the Paul Rudolph Institute's monthly open house at the all-white Modulightor duplex in Midtown East. Shoppers can hit Upper East Vintage and Designer Revival for second-hand designer pieces, then eat at Marcel 945 Madison inside the Breuer Building, where the walls carry Lichtensteins and de Koonings you can actually buy.

Downtown runs grittier. The Judd Foundation on Spring Street preserves 37 minimalist works in Donald Judd's former home and studio, while the Renee and Chaim Gross Foundation in Greenwich Village displays over 12,000 pieces in the late sculptor's light-filled, lived-in house. Orchard Street is the indie-shopping strip: Colbo for neutrals with espresso, Lara Koleji for vintage Miu Miu, Tumbao for Latin American designers, and Aeon Bookstore, a basement shop strong on Bauhaus coffee-table books. Gem Home on Mott Street doubles as café and gift shop, and Bridges restaurant plates a famous Comté cheese tart in swoon-worthy surroundings.

In Brooklyn, the New York Transit Museum in Downtown Brooklyn lets you tour over 20 vintage train cars and geek out on Massimo Vignelli's 1972 subway map, while Pioneer Works in Red Hole — a red-brick 1866 warehouse — runs art and science programming, currently an octopus-consciousness exhibition by Tuomas A. Laitinen. Front General Store's Outpost is the trusted stop for vintage Levi's; Dream Fishing Tackle in Greenpoint mixes fishing gear with midcentury chairs; Yoseka Stationery stocks Japanese pens and journals. Wind down at Spencer's Spa in Williamsburg, whose Japanese, Art Deco and Scandinavian interiors are as soothing as its facials — or at a listening bar like Eavesdrop.

Queens rounds it out: the Noguchi Museum in Astoria for serene biomorphic sculptures and arguably the city's best museum shop, Socrates Sculpture Park across the street, and MoMA PS1 in Long Island City, housed in a former school and at its best during summer's Warm Up DJ series.

If your idea of a city break involves beautiful objects, thoughtful interiors and a bit of architecture history, this is a weekend plan with real substance — no ticket queues at the big institutions required.