Stand at the base of 100 Las Olas, at the corner where the boulevard meets Andrews Avenue, and the building's entrance faces two directions at once. Turn east and the boulevard runs toward the restaurant row that has dominated this fall's local coverage, the string of openings near 500 and 833 E. Las Olas Blvd that's brought steakhouses and Lebanese small plates to the corridor. Turn the other way and you're looking directly at NSU Art Museum, which sits at One East Las Olas Boulevard on the same intersection. One block south, the New River and Riverwalk's park system start.
Most of what gets written about this stretch of downtown points east, toward the dining wave. That's fair coverage, but it skips the half of the block that's actually closer to the tower's front door. Two exhibitions at the museum across the street close in the next week. A monthly free night most residents have never used keeps running after that. And Riverwalk's fall calendar, a block south along the river, is already in motion with dated, mostly free programming through mid-November.
A Building That Faces Two Directions
The geography here isn't a marketing detail. NSU Art Museum's modernist building, designed by architect Edward Larrabee Barnes, opened in 1986 at the corner of Andrews Avenue and Las Olas Boulevard. That's the same intersection 100 Las Olas sits on. The walk from the tower's lobby to the museum's front doors is shorter than the walk to most of the boulevard's new restaurant cluster a few blocks east.
South of that same corner, Riverwalk's district map places Bubier Park directly adjacent to Huizenga Plaza, both part of the roughly two-and-a-half-mile linear park that runs along the New River. That's the corridor where Riverwalk's fall events are staged, and it's reachable from the tower without crossing the boulevard's busier restaurant stretch at all.
Two Shows End the Same Week
NSU Art Museum's current listings show two exhibitions closing October 4, 2026. One is titled Close to Home. The other is a documentation exhibition on Christo and Jeanne-Claude's Surrounded Islands, the artists' well-known 1980s project that wrapped islands in Biscayne Bay in pink fabric. Both have been running through the museum's website since early summer, and both come off the walls the same week.
With today's date at the end of September, that leaves a matter of days, not the usual window of a full season, for anyone who has been meaning to walk across the intersection and hasn't yet. Museums close and rotate shows constantly, but the timing here means whatever the fall's first free evening was supposed to be, it's arriving right as this particular pairing disappears.
The Free Night Most Residents Skip
The museum also runs a standing monthly program called Starry Nights, offering free general admission on the first Thursday of every month along with 2-for-1 wine and craft beer in the museum café. The museum's own materials list the hours two different ways in two different places, once as 4 to 8 p.m. and once as 5 to 8 p.m. Anyone planning around it is better off calling ahead or checking the museum's site the week of, rather than assuming either version.
Unlike the two exhibitions closing October 4, Starry Nights isn't going anywhere. It's a recurring first-Thursday fixture, which means missing this particular closing show doesn't close the door on free evenings at the museum going forward. It just means the current Close to Home and Christo and Jeanne-Claude pairing won't be part of whichever Thursday comes next.
The Calendar Waiting on the River Side
One block south, Riverwalk Fort Lauderdale's confirmed fall schedule runs on its own separate clock, entirely outside the museum's building.
| Dates | Event | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Through Oct. 9 (Wed/Fri, 12–1:30 p.m.) | Tunes on Top | Tunnel Top Plaza |
| Oct. 17, 12–4 p.m. | 10th Annual Riverwalk Fall Festival | Esplanade Park |
| Nov. 7, 3–8 p.m. | 2nd Annual Downtown Day of the Dead | Esplanade Park |
Tunes on Top is a lunchtime concert series that's already underway and wraps the same week the museum's two shows close. The Riverwalk Fall Festival, now in its tenth year, is a free, family-oriented afternoon at Esplanade Park with pumpkin painting and food trucks along the river. The Downtown Day of the Dead event, held in partnership with Revolution Live and Backyard Ft. Lauderdale, is only in its second year but follows the same free, Esplanade Park format.
None of these require a car, a reservation, or a walk toward the boulevard's busier restaurant stretch. They're staged along the same short river corridor that starts at Bubier Park, a block from the tower.
What Changes This Week, Specifically
The dining wave two and three blocks east has earned its attention this fall, and it's not going anywhere. But the calendar that's actually closest to 100 Las Olas runs in the other direction, and right now it's split between something ending and something just getting started. Two shows at the museum across the street close October 4. A monthly free night keeps running after that, on whichever Thursday version of the schedule turns out to be correct. And a river corridor a block south is already midway through a dated fall season that doesn't ask for a reservation or a walk toward the noise.
For anyone who's lived at 100 Las Olas long enough to take the view for granted, this is the week the building's quieter side is doing more than the loud one.
If you're weighing a move into 100 Las Olas, already call the tower home, or you're curious what a unit here is actually worth in today's market, the team at D'Angelo Realty Group knows this exact corner of Las Olas and Andrews as well as any brokerage in Fort Lauderdale.
