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As part of Meatpacking Design 09, the Meatpacking District will open its doors this weekend and put its architecture on display.

"There is going to be a plethora of design activities in the Meatpacking District," says event organizer Abe Gurko. "We are going to have in stores. You will see models of buildings that will be coming up in the neighborhood over the next few years. We have a pop-up gallery on 14th Street. There are design exhibitions. We have activities for the kids in the Gansevoort Plaza, where kids learn about architecture and design."

Other activities include tours of the High Line, the new Standard Hotel, and a hardhat tour of 450 West 14th Street, also known as the High Line Building. There will also be lectures and exhibitions.

Community organizers say the idea is to share and celebrate the unique architecture and landscape of the Meatpacking District and to explore its future – especially as the High Line nears completion.

"It's interesting because you see a lot of old historic buildings with the cobble stone and now it's being paired up with more modern buildings with clean lines, and not so much the raw meat market sort of spaces," says Ali Jeniskey of the Meatpacking District Initiative. "So it's nice to see how they go together, how they compliment each other in the neighborhood."

In all, 40 different venues throughout the neighborhood will host the various events.

At the Diane Von Furstenberg store, for example, models for the new Whitney Museum will be on display. At the Standard, owner and hotel mogul Andre Balazs will host a lecture. He says the Meatpacking District has become one of the best places in New York to celebrate magnificent design.

"This corridor has become one of the main corridors of interesting architecture in New York," Balzas says. "You've got Richard Meier a few blocks south of here. You've got Frank Gehry and John Nouvel a few blocks north of here. So this is becoming the architectural mile of New York."

Events and cocktail parties will be held all weekend long, Friday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. All the activities are free to the public.

To see the list of what's going on and when, go to Meatpacking-District.com.