The New Queens Museum

Here's a general view of the interior of the newly renovated Queens Museum. Notice the "of Art" has been dropped from its name; this is due in large part to the recognition that the museum building and its collections have an historical relevance as well as an artistic one.

The City of New York IV: I Have Seen the Future

It was with a fair amount of trepidation that I walked from the Shea Stadium (as I will forever refer to it) subway stop on the 7 train through Flushing Meadows-Corona Park to see the recently renovated and re-opened Queens Museum, aka The New York City Building.

I needn’t have feared! As far as this Fair enthusiast is concerned, the New York City Building is better than ever!

Gone from the east façade (the “Fair” side of the building) is that hideous silver drum, that darkroom-type revolving door that hadn’t been used as an entrance for years, anyway. (Photo Here) The original open-air colonnade remains mostly enclosed, but the new unobtrusive and unobstructed wall of glass gives visitors and Fair buffs a much better idea of the structure’s original appearance. So much so that I don’t even mind the panels that have transformed the west façade into a fiber optic light show. The west façade, facing as it does Grand Central Parkway, was never really intended to be the main prospect, anyway; it’s a view many museum visitors still will not notice, unless they arrive by car. 

And what’s really kind of amazing is that while the interior has been expanded with what looks like an enormous barrel-vaulted ceiling, you get no hint of this standing on the ground outside; the roofline remains visibly unaltered, further preserving the original 1939 façade as much as possible. 

Kudos must go to Grimshaw (the architectural firm responsible for the renovation and re-design) partner-in-charge Mark Husser, who said recently in an interview with Architectural Record:

“Our goal for the design was to reinforce the mission of the museum within a historic building that has an architectural quality of its own.”

NY Public Library

Then there’s the uncovering of an original building feature, one that I found terribly TERRIBLY exciting (seriously—my heart skipped a beat!). Stopping briefly in the men’s room, I was immediately struck by what I was certain was an original design element: two sections of blue and orange wall tile. I could, of course, be mistaken, but it LOOKED old, and, as it was not carried throughout the entire room, gave the fragmentary impression of a remnant, rather than a new, conscious design decision. A quick stop at the NYPL’s Web site confirmed my hunch: the photographic evidence speaks for itself, I think. Of course, I shall have to confirm this in the interests of accuracy--Grimshaw Architects did not immediately return my phone call--but I feel fairly confident that my hunch is correct.

Next time we’ll take a look inside the museum…

Jagiello: Poland's Ex-Pat King

The equestrian statue of Poland's King Jagiello is one of Central Park's most imposing monuments.

The first Fair relic I became aware of was the statue of Poland's King Jagiello by Stanislaw Kazimierz Ostrowski which now stands in New York's Central Park. Jagiello, along with dozens of his countrymen and women, became a refugee in 1939 after Hitler’s invasion of Poland and the outbreak of World War II. Interesting is the fact that the park pedestal (not original to The Fair) was designed by Aymar Embury II, architect of the Fair's New York City Building.

City of New York III: The Fountains Mystery

Although the wonderfully detailed architect's model of the New York City Building in the collection of The Queens Museum of Art and photographs from 1939 show working fountains on either side of the building's main entrance, I have never seen any pictures from The Fair during operation that show the fountains actually turned on. Why is that?

Two views of the northwest corner of the building.
Photo above from the New York Public Library.

Also missing in 1939 are the flagpoles. Does anyone know when these were added? My guess is '64, though they could be from the building's days as headquarters to the UN.

City of New York II: The Blob That Ate Queens!

This UNSPEAKABLE HORROR was actually (ACTUALLY!) the winning design for the renovation of the Queens Museum of Art (formerly The City of New York building) a decade ago! 

Someone somewhere said it looked like the building had been bombed during the London Blitz. I think it looks rather more like a giant oozing slime has overtaken the building and dissolved everything it its path! 

Amazingly, the architect still lists this as a "project" at his site. I don't want to name names or besmirch anyone's reputation, but you can read about this "project" here. (WARNING: graphic image.)

THANK GOD the museum had the good sense (to say nothing of taste!) to scrap this plan and start afresh!   

City of New York

Most everyone who knows anything at all about the 1939-40 New York World's Fair in Flushing Meadows knows that only two buildings from The Fair remain in situ.

The first and most important of these is the New York City Building, the only building from The Fair intended to be permanent. Designed by Aymar Embury II, it served as home to the UN from 1946-50 and more recently housed an ice skating rink, now departed, in order to allow expansion by the building's other tenant, The Queens Museum of Art.

This 1939 View of the New York City Building Remains Largely Unchanged Today

This expansion will be completed by the end of next year. In the meantime visitors can view a model of the renovations. The building's future once looked rather precarious, but the current project seems to be a reasonable compromise between the Museum's present needs and a healthy respect for the past. 

We shall see. At least the Museum had the good sense to scrap the bizarrely Solomonic proposal of splitting the building in two down the center!

The New York City Building's Cornerstone