Could NYC's Aging World's Fair Relic Be The Next High Line?
The New York State Pavilion presides over Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens, New York, like an alien spaceship that's touched down and since been abandoned. The whole structure, while instantly recognizable to locals, is rather mysterious.
12 August 2016
| Lacey Glave
|
via
Fast Co.Design
The New York State Pavilion presides over Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens, New York, like an alien spaceship that's touched down and since been abandoned. The whole structure, while instantly recognizable to locals, is rather mysterious.
The circle of 100-foot columns, topped by a suspended roof made of colorful cables, was designed by Philip Johnson for the 1964-65 World's Fair.
The pavilion hasn't had a proper use since the end of the fair decades ago, and is now a shadow of its former self. But advocates for its restoration compare its architectural significance in New York to Grand Central Station.
In an editorial in the New York Daily News, Matthew Silva, a documentarian and co-founder of the restoration advocacy group People for the Pavilion, wrote: "the thought of demolishing Grand Central Terminal seems ludicrous. I hope that one day we will feel the same way about the New York State Pavilion, when it is restored and we cannot imagine our city without it."
According to a report released by the Parks Department in 2013, restoring the structure would cost the city $53 million, while tearing it down would cost $14 million.
But with the support of the Queens Borough President Melinda Katz — who has secured over $12 million in funding for the Pavilion restoration project — public opinion seems to have landed on revitalizing Johnson's futuristic structure and making it a central public space in Queens, not unlike the High Line was for the West Side of Manhattan.
The circle of 100-foot columns, topped by a suspended roof made of colorful cables, was designed by Philip Johnson for the 1964-65 World's Fair.
The pavilion hasn't had a proper use since the end of the fair decades ago, and is now a shadow of its former self. But advocates for its restoration compare its architectural significance in New York to Grand Central Station.
In an editorial in the New York Daily News, Matthew Silva, a documentarian and co-founder of the restoration advocacy group People for the Pavilion, wrote: "the thought of demolishing Grand Central Terminal seems ludicrous. I hope that one day we will feel the same way about the New York State Pavilion, when it is restored and we cannot imagine our city without it."
According to a report released by the Parks Department in 2013, restoring the structure would cost the city $53 million, while tearing it down would cost $14 million.
But with the support of the Queens Borough President Melinda Katz — who has secured over $12 million in funding for the Pavilion restoration project — public opinion seems to have landed on revitalizing Johnson's futuristic structure and making it a central public space in Queens, not unlike the High Line was for the West Side of Manhattan.
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