Results tagged “worldsfair”

After the New York State Pavilion at the former World's Fair site gained landmark status, the structure finally started moving towards getting preserved. Now's your chance to help out! The HDC reports that this Saturday and next they're looking for 12-40 volunteers "to help out onsite on... performing a range of activities from removal of invasive vegetation, to the careful and systematic collection and bagging of map fragments that have been dislodged from the floor of the Pavilion." RSVP here, and meet in Flushing Meadows Park at 9 a.m. (further instructions will be sent out prior to meeting).

Whenever there's a story about the site of the World's Fair you can be certain the words neglected and/or deteriorated will be used. Last year the city was criticized for not better preserving the 130' x 166' terrazzo replica of a Texaco New York State road map at the New York State Pavilion. The winter weather dislodged and even cracked panels after a decision not to protect it was made.

The NY State Pavilion on the grounds of the old World's Fair site in Flushing may have just been landmarked, but the Tent of Tomorrow is on the verge of becoming extinct (after all, it was endangered years ago). The Daily News has an update on the area after Queens News obtained a 99-page report through the Freedom of Information Act... and the future isn't looking very bright.

Recently the Scouting NY scout came across The White Mana Diner in Jersey City, which long ago was touted as the "Diner of Tomorrow!" at the 1939 World's Fair in Flushing, Queens. The Scout says "it was designed so that a waiter never had to walk more than 10 feet to get to the grille, cash register, or counter." The establishment sold 10 cent burgers and had curb service—and at the time, it also bragged about being the "Introduction to Fast Food," so we know who to blame now.

The New York State Pavilion, just one part of the decaying 1964 World's Fair in Queens, won state landmark approval! A designation that the Daily News says "opens it to desperately needed rehab grants." (Plans to do something with the site have been in the works for years.) It's also been nominated as a national landmark. In related news, Jenny 8. Lee pens a breathless piece on city landmark status granted to 100 middle-class residential buildings in Queens and on Staten Island; "The bulk of these buildings, 96, are modest century-old three-story buildings in the Ridgewood North Historic District." It looks like everything is coming up Queens today! Perhaps they'll take another gander at Kerouac's old house.

The Unisphere, the once shining centerpiece of the World's Fair, has been so neglected that it's begun to sprout grass through its cracks. The Daily News pointed it out to the Parks Department, who "suspect that bird droppings and leaves collected in the base of the 12-story landmark, providing the perfect conditions for germination when seeds blew in and feasted on rain water."

Last we checked in on the World's Fair site, the 130' x 166' terrazzo replica of a Texaco New York State road map, created in the mid-60s by architect Philip Johnson, was in "advanced disrepair." So much so that the Queens Museum of Art revisited the map in its original glory, as well as the present-day plans to protect it (the Parks Department and UPenn's Historic Preservation program had been working to restore some of the map).

          

Modern Mechanix has an old National Geographic from 1965 with a huge spread on the World's Fair in New York. Step back to the atomic era and see the now-endangered Tent of Tomorrow in its glory days. Not many of these structures and rides exist today, at least not in New York; the giant tire is alive and well in Detroit, and of course, the Walt Disney-created ride, "It's a Small World" is still going -- check out some video of it here.