The New York State Pavilion Opens For 3 Hours
Philip Johnson's 1964 World's Fair Relic Comes Back To Life
April 22, 2014 / Flushing Neighborhood / Queens History / Queens Buzz. The New York State Pavilion was reopened for three hours in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the 1964 - 1965 World's Fair ... and thousands came to see it. An announcement that the structure was named to the National Trust For Historic Preservation was made at the opening.
I had an opportunity to view the NYS Pavilion during the three hours it was open on April 22nd 2014. As mentioned above, the date marked the 50th anniversary of the opening of the 1964 - 1965 World's Fair. The NY State Pavilion was a structure commissioned for the Fair, which was held in Flushing Meadows Corona Park. The New York State Pavilion was built to honor and celebrate all things of New York State.
The complex encompasses three categorical elements: 1) the three observation decks shown in the background of the photo, 2) the Tent of Tomorrow - the inside from which this photo was taken, and 3) the Theaterama, which is shown in the background on the right. The Theaterama had been converted into Queens Theatre In The Park some time ago, and was renovated in 2008.
Interest in the NYS Pavilion began with a pilot project by the NYC Parks Department in 2007. The project was intended to explore its restoration / restore some of it [urban archeology]. And in 2009 a couple of guys decided they wanted to bring it back to life by [re]painting it. Since then, interest in the NYS Pavilion has been gradually gathering steam. Most recently a film maker crowd sourced funding to make a movie about it. And today it was named into the National Trust For Historic Preservation.
Click here for the story about the NYS Pavilion, including many details and a slide show containing photos of the New York State Pavilion.
The New York State Pavilion Opens For 3 Hours
Philip Johnson's 1964 World's Fair Relic Comes Back To Life
April 22, 2014 / Flushing Neighborhood / Queens History / Queens Buzz. Continued. One could not have asked for a better day to briefly open the NYS Pavilion. It was sunny with highs around the 60's & 70's as the New York State Pavilion was opened to the public from 11 am to 2 pm.
I arrived a bit after noon, and the line to get in was backed up from within the center of Flushing Meadows Corona Park back out to 111th Street to the west. It was estimated that about a thousand people had gone through the structure within the first hour and based on my measure of the line, there were likely a couple thousand more waiting to get inside.
The NYC Parks Department provided hard hats along with hair nets, which one had to wear prior to going inside. The structure is now 50 years old, and very little maintenance work has been done to it, so the hard hats were precautionary in the events some paint or stone came loose.
The NYC Parks Department had done a nice job of curating the event, by posting signs along the wall providing a brief bit of history about the structure and its purpose. We photographed those signs which included historic photos and they are included in the slide show below.
The parks personnel also seemed to have been well briefed, as those I spoke to seemed pretty knowledgeable about the structure. Renowned architect, Philip Johnson, of the famous glass house up in New Caanan Connecticut.
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The Queens Theatre In The Park had been renovated during the Marshall Administration in 2008, and the recently renovated Queens Museum of Art was completed in 2013.
The New York State Pavilion Photos & Slide Show
Click here to view the NYS Pavilion photos.
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