From Eyeful to Eyesore: Book Traces Queens' New York State Pavilion's Decline by Nicholas Hirshon - NY Daily News

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The New York State Pavilion in Flushing Meadows Corona Park.

One of Queens's most enduring symbols - the New York State Pavilion - has crumbled its way onto the bookshelf.

A California engineer has compiled a photographic history that he hopes will "raise the level of shame" by documenting the pavilion's decades-long transformation from attraction to eyesore.

Christian Kellberg, 58, said his book proves that the city Parks Department can save the decaying landmark, which was built in 1964 - with a little vision.

"Somebody ought to put their creative thinking cap on," said Kellberg, an aerospace engineer who grew up in Flushing. "It's not really a question of laying blame. It's how we move forward."

Armed with dozens of colorful shots, Kellberg self-published the book, "The New York State Pavilion: An Enduring Landmark," on www.blurb.com, where it's now available for $33.

The author, who is searching for a publisher, said he wants to "introduce the right amount of shame to spur somebody into action." But, he added, "You don't want to advertise that it's a living wreck and should be torn down."

The Parks Department recently commissioned its second study in two years on the structural stability of the pavilion, which is located in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park.

Among Kellberg's supporters is John Piro, 61, of Westbury, L.I., a pavilion fan who earned city approval last year to repaint the red-and-white stripes and yellow band on the building's exterior.

Piro said documenting the pavilion's past in a book makes the case for restoration.

"It's an icon now, just like the Unisphere," Piro said, adding that he wants to paint more come spring.

Kellberg also included pictures he took at the pavilion during the 1977 filming of "The Wiz," a musical which starred Diana Ross and Michael Jackson.

He said he snapped the images - which show an "Oz" sign and blue spherical balls lining the top of the Tent of Tomorrow rotunda walls - after sneaking into an off-limits pavilion tower.

"Nobody kicked me out, so I walked in as I usually do, and beg forgiveness later if I get caught," he said with a laugh.

Kellberg also secured sketches and photos of architectural models from George Capsis, 82, of the West Village, whose design firm created exhibits for the pavilion.

"A lot of this stuff is forgotten," Capsis said. "It's valuable, important that we do have books that preserve something so unique as a world's fair."

Elevators from World's Fair Pavilion Get the Shaft as City Lets Them Rot Away in Flushingby Nicholas Hirshon - NY Daily News

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The New York State Pavilion has been suffering from the ravages of time and weather over the past few decades. Noonan for News

Futuristic elevators from a World's Fair landmark now lie shattered in a weed-strewn pile in Queens - two years after the city promised to protect the historic lifts, the Daily News has learned.

The SkyStreak pods from the New York State Pavilion are rotting in a jumble of twisted parts - a far cry from the 1964-1965 expo, when they soared to the highest point of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park.

"It looks like a trash can," said Richard Post, who leads World's Fair tours of the park. "They're ravaged. They're garbage."

After the fair ended in 1965, the steel-and-glass capsules were left at the mercy of decay and vandals - as one rusted away in a pit beneath the pavilion, and the other was stuck mid-rise at 150 feet.

The city Parks Department stripped the pods off their cables in July 2008, fearing parts might blow off in strong winds. At the time, both were largely intact.

The agency's historic preservation director, John Krawchuk, said then that the city was retaining the elevators so they "could easily be replicated" in the future.

He said the SkyStreaks would be crucial if the city ever decided to restore the decaying pavilion.

"The goal is to remove it whole, not to damage it in any way," Krawchuk told The News at the time, calling the elevators "very important features to the original design" of the site.

But park advocate Greg Godfrey noticed on Sunday that the chain-link gate around the fallen elevators was open - and then saw the damage to the lifts.
He immediately alerted a Parks enforcement patrol officer. When The News checked the site on Monday, the gate remained unlocked - with only a loosely tied string to keep it closed.

"It looks like all the structural integrity was destroyed," said Godfrey, president of the Flushing Meadows-Corona Park World's Fair Association.
The News confirmed the capsules' poor state. But Parks Department spokeswoman Trish Bertuccio insisted Tuesday that "no changes have been made to the condition" of the elevators.

Historians contended the city's neglect of the SkyStreaks matched a decades-long pattern at the pavilion.

"It's really sad and makes me very angry, but how can you be surprised given their attitude toward that building?" asked Bill Young, who has co-written two World's Fair books.

"They have consistently failed to come through," he said.

No, I Am NOT the Borough Historian by Jeffrey A. Kroessler - Historic Districts Council Newsstand

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I applied to be the borough historian of Queens because I thought, oddly enough, that the post should be held by an urban historian. After all, I earned a Ph.D. in urban history, and my dissertation was a history of Queens. I authored the article on the borough in the Encyclopedia of New York State, and rewrote and updated the entry for the second edition of the Encyclopedia of New York City, as well as dozens of other entries about Queens. I wrote the centennial history of the Queens Borough Public Library and co-authored Historic Preservation in Queens. I’ve written quite a bit about Robert Moses and his parks and highways, and my latest book, The Greater New York Sports Chronology, naturally features quite a bit about Queens.

But no, I want to make clear that I am NOT the borough historian.

Jack Eichenbaum is the borough historian. He is an urban geographer, not a historian. He leads interesting and popular walking tours. But as he revealed in a recent interview with the Daily News, he has absolutely no interest in historic preservation, and is sadly misinformed about the role of landmarking in keeping New York a livable city.

Perhaps I am not the borough historian because I am an uncompromising advocate for historic preservation. My wife and I live in the Sunnyside Gardens Historic District, and we worked hard to have our neighborhood designated. As a historian, I was well positioned to counter the misinformation put forward by opponents of designation.

I am disturbed that the man appointed the new borough historian wants to take the history out of historic preservation, calling the designation of historic districts a “frozen-in-time” approach. “A lot of historic districts are just so fussy,” he told the Daily News reporter. This statement displays both a profound ignorance of how landmark designation protects a neighborhood and contempt for those residents of the borough who are working toward such designation in places like Addesleigh Park. Such remarks belong to the Donald Manes era, not today.

Sadly, Mr. Eichenbaum is poised to continue the ineffective pattern set by his predecessors, Hank Ludder and Stanley Cogan. During their tenure, stretching from Donald Manes through Claire Shulman to current Borough President Helen Marshall, preservationists could expect precious little help from Borough Hall. Indeed, quite often we encountered outright opposition. I can recall no instance when the Queens borough historian took a proactive – or even a reactive – role in preservation battles. Actually, I can recall no instance when any of the five borough historians took up the cause of preservation.

I fought to save the Aquacade from the 1939 World’s Fair in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. There was not a peep of support from Stanley Cogan as Claire Shulman had it demolished. In keeping with that tradition, I doubt we will hear anything from our new borough historian about the importance of protecting the 1850s Ridgewood Reservoir, arguably the most important undesignated place in Queens today. I expect he could lead a tour along the terminal moraine through Forest Park to the reservoir, but I cannot imagine him speaking against the Parks Department plan to install playing fields covered with artificial turf where there is now a thriving wetland. It seems it would be enough to point out that where the playing fields are was once Brooklyn’s water system. Oh well.

Mr. Eichenbaum makes clear he will not work to save “just every old building.” We ought to ask, will he fight to save ANY old building? I for one do not think it is enough to point out the site where St. Savior’s used to be, or where the Aquacade once stood, or where Flessel’s once was. In this regard, Borough President Helen Marshall seems to be more in tune with the temper of her constituents. As she told the Daily News, when people see the history in their own neighborhoods, “they don’t want it to be destroyed.” That was the genesis of walking tours, actually, to bring greater awareness of the historic resources around us and feed the movement to preserve them. They were not born to foster antiquarianism.

The New York State Constitution mandates that every county appoint a historian, a post that is both official and symbolic. His is the voice for the historic resources of the borough, and surely that includes the built environment. Silence sends the wrong message. Instead of fighting to preserve historic sites so treasured by the people of Queens, the new borough historian will install a display of old things in Borough Hall. Now that’s a “frozen-in-time” approach.

Jeffrey A. Kroessler is a member of the HDC Board of Directors.

Saving Boro's 7 Wonders: Landmark Effort to Preserve News' 'History in Peril' Sites by Nicholas Hirshon - NY Daily News

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A Flushing museum is unveiling an exhibit and launching a series of tours and lectures on Sunday to push the city to landmark significant Queens sites profiled last year in the Daily News' History in Peril series.

The display at the Queens Historical Society at 143-35 37th Ave. will serve as the starting point for a 1 p.m. bus ride past seven structures from the series, followed by a cautionary tale about two lost icons from the 1939 World's Fair.

None of the seven structures - such as the former homes of writer Jack Kerouac, baseball icon Jackie Robinson and Malcolm X - have been designated landmarks, leaving them at risk of major alterations or even demolition.

"It's bringing to light a lot of places that have either been forgotten or people didn't know existed," said Danielle Hilkin, the society's outreach coordinator.

Lisi de Bourbon, a spokeswoman for the city Landmarks Preservation Commission, promised to alert the panel's 11 members about the exhibit, tours and lectures.

The exhibit, which will run through September. will be accompanied by three tours, held the last Sundays of April, May and June.

The post-tour talk on May 31 will focus on Kerouac, who lived in Ozone Park in the 1940s, while the June 28 edition will highlight Woodhaven Lanes, a shuttered bowling alley in Glendale.

The exhibit features rare memorabilia like a bookshelf from a library where Kerouac planned his "On the Road" trip.

Also on display will be mementos from the 1939 and 1964 World's Fairs, both held in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park.

The 1939 collection includes pins depicting the iconic 610-foot-tall Trylon and 180-foot-wide Perisphere - which were demolished after the fair closed and will be the focus of Sunday's lecture by historian Pierre Montiel.

"People should realize Queens has a history," Montiel said. "If you keep tearing it all down, you won't really have a history."

The most prominent remaining structure from the 1939 fair is the New York City Building - also not landmarked - an early headquarters for the United Nations.

Other tour sites include the Ridgewood Theatre, which opened in 1916 and was the nation's longest continuously operating movie house until it closed in March 2008.

To RSVP for the tours, call the Queens Historical Society at (718) 939-0647, extension 17.

Parks Plans Broad Changes at Flushing Meadows by Jeremy Walsh - YourNabe.com

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Photo Credit: http://www.rockpaperscissors.biz/rps-media/Unisphere.jpg

The changes coming to Flushing Meadows Corona Park in the next decade will be sweeping and may include tearing down the rusting observation towers at the New York State Pavilion, Borough President Helen Marshall’s office said.

The city Parks Department recently completed its strategic framework plan for the park, projecting what may be in store 10 years from now.

But the plan was ambivalent about the aging elements of the 1964 World’s Fair. “The Unisphere, the Queens Museum and Theater in the Park and the New York State Pavilion, will be retained and restored to define the Park’s importance as a cultural destination,” the report says at one point.

Yet farther down, the urban architects seemed skeptical about the investment.

“We agree with the World Monuments Fund report that the NYS pavilion be stabilized and restored,” they wrote. “However, none of this work makes sense without a clear idea about its role in the future conceptual framework of the Park.”



“A report assessing the condition of the Pavilion is due in the next few months, but Dan Andrews, Marshall’s spokesman, said she is leaning toward taking the rusting observation towers down “in the wake of the current economic climate and the lack of funding that would be somewhat prohibitive to restore them in any way.”

The plan identifies three major strategies to pursue over the long term: renovating the core area of the park where the World’s Fairs took place; reconfiguring and restoring the park’s two lakes; and reconnecting the park to the surrounding neighborhoods.

The World’s Fair Core proposal would create a greener landscape with more varied topography, less paved surface and a new public gathering space at the spot where the “now dysfunctional Fountain of the Planets” sits. The proposal also calls for the Flushing River to be reopened to create a continuous ribbon of water through the park.

Marshall supports the plan, Andrews said. “She thinks it’s progress,” he said.

But one preservationist group is upset with the direction the plan proposes.

“They’re going to rip out the central fountain axis between the fountain and the Queens Museum,” said Greg Godfrey, president of the Flushing Meadows Corona Park World’s Fair Association. “If they get rid of that, they destroy the World’s Fair core.”

Godfrey also criticized the plan’s suggestion of creating more reinforced grassy areas to serve as overflow parking.

“It’s a joke,” he said. “They can’t even maintain the fields they have now with real grass.”

It may be some time before the park sees any of the major renovations discussed in the plan, however. Rebuilding the World’s Fair Core and dredging the lakes would cost roughly $60 million, the consultants found.

Andrews said the Parks Department suggested moving ahead with the more minor improvements the plan envisions.

“If we start with the smaller items, we can move as the situation of the economy improves with the much bigger ticket items,” he said.

The report does note that more studies are needed to analyze the park’s drainage system, signs and access points, which would cost roughly $2 million. The architects found that the park’s drainage was inadequate and exacerbated by large swaths of asphalt and other hard surfaces left over from the World’s Fairs. They also found that the access points and signs were confusing.

Reach reporter Jeremy Walsh by e-mail at jwalsh@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 154.