I knew there had been a Macy’s in Jamaica before about 1950. And while it is true that the Elmhurst building (afterwards a Stern’s) was especially oriented to car traffic,[1] (being cylindrical with a helical ribbon of parking wrapped five times around) Macy’s Jamaica, an excellent but now forgotten building, had gained public notice almost a generation earlier for providing roof parking accessed by built-in spiraling ramps. Besides, it was an urbane and more than respectable work of art, not merely a clever solution to a problem, nor just a way-station, either, to the suburban tailgate party of the mall in the increasingly city-phobic ‘fifties.Macy’s Jamaica (1947): An Unsung Modernist Masterwork In Queens
Photo from the Brooklyn Rail
3 comments:
There are lots of great interiors destroyed in Queens.
The LIC Savings Bank on Queens Plaza is now a shell ....
check out how the escalator and stairs rose up through a circular opening in the floor. Awesome!
The enthusiasm and exuberance......
and the optimism of post WW II America
is reflected in this interior.
Too bad it's gone.
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