Happy Valentine's Day from the NYC Parks Dept

From AM-NY:

Decorative fountains built more than 50 years ago for the World’s Fair at Flushing Meadows-Corona Park are getting a new life — and new purpose — as part of a $5 million renovation next year.

The Fountain of the Fairs, part of the majestic water displays constructed for the 1964-65 World’s Fair, will be transformed into playful spray showers and mists where kids can cool off during the summer.

It will be a return to glory for the empty fountains, which Robert Moses designed to cascade from the Unisphere to the Rocket Thrower statue. The fountains were up and running after an extensive renovation in 2000, but broke within a few years and were later damaged in flooding from superstorm Sandy.

The city Department of Parks and Recreation decided to find a way to revamp them, setting up community meetings and listening sessions in 2015 and 2016 to figure out the best use of the space.

The community overwhelmingly asked for more water options, according to Janice Melnick, the administrator of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park.

Another World's Fair a-comin'?

We're a startup working to organize the first U.S. Worlds Fair since 1984. Here's our website: worldsfairusa.com.

We're currently organizing a mini two-day Worlds Fair in August in NYC. It's not in Queens (the venue is in Chelsea), but I thought it might an interesting story for your readers to learn about given the Worlds Fair history in Queens. The event's website is here: worldsfairnano.com

Should you care to talk I'd love to have it included as we're working to raise awareness for it. You can also check it out on facebook by typing in "Worlds Fair Nano." I doubt there's anything with a similar name on FB to confuse it!

Thanks,
Michael Weiss
Worlds Fair USA
Founder
www.worldsfairusa.com

"Leading an effort to organizing the
first U.S. Worlds Fair since 1984"
Check us out in Bloomberg Businessweek
Follow us on Facebook

The Fair in full color

From Gothamist:

This 25-minute film features stunning footage in full color from the 1939-40 World's Fair. The footage was taken from some of the remaining attendees of the Fair, and one man explains he was 24 years old when he finally went on the final day. "I don't know what possessed me, but I decided to buy 400-feet of 16mm color, and color had just come out. I walked my feet off taking pictures.

Happy Friday.

Parks can't keep kids out of FMCP towers

From A Walk in the Park:

Four more teens were caught sneaking up into the Worlds Fair towers NYC Park Advocates has learned.

When Park Enforcement officers arrived this time they found the gate wide-open and the flimsy lock missing. The rusted metal door that leads to the deteriorated staircase was also wide open and the small lock was nowhere to be found.

"The locks magically disappeared," said an officer at the scene.

The kids from nearby Bowne High School made it as far as the first observation deck - 126 feet in the air - Tuesday afternoon at 3:00pm when officers surprised them.

PEP officers detain four teens 126 feet in the air one of the three Worlds Fair Astro Towers observational platforms.

"It's very dangerous up there," an officer said.

"One slip and it's all over.

The officer said one teen mentioned he saw photos people had taken on instagram from the site.

Two 15-year olds and 16-year old were given trespassing summons.

Another 16-year old, who had multiple ID's belonging to other people and a bank card belong to someone else, was arrested.

A long way up to tag!

From A Walk in the Park:

Five knuckle-headed teens were busted hanging out and doing graffiti 226 feet in the air on the observation deck of the Worlds Fair's iconic Astro Towers NYC Park Advocates had learned.

Two girls and three boys broke into the towers and made their way to the very top, spray painting tags along the way.

Two eagle-eyed park cops on patrol in Flushing Meadows Corona Park spotted several figures from about a half mile away walking around the rusted flying saucer-like structures at approximately at 3:30pm on Sunday.

Officers had to use a make-shift ladder made of electrical cords in order to reach the highest peak of observation deck to reach the teens.

Revising history

Oh, Julissa, the first World's Fair was NOT held at Flushing Meadows, but there were 2 of them held there.

World's Fair plans are a long way off

From the Times Ledger:

One of the main advocates of a new World’s Fair is John Catsimatidis, a longtime, successful, New York City businessman. He has a radio talk show on 970 AM every Sunday morning from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. involving politics and current events.

Catsimatidis points out that the means of travel were improved especially during the second World’s Fair in the city. There were improvements made in subways, highways and bridges and most other forms of public transportation.

He believes the fairs present a vision of what the future can be like. He would like to see a future fair concentrate on technology. It could bring into focus the possible achievements of the free enterprise system.

Catsimatidis indicated that a new World’s Fair would bring many thousands of jobs to the city in addition to helping the retail sales operation increase the amount of business in stores, restaurants and places of entertainment.

It will be a long time before a new World’s Fair can be put into operation, however. Estimates run as high as 10 years from now. Catsimatidis has been in touch with the governor’s staff about setting up a committee to study the possibility of a future World’s Fair.

The World's Fair 75 years ago

What's left of the 1964 World's Fair

From the NY Times:

All paths once led to the Unisphere, a magnet for the masses.

As the symbolic center of the 1964 New York World’s Fair, in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, Queens, the 140-foot-tall globe drew 51 million people to its fountains in 12 bustling months over two years.

Visitors came there on honeymoons or first dates. Some found their way in through well-worn holes in the fence, or rode the subway alone for the first time. Others came to work, or came to protest.

Fifty years ago on April 22, the first fairgoers arrived to see the future. Little did they know, then, how one trip to the fair — or dozens — would affect their own lives.

Few of the physical structures remain. The renovated Queens Museum occupies the cavernous New York City Pavilion, first built for the 1939 World’s Fair and still housing the diorama of New York created for the ’64-’65 one. The Philip Johnson-designed New York State Pavilion is rusting with neglect. The Singer Bowl has morphed into Louis Armstrong Stadium, where United States Open tennis matches are played every summer.

Only the 700,000-pound, stainless-steel globe stands untarnished by time and enhanced by memory.

"The World of Tomorrow"

Click photo to see a video about the history of the 1939 World's Fair, including some of the last video footage of the Aquacade before Claire Shulman had it torn down.

Catsimatidis willing to pay to restore NYS Pavilion

From the Daily News:

Billionaire World’s Fair buff John Catsimatidis said he is willing to crack open his checkbook and help the crumbling New York State Pavilion for the right “visionary” project.

“I’ve certainly been there ready and able to write a check,” Catsimatidis, a former Republican mayoral candidate and supermarket magnate, told The News on Friday. “I can make it happen. But you need people who have dreams.”

Catsimatidis, who wore a tie featuring the iconic image of the Unisphere, made his comments at the Queens Museum after a press conference Friday to announce a line-up of activities to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the 1964 World’s Fair and 75th anniversary of the 1939 World’s Fair.

Public access to Pavilion on April 22

From the Times Ledger:

The New York State Pavilion will be open to the public for the first time in a generation to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the 1964 World’s Fair April 22 — for one day only.

The iconic venue had been closed off to the public since 1987 but, thanks to the efforts of two self-described history nerds, visitors will once again gain entry between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.

On April 22, the curious will be able to get an up-close look. RSVPs are not required and visitors will have to wear hard hats, which will be provided.

Melinda talks tourism, Pavilion, transportation, development, Sandy and soccer

You'll notice that she talks about the Rockaways being vulnerable during future storms, but then says it's a great place for new development.

Do these people ever learn?

FMCP mosaics back to looking like crap

Here's the 1964 mosaic of the NYS Pavillion. If Parks can't even fix this properly, why should we expect them to repair the actual structure?
Below is a mosaic by Salvador Dali.
He's likely rolling over in his grave.
The Hall of Science mosaic appears to be intact.
So does the one representing the NYC Building.
Wait a minute...I typed too soon. There's an ugly dark cloud over today's Queens Museum!
The Queens Museum of ART is inside the park, yet they allow these mosaics to sit in this condition? For shame.

Photos by Nick Normal

Previous coverage of the blighted mosaics can be read here.

Melinda Katz, preservationist?

From the Times Ledger:

Borough President Melinda Katz joined a activist-driven push to return the long neglected New York State Pavilion to its former glory Thursday.

“The right direction is to preserve and save this for generations to come, to make it a useful part of the park,” Katz said to a group of elected officials, community leaders and Parks Department employees at Queens Theatre in the Park, before leading them on a walk through the grounds of the site of the 1964 World’s Fair.

The Pavilion in Flushing Meadows Corona Park was designed by renowned architect Philip Johnson and is comprised of three observation towers, the largest of which is 226 feet high.

Katz led the group past the towers and into the Tent of Tomorrow, which has 16 100-foot pillars that one-time supported a 50,000-square-foot roof. That area is now closed off to the public.

Parks Department officials recently released estimates of $14 million to demolish the Pavilion and more than $52 million to preserve it.

Katz said $14 million should not be used to tear the Pavilion down and if anything could be used as a base in the preservation initiative.

“I don’t want to give anyone the impression that I or any or the elected officials know exactly what we want to do here. I think the one thing we want this to be is a collaborative effort through all of the community groups,” Katz said. “It’s not going to happen in a day, but if we don’t start the process, it’s never going to happen,”

The borough president said her office will soon start to hold monthly task force meetings for the project.

From the Queens Chronicle:

With the Tent of Tomorrow and Observation Towers, the two rusting icons of the 1964-1965 World’s Fair, behind her, Borough President Melinda Katz officially called for the preservation of the structures on Thursday, just months before the 50th anniversary of the global gathering the pavilion was built for.

Joined by Assembly members Marge Markey (D-Maspeth) and Michael Simanowitz (D-Flushing), Deputy Borough President Leroy Comrie, Parks Department representatives, various community board leaders from across the borough and the three-man People for the Pavilion preservation group, Katz emphatically declared her wish to see the pavilion saved while on a walking tour of the site.

“My hope in being here today with everyone, and for causing some notice for this, is to try and bring these groups together and I felt like there needed to be a push in getting folks in a direction,” Katz said. “I think we all know the right direction. The right direction is to preserve [the pavilion] and save this for generations to come to make it a useful part of the park and to make sure it doesn’t fall down on people around it.”

In addition to just voicing her support for the movement, Katz also said that a task force dedicated to brainstorming ideas and uses for the site will be created within the next month.

The group will meet either once a month, “or at least quarterly,” at Borough Hall, according to Katz, and will be made up of the Borough President’s Office, community board leaders, the Parks Department, elected officials, historical groups and People for the Pavilion, although Christian Doran says his group has yet to receive a formal offer to join the task force.

To tear it down or fix it up?

From the Daily News:

The city needs $52 million to save the New York State Pavilion and restore the deteriorating iconic ruin of the 1964-65 World’s Fair to its original glory, officials revealed Monday night.

But tearing it down would cost just $14 million.

Parks Department officials told outgoing Queens Borough President Helen Marshall, elected officials and community board leaders that they have not decided what to do with the structure, which includes the Tent of Tomorrow and three observation towers that have been shuttered for decades.

“They are in need of repair but they are not immediately falling down,” said Queens Parks Commissioner Dorothy Lewandowski. “So we have time to have some really reasonable dialogue.”

Lewandowski said the city’s new report on the site includes several engineering studies and ambitious conceptual plan that could cost at least $72 million.

Other options include shoring up the site so it could remain as a ruin similar to the 19th century smallpox hospital on Roosevelt Island for a cost of $43 million.

If we can pay $100M for Donald Trump's golf course, why can't we pay to restore the Pavilion? Or better yet, why not use the funds from Julissa's new Flushing Meadows conservancy to repair it?

World's Fair artifacts at Queens Museum

From the NY Times:

ON April 22, 1963, John F. Kennedy, sitting in the Oval Office, pressed the numbers 1964 on an early touch-tone telephone. It was an exciting, if stage-managed, moment.

At the other end of the line, the directors of the New York World’s Fair were gathered in their offices in what is now called Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. At the press of the presidential buttons, a large “countdown clock” began ticking off the days remaining until the opening of the 1964 New York World’s Fair one year hence.

The telephone now sits on a shelf at the newly renovated Queens Museum, pulled out of storage along with about 900 other artifacts from the 1939 and 1964 fairs. They serve as a reminder that the building itself is a kind of artifact, built to house the New York City Pavilion at the 1939 fair. They also remind us that the great fairs generated an extraordinary amount of junk.

Yes, the world’s fairs communicated lofty ideals and grand plans. The 1939 fair promised a sneak preview of “the world of tomorrow,” expressed visually in its emblem, the spirelike Trylon and spherical Perisphere. The 1964 fair took as its motto “peace through understanding.” But the fairs were carnivals, too, vast cornucopias of trinkets, promotional ephemera and mass-produced gewgaws emblazoned with fair advertising.

And so the eye beholds, in the glass display cases devoted to the 1939 fair: a tin Planter’s peanut dish, with the monocled Mr. Peanut posing jauntily in front of the Trylon and Perisphere; tiny green pickle lapel pins from the Heinz pavilion; an orange-and-blue Trylon and Perisphere salt and pepper shaker set; a Trylon and Perisphere pencil sharpener; Trylon and Perisphere bracelets in lustrous Bakelite; a 1939 New York State license plate stamped with the words “New York World’s Fair.” Also, many coins, penknives, dishes, bookmarks and thermometers.

$1.5M to study the Passerelle

From the Daily News:

Many visitors to Flushing Meadows-Corona Park will find themselves crossing a rundown wooden walkway, but few will be aware of its significance.

It’s the Passerelle Pedstrian Bridge, and it is a little-known portion of Queens’ past. And now, the 74-year-old connector is slated to receive a major overhaul.

The city is conducting a $1.5 million, 18-month assessment of the World’s Fair-era wooden esplanade, which leads riders of the 7 train into Flushing Meadows-Corona Park near the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, officials said.

The years have not been kind to the heavily trafficked pathway. The city is trying to determine the cost and scope of a complete reconstruction.

World's Fair statue being restored

From the Daily News:

For the first time in almost 50 years, gold stars are shining above the towering Rocket Thrower in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park.

The bronze statue, crafted for the 1964 World’s Fair, has been reborn, thanks to a meticulous restoration that is in its final phase.

More than 40-feet tall, the artwork evokes both Space Age and Classical imagery with its a male figure launching a rocket into space — a constellation of stars at his fingertips.

When sculptor Donald De Lue’s artwork was unveiled at the fair, it was derided by some critics. But then-Parks Commissioner and World’s Fair mastermind Robert Moses rushed to its defense.

LPC rejects Avella's landmarking request for Flushing Meadows

From Save FMCP:

Senator Tony Avella was joined last Friday by preservationists and several area civic groups at a press conference protesting the Landmarks Preservation Commission’s (LPC) decision to reject landmark designation for Flushing Meadows Corona Park (FMCP).

The 1,255 acre Flushing Meadows-Corona Park is the Borough of Queens’ most prominent park and provides open space and recreational benefits to thousands of borough residents and low and middle income families. The Park is a valuable asset for the City and the residents of Queens not only because of its green space and natural areas, but also due to its embodiment of historical structures and leading cultural and educational institutions. The Park also has a unique history, serving as host to two World Fairs in 1939 and 1964, plus hosting the General Assembly of the United Nations from 1946 to 1950.

That is why, earlier this year, Avella asked LPC to review landmark status for Queens’ most prominent and historic park, which is under the threat of devastating development interests. Currently, the Mets organization is floating the idea of building a Mall in the park, the United States Tennis Association is proposing to expand and Major League Soccer is still interested in building a stadium that would further eliminate parkland.

Unfortunately, LPC recently denied this request and indicated that the park did not meet the criteria for designation.

Avella stated, “I am very disappointed in the Landmark Preservation Commission’s decision to not designate Flushing Meadows Corona Park as a landmark. It is clear to me that with its rich history and importance as Queens’ most significant and treasured park, Flushing Meadows Corona Park deserves landmark recognition, especially now. With three separate development proposals threatening to take away valuable parkland, Flushing Meadows Corona Park needs to be preserved now more than ever.”

“Parkland is sacred,” continued Avella. “The City should not be entertaining these proposals which would radically reduce open and recreational space for the hundreds of thousands of Queens residents who use this park on a yearly basis. Instead, the City should landmark this vital borough park to ensure its continued usage for generations to come and send a clear message that parkland is not for sale!”

“That is why I am calling on the Landmarks Preservation Commission to immediately reconsider their decision and demand that they hold a public hearing on this important issue. At the very least, the residents of Queens deserve to have their voices heard,” concluded Avella.

I guess the only surprise here is that the Parks Department turned the Unisphere fountains on a full month before the US Open.