The Queens Museum of Art – New York City Building

Under construction: The New York City Building in its early days.

The New York World’s Fair 1939 and 1940

The New York City Building was built to house the New York City Pavilion at the 1939 World’s Fair, where it housed displays about municipal agencies. The building was centrally located, being directly adjacent to the great icons of the Fair, the Trylon and Perisphere, and it was one of the few buildings created for the Fair that were intended to be permanent. It is now the only surviving building from the 1939/40 Fair. After the World’s Fair, the building became a recreation center for the newly created Flushing Meadows Corona Park. The north side of the building, now the Queens Museum, housed a roller rink and the south side offered an ice rink.

A north view of New York City Building with the Trylon and Perisphere to the left, and on the right, the Grand Central Parkway, originally planned by Robert Moses as a tree-lined roadway providing "an easy way to reach Jones Beach." Construction of the parkway began in 1931, and was finished in 1936 -- in time to serve traffic heading to the 1939 World’s Fair.

The building’s architect, Aymer Embury III, was one of Robert Moses favorite designers and his other work includes the Central Park Zoo and the Tri-Borough Bridge. He designed the building in a modern classical style, which was perhaps a little ironic given that the theme of the 1939 Fair was the “World of Tomorrow”. The exterior of the building featured colonnades behind which were vast expanses of glass brick punctuated by limestone pilasters trimmed in dark polished granite; the solid corner blocks were also constructed from limestone.

United Nations

One of the proudest periods in the history of the New York City Building was that from 1946 to 1950 when it housed the General Assembly of the newly formed United Nations. Until the site of the UN’s current home in Manhattan became available, Flushing Meadows Corona Park was being considered as the organization’s future permanent Headquarters site. During the early post-war years almost every world leader spent time in the New York City Building and many important decisions, including the partition of Palestine and the creation of UNICEF, were made here.

West side façade of New York City Building with Trylon and Perisphere in the background.

The presence of the United Nations General Assembly in the building required substantial interior renovation and the addition of a substantial new cafeteria building on the north side of the building. In the interior, the skating and roller rinks were covered and, in the space now occupied by the Queens Museum, the General Assembly was laid out. Offices, meeting rooms, translation, press, radio and television facilities, and other services were made available through the rest of the building. When the United Nations left, the addition was removed and the New York City Building again became a recreation site for the Park and the skating and roller rinks were restored to the old use.

World’s Fair 1964 and 1965

In preparation for the 1964 World’s Fair the New York City Building was again renovated. Under the architect Daniel Chait, a scalloped entry awning was added to east façade and concrete brise-soleil used to cover all of the areas of glass brick. The building once again housed the New York City Pavilion and the most dramatic display there was the Panorama of the City of New York, which remains in the building and open to the public as part of the Museum’s collection.

Official groundbreaking with Mayor Bloomberg, QMA Director Tom Finkelpearl and members of the QMA Board

As in 1939, the New York City Building, was at the center of the 1964/5 World’s Fair. It was (and still is) adjacent to the 140 foot high, 900,000 lb steel Unisphere; that great symbol of the Fair’s theme of “Peace through Understanding”. After the Fair the Panorama remained open to the public and the south side of the building returned to being an ice rink.

Today

In 1972 the north side of the New York City Building was handed to the Queens Museum of Art (or as it was then known, the Queens Center for Art and Culture). Almost twenty years after it opened, the Museum undertook its first major renovation. In 1994, Rafael Viñoly significantly redesigned the existing space, creating some of the most dramatic exhibition galleries in New York. In the near future, the Museum will begin a second renovation; it will double in size by expanding into the south side of the New York City Building. The architects for this new expansion are Grimshaw/Ammann and Whitney.

Mayor Bloomberg and QMA Director Tom Finkelpearl during the Groundbreaking Ceremony

Queens Museum Expansion

In 2013, the Queens Museum of Art will be a transformed institution. Building on 35 years of success, it will grow to be one of the most interesting and enjoyable cultural institutions in the greater New York area. The key to this transformation is the Museum’s expansion: a doubling of the size, to 100,000 square feet, which will create one of the most refined museum spaces in the country. Grimshaw Architects has developed plans for a stunning facility that will engage diverse communities and make the Queens Museum into a model for the urban, American museum of the future.

On April 12, 2011, the Queens Museum of Art (QMA) hosted a groundbreaking ceremony, marking the commencement of the expansion project that will double the size of the institution, adding 50,000 square feet of new galleries, classrooms, public events spaces, a café and museum shop.

East Facade

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, Queens Borough President Helen Marshall, City Council Member and Chairman of Cultural Affairs Committee Jimmy van Bramer, and fellow members of the New York City Council, joined QMA Executive Director Tom Finkelpearl, board members, funders, artists and community partners in taking this important institutional step.

Interior

The $65 million project, expected to be completed by the end of 2013, includes a new 220 foot long illuminated glass façade and entry plaza on the Grand Central Parkways side of the building, a new entrance and expanded outdoor space on the Flushing Meadows Corona Park side of the building, and a generous skylit atrium in between. The expansion, which gives the museum the entirety of the NYC Building – originally built as the city’s official pavilion for the 1939 World’s Fair ‐ is designed by Grimshaw Architects. The museum had, until 2009, shared the building with the World’s Fair Ice Rink, and the ceremony was held on the site of the rink, now the museum’s construction area.

To download the press release from the groundbreaking ceremony, please click here

Read more:

Queens Museum Digs In, The Wall Street Journal

Queens Museum Breaks Ground of $65M Expansion, NY1

The Queens Museum Expands and Upgrades, WNYC Culture

Queens Museum of Art starts expansion plan to double space by 2013, Daily News

Queens Museum Breaks Ground on Massive Expansion, Gothamist

Press Contact: David Strauss, (718) 592-9700, ext. 145, dstrauss@queensmuseum.org