1.
National Register of Historic Places
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The National Register of Historic Places is the United States federal governments official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation. The passage of the National Historic Preservation Act in 1966 established the National Register, of the more than one million properties on the National Register,80,000 are listed individually. The remainder are contributing resources within historic districts, each year approximately 30,000 properties are added to the National Register as part of districts or by individual listings. For most of its history the National Register has been administered by the National Park Service and its goals are to help property owners and interest groups, such as the National Trust for Historic Preservation, coordinate, identify, and protect historic sites in the United States. While National Register listings are mostly symbolic, their recognition of significance provides some financial incentive to owners of listed properties, protection of the property is not guaranteed. During the nomination process, the property is evaluated in terms of the four criteria for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places, the application of those criteria has been the subject of criticism by academics of history and preservation, as well as the public and politicians. Occasionally, historic sites outside the proper, but associated with the United States are also listed. Properties can be nominated in a variety of forms, including individual properties, historic districts, the Register categorizes general listings into one of five types of properties, district, site, structure, building, or object. National Register Historic Districts are defined geographical areas consisting of contributing and non-contributing properties, some properties are added automatically to the National Register when they become administered by the National Park Service. These include National Historic Landmarks, National Historic Sites, National Historical Parks, National Military Parks/Battlefields, National Memorials, on October 15,1966, the Historic Preservation Act created the National Register of Historic Places and the corresponding State Historic Preservation Offices. Initially, the National Register consisted of the National Historic Landmarks designated before the Registers creation, approval of the act, which was amended in 1980 and 1992, represented the first time the United States had a broad-based historic preservation policy. To administer the newly created National Register of Historic Places, the National Park Service of the U. S. Department of the Interior, hartzog, Jr. established an administrative division named the Office of Archeology and Historic Preservation. Hartzog charged OAHP with creating the National Register program mandated by the 1966 law, ernest Connally was the Offices first director. Within OAHP new divisions were created to deal with the National Register, the first official Keeper of the Register was William J. Murtagh, an architectural historian. During the Registers earliest years in the late 1960s and early 1970s, organization was lax and SHPOs were small, understaffed, and underfunded. A few years later in 1979, the NPS history programs affiliated with both the U. S. National Parks system and the National Register were categorized formally into two Assistant Directorates. Established were the Assistant Directorate for Archeology and Historic Preservation and the Assistant Directorate for Park Historic Preservation, from 1978 until 1981, the main agency for the National Register was the Heritage Conservation and Recreation Service of the United States Department of the Interior. In February 1983, the two assistant directorates were merged to promote efficiency and recognize the interdependency of their programs, jerry L. Rogers was selected to direct this newly merged associate directorate
2.
Flushing, Queens
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Flushing is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens in the United States. Flushings diversity is reflected by the ethnic groups that reside there, including people of Asian, Hispanic, Middle Eastern, European. It is part of the Fifth Congressional District, which encompasses the northeastern shore of Queens County. Flushing is served by five stations on the Long Island Rail Road Port Washington Branch, as well as the New York City Subways IRT Flushing Line. The intersection of Main Street and Roosevelt Avenue is the third busiest intersection in New York City, behind Times, ZIP codes beginning with 113 are administered from a sectional center at Flushing Post Office. The 113-prefixed area extends west into Jackson Heights, southwest into Ridgewood, south into Forest Hills, and east into Little Neck. On October 10,1645, Flushing was established by the Dutch on the bank of Flushing Creek under charter of the Dutch West India Company and was part of the New Netherland colony. The settlement was named after the city of Vlissingen, in the southwestern Netherlands, however, by 1657, the residents called the place Vlissing. Eventually, Flushing, the British name for Vlissingen was used, despite being a Dutch colony, many of the early inhabitants were British. Unlike all other towns in the region, the charter of Flushing allowed residents freedom of religion as practiced in Holland without the disturbance of any magistrate or ecclesiastical minister, however, New Amsterdam Director-General Peter Stuyvesant issued an edict prohibiting the harboring of Quakers. On December 27,1657, the inhabitants of Flushing approved a protest known as The Flushing Remonstrance and this contained religious arguments even mentioning freedom for Jews, Turks, and Egyptians, but ended with a forceful declaration that any infringement of the town charter would not be tolerated. Subsequently, a farmer named John Bowne held Quaker meetings in his home and was arrested for this, eventually he persuaded the Dutch West India Company to allow Quakers and others to worship freely. As such, Flushing is claimed to be a birthplace of freedom in the new world. Landmarks remaining from the Dutch period in Flushing include the John Bowne House on Bowne Street, in 1664, the English took control of New Amsterdam, ending Dutch control of the colony, and renamed it the Province of New York. When Queens County was established in 1683, the Town of Flushing was one of the five towns which comprised the county. The town was dissolved in 1898 when Queens became a borough of New York City, Flushing was the site of the first commercial tree nurseries in North America, the most prominent being the Prince, Bloodgood, and Parsons nurseries. Much of the section of Kissena Park, former site of the Parsons nursery. The naming of streets intersecting Kissena Boulevard on its way toward Kissena Park celebrates this fact, Flushing also supplied trees to the Greensward project, now known as Central Park in Manhattan
3.
New York (state)
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New York is a state in the northeastern United States, and is the 27th-most extensive, fourth-most populous, and seventh-most densely populated U. S. state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south and Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont to the east. With an estimated population of 8.55 million in 2015, New York City is the most populous city in the United States, the New York Metropolitan Area is one of the most populous urban agglomerations in the world. New York City makes up over 40% of the population of New York State, two-thirds of the states population lives in the New York City Metropolitan Area, and nearly 40% lives on Long Island. Both the state and New York City were named for the 17th-century Duke of York, the next four most populous cities in the state are Buffalo, Rochester, Yonkers, and Syracuse, while the state capital is Albany. New York has a diverse geography and these more mountainous regions are bisected by two major river valleys—the north-south Hudson River Valley and the east-west Mohawk River Valley, which forms the core of the Erie Canal. Western New York is considered part of the Great Lakes Region and straddles Lake Ontario, between the two lakes lies Niagara Falls. The central part of the state is dominated by the Finger Lakes, New York had been inhabited by tribes of Algonquian and Iroquoian-speaking Native Americans for several hundred years by the time the earliest Europeans came to New York. The first Europeans to arrive were French colonists and Jesuit missionaries who arrived southward from settlements at Montreal for trade, the British annexed the colony from the Dutch in 1664. The borders of the British colony, the Province of New York, were similar to those of the present-day state, New York is home to the Statue of Liberty, a symbol of the United States and its ideals of freedom, democracy, and opportunity. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance. On April 17,1524 Verrazanno entered New York Bay, by way of the now called the Narrows into the northern bay which he named Santa Margherita. Verrazzano described it as a vast coastline with a delta in which every kind of ship could pass and he adds. This vast sheet of water swarmed with native boats and he landed on the tip of Manhattan and possibly on the furthest point of Long Island. Verrazannos stay was interrupted by a storm which pushed him north towards Marthas Vineyard, in 1540 French traders from New France built a chateau on Castle Island, within present-day Albany, due to flooding, it was abandoned the next year. In 1614, the Dutch under the command of Hendrick Corstiaensen, rebuilt the French chateau, Fort Nassau was the first Dutch settlement in North America, and was located along the Hudson River, also within present-day Albany. The small fort served as a trading post and warehouse, located on the Hudson River flood plain, the rudimentary fort was washed away by flooding in 1617, and abandoned for good after Fort Orange was built nearby in 1623. Henry Hudsons 1609 voyage marked the beginning of European involvement with the area, sailing for the Dutch East India Company and looking for a passage to Asia, he entered the Upper New York Bay on September 11 of that year
4.
World's fair
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A worlds fair, world fair, world exposition, or universal exposition is a large international exhibition designed to showcase achievements of nations. These exhibitions vary in character and are held in varying parts of the world, the next world Expo is Expo 2020 and is to be held in Dubai, UAE. Since the 1928 Convention Relating to International Exhibitions came into force, bIE-approved fairs are of three types, universal, specialized and horticultural. They usually last from three weeks to six months, Worlds fairs originated in the French tradition of national exhibitions, a tradition that culminated with the French Industrial Exposition of 1844 held in Paris. This fair was followed by other exhibitions in continental Europe. The best-known first World Expo was held in The Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London, United Kingdom, in 1851, under the title Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations. The Great Exhibition, as it is called, was an idea of Prince Albert, Queen Victorias husband. It influenced the development of aspects of society, including art-and-design education, international trade and relations. This expo was the most obvious precedent for the international exhibitions, later called worlds fairs. Since their inception in 1851, the character of world expositions has evolved, three eras can be distinguished, the era of industrialization, the era of cultural exchange, and the era of nation branding. The first era could be called the era of industrialization and covered, roughly, in these days, world expositions were especially focused on trade, and were famous for the display of technological inventions and advancements. World expositions were the platforms where the state-of-the-art in science and technology from around the world were brought together, inventions such as the telephone were first presented during this era. An important part of the image of worlds fairs stems from this first era, the 1939–40 New York Worlds Fair diverged from the original focus of the worlds fair expositions. From then on, worlds fairs adopted specific cultural themes, they forecasted a future for society. Technological innovations were no longer the primary exhibits at fairs, the fairs encouraged effective intercultural communication for the exchange of innovation. The 1967 International and Universal Exposition in Montreal was promoted under the name Expo 67, event organizers retired the term worlds fair in favor of expo. From Expo 88 in Brisbane onwards, countries started to use world expositions more widely, finland, Japan, Canada, France and Spain are cases in point. A large study by Tjaco Walvis called Expo 2000 Hanover in Numbers showed that improving national image was the primary goal for 73% of the countries at Expo 2000
5.
Pavilion
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In architecture a pavilion has several meanings. In architectural terminology it refers to a building that is either positioned separately or as an attachment to a main building. Often its function makes it an object of pleasure, such configurations provide an emphatic visual termination to the composition of a large building, akin to bookends. Pavilions may be small outbuildings, similar to a summer house or a kiosk, small rooms on the roof of a large house. These were particularly popular up to the 18th century and can be equated to the Italian casina and these often resembled small classical temples and follies. Especially if there is space for food preparation, they may be called a banqueting house. A pavilion built to take advantage of a view may be referred to as a gazebo, bandstands in a park are a class of pavilion. A pool house by a swimming pool may have sufficient character, a sports pavilion is usually a building adjacent to a sports ground used for changing clothes and often partaking of refreshments. Often it has a verandah to provide protection from the sun for spectators, in cricket grounds, as at Lords, a cricket pavilion tends to be used for the building the players emerge from and return to, even when this is actually a large building including a grandstand. Externally, pavilions may be emphasised by any combination of a change in height, profile, colour, material, internally they may be part of a rectangular block, or only connected to the main block by a thin section of building. The two 18th-century English country houses of Houghton Hall and Holkham Hall, illustrate these different approaches in turn, in the Place des Vosges, Paris, twin pavilions mark the centers of the north and south sides of the square. They are named the Pavillon du Roi and the Pavillon de la Reine though no royal personage ever lived in the square, with their triple archways, they function like gatehouses that give access to the privileged space of the square. French gatehouses had been built in the form of such pavilions in the preceding century, in some areas, a pavilion is a term for a hunting lodge. The Pavillon de Galon in Luberon, France is a typical 18th century aristocratic hunting pavilion, the pavilion, located on the site of an old Roman villa, includes a garden à la française, which was used by the guests for receptions. Notes Media related to Pavilions at Wikimedia Commons
6.
1964 New York World's Fair
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The 1964/1965 New York Worlds Fair was the third major worlds fair to be held in New York City. However, the fair did not receive official sanctioning from the Bureau of International Expositions, hailing itself as a universal and international exposition, the fairs theme was Peace Through Understanding, dedicated to Mans Achievement on a Shrinking Globe in an Expanding Universe. American companies dominated the exposition as exhibitors, the theme was symbolized by a 12-story high, stainless-steel model of the earth called the Unisphere. The fair ran for two seasons, April 22 – October 18,1964, and April 21 – October 17,1965. Admission price for adults was $2 in 1964 but $2.50 in 1965, the fair is noted as a showcase of mid-20th-century American culture and technology. The nascent Space Age, with its vista of promise, was well represented, more than 51 million people attended the fair, though fewer than the hoped-for 70 million. Most major American manufacturing companies from pen manufacturers to auto companies had a major presence and this fair gave many attendees their first interaction with computer equipment. The site, Flushing Meadows Corona Park in the borough of Queens, was previously Manhattans Corona Ash Dumps featured prominently in F. Scott Fitzgeralds The Great Gatsby as the Valley of Ashes. Prior to that, the site had been a natural wetland — literally wetland meadows that would flush the nearby runoff entering the adjacent bay, Flushing Meadows had been a Dutch settlement, named after the village of Vlissingen. Subsequently, the site was reclaimed for the 1939/1940 New York Worlds Fair, one of the largest worlds fairs to be held in the United States, the 1939 fair also occupied space that was filled in for the 1964/1965 exposition. The 1964/1965 Fair was conceived by a group of New York businessmen who remembered their experiences at the 1939 New York Worlds Fair. Thoughts of a boom to the city as the result of increased tourism was a major reason for holding another fair 25 years after the 1939/1940 extravaganza. Then-New York City mayor, Robert F. Wagner, Jr and he was joined by Austrian architect Victor Gruen in studies that eventually led the Eisenhower Commission to award the worlds fair to New York City in competition with a number of American cities. Organizers turned to financing and the sale of bonds to pay the huge costs to stage them. The organizers hired New Yorks Master Builder Robert Moses, to head the corporation established to run the fair because he was experienced in raising money for vast public projects, Moses had been a formidable figure in the city since coming to power in the 1930s. He was responsible for the construction of much of the highway infrastructure and, as parks commissioner for decades. In the mid-1930s, Moses oversaw the conversion of a vast Queens tidal marsh/garbage dump into the fairgrounds that hosted the 1939/1940 Worlds Fair, called Flushing Meadows Park, it was Moses grandest park scheme. He envisioned this vast park, comprising some 1,300 acres of land, easily accessible from Manhattan, when the 1939/1940 Worlds Fair ended in financial failure, Moses did not have the available funds to complete work on his project
7.
Philip Johnson
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In 1978 he was awarded an American Institute of Architects Gold Medal and in 1979 the first Pritzker Architecture Prize. Johnson was born in Cleveland, Ohio on July 8,1906 and he was descended from the Jansen family of New Amsterdam, and included among his ancestors the Huguenot Jacques Cortelyou, who laid out the first town plan of New Amsterdam for Peter Stuyvesant. In 1928 he met Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, who was at the time designing the German Pavilion for the 1929 Barcelona International Exposition. The meeting formed the basis for a relationship of both collaboration and competition In 1930, Johnson joined the architecture department of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. There he arranged for American visits by Gropius and Le Corbusier, in 1932, working with Hitchcock and Alfred H. Barr, Jr. and Henry-Russell Hitchcock, he organized the first exhibition on Modern architecture at the Museum of Modern Art in 1932. The show and their published book International Style, Modern Architecture Since 1922 played an important part in introducing modern architecture to the American public. When the rise of the Nazis in Germany forced the modernists Marcel Breuer and Mies van der Rohe to leave Germany, in 1936, in the depths of the Great Depression, he left the Museum of Modern Art for a brief venture into journalism and politics. In his 1994 biography of Johnson, Schultze wrote, In politics he proved to be a model of futility and he was never much of a political threat to anyone, still less an effective doer of either political good or political evil. In 1941, at the age of 35, Johnson abandoned politics and journalism and enrolled in the Harvard Graduate School of Design, in 1941, Johnson designed and actually built his first building, a house still existing at 9 Ash Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The house, strongly influenced by Mies van der Rohe, has a wall around the lot which merges with the structure, after the United States entered World War II in December 1941, Johnson enlisted in the Army. He spent his service during the war in the United States. In 1946, after he completed his service, Johnson returned to the Museum of Modern Art as a curator. At the same time, he began working to establish his architectural practice and he built a small house, in th style of Mies, in Saaponack, Long Island in 1946. This was followed by one of this most famous buildings, which he built for himself, the Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut, completed in 1949, which has become a landmark of modern architecture. Johnson had curated an exhibit of Mies van der Rohes at the Museum of Modern Art in 1947, the house is a 56 foot by 32 foot glass rectangle, sited at the edge of a crest on Johnsons estate overlooking a pond. The buildings sides are glass and charcoal-painted steel, the floor, of brick, is not flush with the ground, the interior is an open space divided by low walnut cabinets, a brick cylinder contains the bathroom and is the only object to reach floor to ceiling. The New York Times described it in 2005 as one of the 20th centurys greatest residential structures, Johnson continued to add to the Glass House estate during each period of his career. After completing the Glass House, he completed two more houses in New Canaan in a similar to that of Mies, the Hodgson House
8.
Thornton Tomasetti
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Thornton Tomasetti is an American 1, 200+ person structural engineering consulting firm headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1956 as Lev Zetlin & Associates, the 50-year-old company has locations throughout the world. The engineering firm provided the design for several of the worlds tallest building structures, including the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Other structures designed by the firm include Soldier Field in Chicago, Petco Park in San Diego, among other architects of note, Thornton Tomasetti has collaborated with Cesar Pelli, Santiago Calatrava, Renzo Piano, and Rafael Vinoly. Thornton Tomasetti works to advance design and construction practices. About one-fifth of its staff are LEED accredited professionals, Thornton Tomasetti was the first structural engineering company to sign the AIA2030 Commitment. Thornton Tomasetti immediately began to branch out and enter the market with several innovative designs. The New York City office essentially began in 1956 as Lev Zetlin & Associates, Lev Zetlin also embraced the creative use of materials, most notably demonstrated in a bridge design made entirely of paper products for an International Paper ad. In 1993, Thornton Tomasetti acquired Cohen-Barreto-Marchertas and created a Chicago office, founded in 1965 by Eli Cohen, CBM pioneered the use of the now-common composite steel structural system, which combines a reinforced concrete core wall with a light steel floor framing. In the early 1960s, Cohens adaptation of the cooling tower design to high-rise offices required a change in the way the unions worked. Ironworker contracts forbid members of trades to work at higher elevations at job sites. But the proposed system was reviewed with them and they agreed to let concrete workers work above them, on September 8,2015, Thornton Tomasetti announced that it had merged with structural engineering firm Weidlinger Associates. The combined firm will have 1,200 employees operating in 34 cities internationally, in 2008 Thornton was awarded the Henry C. Turner Prize for Innovation in Construction Technology from the National Building Museum for his work with this program. Thornton Tomasetti Corporate Website ACE Mentor Program
9.
Citi Field
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Citi Field is a stadium located in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in the New York City borough of Queens. Completed in 2009, it is the baseball park of Major League Baseballs New York Mets. Citi Field was built as a replacement for the formerly adjacent Shea Stadium, Citi Field was designed by Populous, and is named after Citigroup, a New York financial services company which purchased the naming rights. The $850 million baseball park was funded with $615 million in public subsidies, the payments will offset property taxes for the lifetime of the park. The Mets are receiving $20 million annually from Citibank in exchange for naming the stadium Citi Field, the entire public cost is being borne by city and state taxpayers in New York. The first game at Citi Field was on March 29,2009, the Mets played their first two games at the ballpark on April 3 and April 4,2009 against the Boston Red Sox as charity exhibition games. The first regular home game was played on April 13,2009. Citi Field hosted the 2013 Major League Baseball All-Star Game, marking the time the Mets have hosted the event. The stadium will host the 2018 NHL Winter Classic between the New York Rangers and the Buffalo Sabres, since the 1990s, the Mets had been looking to replace Shea Stadium. It had originally built as a multi-purpose stadium in 1964. The Mets also considered moving to Mitchel Field or Belmont Park in Nassau County, Long Island, Sunnyside Yard in Queens, or the West Side Yard in Manhattan. In December 2001, shortly before leaving office, New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani announced tentative agreements for both the Mets and New York Yankees to build new stadiums. Of the $1.6 billion sought for the stadiums, city and state taxpayers would pick up half the tab for construction, $800 million, along with $390 million on extra transportation. The teams would keep 96% of ticket revenues and 100% of all revenues, not pay sales tax or property tax on the stadium. Business officials criticized the plan as giving too much money to successful teams with little reason to move to a different city, at the time, Bloomberg said that publicly funded stadiums were a poor investment. Under Bloomberg, the New York City government would offer public financing for infrastructure improvements. Bloomberg called the former mayors agreements corporate welfare, the final plans for what is now Citi Field were created as part of the New York City 2012 Olympic bid. After plans for a West Side Stadium fell through, New York looked for a stadium to host the opening and closing ceremonies and track
10.
Flushing Meadows Carousel
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The Flushing Meadows Carousel is a carousel located in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in the New York City borough of Queens. It contains four rows of figures, including 64 jumping horses,7 standing horses,1 menagerie animal, and 2 chariots. During the fair, it stood on a site within the park, and it was moved to its present site in 1968. In 2016 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the two predecessor carousels were the Feltman’s Carousel and the Stubbman Carousel, both of which were created for amusement operators in Coney Island. 47 horses and the frame are from the Stubbman Carousel, and 24 horses are from the Feltman’s Carousel, while Coney Island has seen resurgence since 2000, it had been busy during the Great Depression and had over twenty carousels spinning at once. The Feltmans Carousel had a restaurant and beer garden that occupied the site where the Luna Park currently sits, the carousel was indoors but faced Surf Avenue. Feltmans carousel is regarded by some as Marcus Illions masterpiece, the Stubbman Carousel was located at West 6th Street and Surf Avenue. It was part of the Stubbman’s Beer Garden, which sat adjacent to the Hotel Eleanor, the site is currently occupied by the New York Aquarium. The Stubbman machine had 64 horses and spun in Stubbman’s Beer Garden until 1953, the Summit article said that the Stubbman Carousel was, “commissioned by George and Henry Stubbman for their beer garden. The building housing the merry-go-round was prominently labeled, ‘Hotel Eleanor and its handsome Louis XIV chariots put the snake-headed, winged dragons of Feltman to shame. ”Both carousels were carved by master carousel carver Marcus Illions. He was one of the premier carvers in the Coney Island style of carving, the creatures that came out of this style were known for flamboyance and a flair for the dramatic. They did not focus on the realism in carving, rather, the Feltman Carousel was a classic Illions design and was extremely ornate. Carousel historian Frederick Fried, author of the book A Pictorial History of the Carousel, said it was, the Stubbman horses were a bit more subdued and simpler. Both frames were made by famed Coney Island ride manufacturer William F. Mangels, the Stubbman frame was eventually used on the Flushing Meadows Carousel when the two machines were combined. It has another feature rare to many carousels, slots in the floor allow the horses to tilt outwards as the machine picks up speed. The Feltman’s carousel spun under a few different owners and it ran from 1903 to 1954 as part Feltman’s. In 1954 Dewey Albert and Nathan Handwerker bought the property, improved it, Handwerker eventually wanted out of the deal and Albert now called the shots. He decided to build Astroland, the first phase of which opened in 1962, the carousel operated indoors until 1962 and outdoors through the 1963 season when it was packed up to make room for Astroland’s 200-foot Astrotower
11.
Flushing Meadows Natatorium
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Located inside the historic Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, site of the world’s fair in 1939 and 1964, the public facility caters to all New York City residents. Built in 2008, the $66.3 million project is the first indoor pool to open in New York City in four decades. The result is a building with 130-foot-high twin masts and a swooping roof form. The masts are an architectural feature extending up into the Queens skyline as well as the supports for the cable-stayed roof. This design provides the clear spans necessary to house an Olympic swimming pool along with an ice skating rink, the Flushing Meadows Natatorium was designed by Handel Architects in association with Kevin Hom Architects. The 1939 and 1964 World’s Fair pavilions, which occupied the site, inspired the architects to design the canopy roof suspended above the natatorium. The World’s Fair was a universal exposition showcasing various cultural exhibitions from all over the world, World’s fairs have become historic markers exemplifying commercial and industrial successes of various eras. The organizers of the 1939 World’s Fair boasted it was “the greatest exhibition ever held. ”They referred to its vast size, the symbolism of the Trylon and Perisphere. Known as the Corona dumps, Robert Moses headed its transformation into a new park, for the borough of Queens, and the construction of the fair. The theme of the 1939 World’s Fair was, “Building the World of Tomorrow. ”The fair was to symbolize the faith in new technology. Through the various showcases from different countries, citizens around the world were given gave a chance to learn about countries that they have heard of in books. The magical and futuristic land also housed new buildings, including the iconic General Motors’ Futurama and Democracity, twenty-five years later, the Flushing Meadows Park was selected, again to be the site of the 1964 World’s Fair. Americans had a fascination with space and “the new frontier. ”The themes of the 1964 World’s Fair were, “A Millennium of Progress” and “Man’s Achievements in an Expanding Universe. ”Space-oriented pavilions such as the New York Pavilion, which housed an observation platform, symbolized the growing infatuation with the Space Age. The New York State Pavilion, designed by Philip Johnson and Richard Foster, is one of the few still standing in Flushing Meadows Park. The oval roof, suspended and cable-hung, was the largest in the world, the pavilion was praised for its suspended roof and two towers that stood as the tallest structures of the fair. This large tent-like structure may have been an influence on the current Flushing Meadows Natatorium, today, all these structures are either demolished or left in an uninhabitable, dilapidated state. The buildings foundation was completed in 2001 but after the September 11 attacks the project was halted due to funding issues, finally, in 2003, the Natatorium was designated as the swimming arena in New York Citys bid to host the 2012 Summer Olympics. The Parks Department partnered with the Economic Development Corporation and plans re-commenced for New York City to build its first public swimming pool in 40 years
