Queens Museum
The Queens Museum is an art museum and educational center at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in Queens, New York City, United States. Established in 1972, the museum includes the Panorama of the City of New York, a room-sized scale model of the five boroughs of New York City built for the 1964 New York World's Fair. Its collection includes a large archive of artifacts from both the 1939 and 1964 World's Fairs, a selection of which is on display., Queens Museum's director is Sally Tallant.
The museum's building was constructed for the 1939 New York World's Fair as the New York City Pavilion. The structure was used as an ice-skating and roller-skating rink during the 1940s and 1950s, except when it housed the United Nations General Assembly from 1946 to 1951. The building also served as the New York City Pavilion for the 1964 World's Fair and was preserved following the fair. The museum opened in the northern part of the building in November 1972. The museum was renovated in the late 1970s, during which a community gallery was added; another renovation in the 1990s added an entrance from the east. The museum was expanded significantly in the 2010s, during which the ice rink was closed. Another expansion was announced in the 2020s.
History
Early building use
1939 World's Fair
The Queens Museum is located in the New York City Pavilion at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, designed by architect Aymar Embury II for the 1939 World's Fair. The fair was first announced in 1935, and engineering consultant J. Franklin Bell drew up preliminary plans for the fairground the next year, including a structure for the New York City government. The building was originally proposed as a two-story "glass house", but it was ultimately erected as a more conventional rectangular building. Mayor Fiorello La Guardia said he wanted the building to showcase "modern municipal government in all its aspects". In April 1937, the New York City Board of Estimate approved the sale of $180,000 in bonds to fund the construction of the City Building's foundation. That August, Psaty & Fuhrman submitted a low bid of $556,000 for the building's construction. The building's ceremonial cornerstone was laid in January 1938, and the facade was completed by the beginning of May. La Guardia used the building as his "summer City Hall" during mid-1938, and his office there was fitted with temporary mechanical equipment while other parts of the building were being completed.The New York City Pavilion ultimately cost $1.645 million. The pavilion was the second-largest structure at the fair, after the United States pavilion, and it was intended as a permanent structure for the outset, in contrast to nearly all the other structures, which would have been demolished. Next to the building was a plaza named City Hall Square, which separated it from the Trylon and Perisphere, the central monument of the 1939 fair. Around it was a spiral hedge ranging from tall, as well as English boxwood trimmed in the shape of the fair's seal. Malvina Hoffman designed a bas-relief called Dances of the Races to the east of the building, while William Zorach designed the sculptural group Builders of the Future to the west. Inside the pavilion were dioramas, murals, models, and displays about various departments of the city government. The pavilion included exhibits on such topics as the WNYC radio station, the city's courts, and the Independent Subway System, along with stage shows and a voting demonstration. There were a total of 63 exhibits, as well as an auditorium.
La Guardia dedicated the building when the fair opened on April 30, 1939. The fair ran for two 6-month seasons until October 26, 1940. A special edition of New York Advancing, a book about the city government, was published in celebration of the fair's opening. The special edition included an official guide to the New York City Pavilion. After the end of the fair's first season in November 1939, the space east of the building was converted to a concert area, and furniture was stored in the pavilion prior to the 1940 season. A memorial plaque was installed on the New York City Pavilion after two policemen were killed in 1940 while attempting to defuse a bomb nearby.
United Nations and skating rink
The New York City Building was one of seven structures at Flushing Meadows to be preserved following the 1939 fair. Within days of the fair's closure in October 1940, the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation had requested $25,000 from the New York City Board of Estimate to convert the building to an ice rink. The building was divided into a roller skating rink to the north and an ice-skating rink to the south. The roller rink measured, while the ice rink measured and could be used for other sports such as basketball and tennis. The rinks opened on January 12, 1941, as the park's first sporting facility. Skaters had to pay an admission fee, and spectators were also charged a fee after late 1941. The rinks recorded 150,000 total visitors in their first three months and 1.4 million total visitors in five years.The United Nations was planning a permanent headquarters during the 1940s. While the organization was deciding on a permanent headquarters, UN Secretary-General Trygve Lie decided in April 1946 to use the New York City Pavilion as a meeting hall for the United Nations General Assembly. The city and UN agreed to spend $2.27 million to renovate the pavilion and environs, and workers began renovations in May 1946. A wall was built between the northern and southern halves of the building, and an auditorium and small annex was built in the northern half. The southern half was converted to space for air conditioning equipment. Workers also planted a flower garden at the site of the Trylon and Perisphere, in addition to 1,000 trees, 2,500 shrubs, and 200,000 other plants around the building. In addition, nearby roads were upgraded. Early plans called for the General Assembly to use the building for only six months; the building would have continued to function as a roller-skating and ice-skating rink afterward.
Once the renovations were completed, the UN took over the building that September, and a formal ceremony was hosted on October 18, 1946. Later that year, the UN decided to build its permanent headquarters in Manhattan, and the UN was allowed to stay at the New York City Pavilion until the Manhattan headquarters was finished. Numerous significant events occurred at the New York City Pavilion in the UN's early years, including the creation of UNICEF, the partition of Korea, and the authorization of the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine. The UN renewed its lease of the building in late 1947. The pavilion was the temporary home of the General Assembly until October 20, 1951, and the General Assembly met in Manhattan afterward.
After the UN vacated the space, contractors converted the building back into a rink as part of a $237,000 renovation. A wooden roller-skating rink and a ice rink were added, and ramps and public announcement systems were also installed. The rink reopened on October 18, 1952, and was renovated again in mid-1953. To celebrate the New York City Pavilion's usage as a temporary General Assembly hall, the building was depicted in a stamp released by the United Nations in 1958. By the 1960s, it was one of two major structures in Flushing Meadows Park that remained from the 1939 fair, the other being Billy Rose's Aquacade.
1964 World's Fair
The Flushing Meadows site was selected in 1959 for the 1964 New York World's Fair. Gilmore David Clarke and Michael Rapuano, who had redesigned the park for the 1939 World's Fair, were retained to tailor the park layout for the new fair. New York City parks commissioner Robert Moses was appointed as president of the World's Fair Corporation, which was to operate the fair. Moses decided to reuse the New York City Building as the city's exhibition space during the 1964 World's Fair. Almost all of Flushing Meadows–Corona Park was closed in early 1961 in advance of the fair, except for the New York City Building's ice skating rink. In June 1961, the New York City Board of Estimate awarded a contract for the construction of the Panorama of the City of New York, a scale model of New York City within the City Building. The city government announced in 1962 that it would spend $832,500 to renovate the building's skating rink. The architect Daniel Chait was hired to renovate the City Building. Moses requested $1.066 million for the building's renovation in June 1962, and the Board of Estimate ultimately approved $2 million in funding. In mid-1963, two figure-skating companies were selected to perform at the City Building as part of a show called Dick Button's Ice-Travaganza.The New York City Building was formally rededicated on April 25, 1964, two days after the 1964 World's Fair opened. Tickets to the ice-skating show ranged from $1 to $2, while tickets for simulated helicopter rides above the Panorama cost 10 cents apiece. The main attraction in the building was the Panorama of the City of New York, which had cost the city $600,000 and taken two years to construct. The building's ice rink was equipped with a ski run, in addition to six movable stages and 12 stationary stages. Memorabilia and artworks from 34 museums were displayed inside the building to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the British conquest of New Netherland, and a film displayed the history of the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority. Radio station WNYC also moved much of its broadcasting operations to the City Building during the 1964 World's Fair. A replica of a New York City Police Department precinct was added to the building.
During the 1964 season, there were rarely any queues to get inside the City Building. The Panorama was initially relatively unpopular with visitors, but it ultimately recorded an average of 1,400 visitors a day. Dick Button's Ice-Travaganza was also unsuccessful, despite the building's central location within the World's Fair grounds. The New York City Building operated until the end of the 1964 World's Fair in October 1965. From the outset, Moses planned to preserve the New York City Building after the 1964 World's Fair, and the World's Fair Corporation set aside funding for the building's renovation at the end of the fair. The initial plans called for the Panorama to be moved from the building to the Civic Center of Manhattan, allowing the City Building to be used as a skating rink. Moses subsequently offered to have the TBTA take responsibility for the Panorama. The City Building was one of the few buildings to remain from the 1964 fair, along with the Unisphere, Singer Bowl, New York State and U.S. pavilions, and the Hall of Science. The structure was used by the TBTA in the 1960s, and the city government took over the surrounding park in 1967.