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The Daily News has been reporting on the state of the NYS Pavillion over the years:
Deterioration of New York State Pavilion retold in book with hopes of restoration
By Nicholas Hirshon / DAILY NEWS WRITER
Thursday, September 8, 2011, 4:00 AM
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The New York State Pavilion in Queens was built by architect Philip Johnson for the world's fair in 1964-1965, but now sits in a state of disrepair.
Behind the decaying walls of the New York State Pavilion rests a piece of pop culture off limits to the public for decades.
Buried beneath layers of fabric, sand and gravel lies a 22,000-square-foot terrazzo road map that made its debut at the 1964 World's Fair.
Its deterioration is the topic of a new book, "After the Fair," written by conservators who want to call attention to the 567-panel map.
They hope the book, available for $20 on Lulu.com, will encourage readers to send funds for the map's restoration to the city, which owns the pavilion.
"This is really an important public work that needs to be preserved," said co-author Frank Matero, an architecture professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
Famed architect Philip Johnson conceived the giant map, made up of 4-by-4-foot panels on which the pavilion's 6 million visitors walked during the fair.
Co-author John Hinchman dreamed of a day when the map, which has all the state's roadways, towns and Texaco gas stations, once again goes on display.
The city covered it over the winter of 2009 and 2010 to spare it from further decay from bad weather and vandals.
"It is this fabulous representation of pop art," Hinchman said, "and nobody can actually see it."
Critics contend the Parks Department has neglected the pavilion since the fair ended in 1965, but Matero and Hinchman thank the city in the book's acknowledgments for helping fund the map's partial restoration.
They led a conservation team that repaired four panels of the Long Island portion of the map in 2007 and 2008.
The authors plan to send the book as a token of gratitude to the city and others that funded their efforts, including the National Endowment for the Arts and the Samuel H. Kress Foundation.
The 60-page book documents the "ruinous condition" of the landmark, including numerous photos of the decaying panels.
Consultants hired by the city studied the pavilion's "Tent of Tomorrow" rotunda last year and are now investigating the three observation towers.
The agency said it will "review the options and determine what may be next for the site" after the second study is complete.
When the conservators first visited the pavilion in 2007, weeds were poking through the two-foot-thick panels.
"I'm surprised a monument of this scale and significance has been forgotten," Matero said.
Rick Bell, executive director of the American Institute of Architects in New York, called the pavilion's state a "travesty." |
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/que ... z2u6l5CHdN
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Preserving crumbling World’s Fair icon could cost at least $43M
Parks Department outlines options for the New York State Pavilion . One option, for $17M, calls for tearing it down.
By Lisa L. Colangelo / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Published: Tuesday, November 19, 2013, 12:11 PM
Updated: Tuesday, November 19, 2013, 5:23 PM
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Good old days: Visitors poured into the New York State Pavilion during the 1964-65 World’s Fair to walk atop the massive map of
the state. The site has deteriorated in recent decades and new engineering reports say it would cost about $43 million to preserve
— plus another $10 million to restore it to its glory.
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.”
Renowned architect Philip Johnson designed the soaring structure for the fair — and the design still cuts an impressive figure along the Grand Central Parkway.
Today, the pavilion is a rusting relic of the Space Age 1960s.
The tallest tower stretches over 220 feet high and 16, 100-foot columns support the massive steel and concrete canopy.
During its heyday, the glass-covered pavilion hosted various exhibits. It is most famous for the 567-panel terrazzo map of New York State embedded in its floor.
“There’s nothing else like it,” said Christian Doran of People for the Pavilion, a group trying to raise public awareness of the site.
“It can provide a cultural and economic benefit to the city if repurposed properly,” he added. “The park was built for the World’s Fair and it is a completely unique structure that deserves to be saved.”
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.
The city says it would only cost $17 million to tear down the relic, but preservationists would howl.
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.
Workers would not only need to strengthen the structure, but remove toxic lead paint and PCBs in the epoxy floor.
Flushing Meadows Corona Park Administrator Janice Melnick said she will hold several meetings early next year to let the public weigh in with ideas for the site.
“It’s a really great time to put focus on this with the anniversary of the World’s Fair coming up,” she said.
Doran and others would like the pavilion renovated into an event space. After the fair ended, it hosted concerts by Led Zeppelin and the Grateful Dead and was used as a roller rink.
It was also used in the 1978 movie version of “The Wiz” featuring Michael Jackson and Diana Ross, and the groundbreaking “Don’t Let’s Start” music video by They Might be Giants. |
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/que ... z2u6mJn4CH
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