Queens Cultural Instution Renovation Boom

After last week's post about the Parks Commission trying to figure out what to do with the 1964 World's Expo Towers, a reader sent us some photographs of the towers and the old Tent of Tomorrow (above and below), taken by sneaking onto the grounds - anything for a photograph. Gothamist finds something really cool in how decrepit the towers and tent look, because they look like this strange thing from 40 years ago, but this past Saturday, the NY Times revealed that architect Philip Johnson who designed the towers "once said that he cringed every time he passed the crumbling pavilion on the way to the airport." The Times says architecture firm, Caples Jefferson, is working on the addition for the Queens Theatre in the Park that will supposedly recall the "va-voom architecture" of the Johnson structures and has conducted "obsessive" studies to make sure the old buildings don't topple.

There's a ton of renovation work being done to Queens institutions: The Queens Museum of Art is getting an addition from Eric Owen Moss while the NY Hall of Science's addition from Polshek (who did the renovation of the Museum of Natural History's Rose Center) is almost done. Plus, the Isamu Noguchi Garden Museum has reopened after a long renovation. This is exciting news, as trips to Queens really aren't that long. You just need to plan to have a meal there - here's Citysearch's Queens restaurant listings and even the Queens Museum has suggestions.

Reader Edie also pointed us to this link of more great photos of the NY World's Expo area from undercity.