Pity the New York State Pavilion

We think there is still free access to Times Select articles today, so we urge you to read Dan Barry's column about the NY State Pavilion from the 1964 World's Fair. Here's the opening:

Once there were elevators gliding up the sides of the towers to reveal a city unfolding; now they are rusted in mid-rise. Once there were stairwells winding within those towers; now they are rotted through. The call for a better tomorrow, for “Peace Through Understanding,” is answered by the flutter and coo of its hidden inhabitants.

Seeing again the New York State Pavilion, the massive space-age remnant of the 1964 World’s Fair that looms just beyond the Grand Central Parkway, seeing it in all its premature decrepitude, you cannot help but wonder: If this was built to evoke the future, then may the gods have mercy on us all.

Back in 2004, the Parks Department had asked developers for ideas to revive that part of Flushing-Corona Park, but it turns out that nothing came of that and now the Parks Department says they will just renovate it. But there's skepticism about whether the Parks Department will even do that: Flushing Meadows Corona Park World’s Fair Association president David Oats tells Barry, "It’s all phony. It’s been a frustrating — literally! — 40 years now."

Earlier this year, the city was asked to participate in another World's Fair. We don't know how that worked out (we assume the city said no); if you know, tell us in comments. We do hope that some glory can be restored to the pavilion - it's a well-known part of the city, especially Queens.

Photograph of the New York State Pavilion from the 1964 World's Fair by wally g on Flickr

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By Jen Chung in News on November 11, 2006 1:41 PM

Comments [rss]

Andrew J. Lederer

According to reports, the International Olympic Committee picked London in part because their bid focused on using the Olympics to develop parts of East London (the Queens of London, so to speak) rather than finding room in more touristy/businessy/showroom windowy parts of London.

In effect, they won for doing precisely what Bloomberg was afraid of -- admitting to the world that there were parts of the city that didn't have double deck tour buses whizzing through. That London isn't all swingin', shiny, monarchical glitz.

Bloomberg demonstrably believes Manhattan is the important part of the city as evidenced by his statement re. the Red Hook Ikea that he wouldn't want it in his neighborhood, but what the hell . . . (Sure. Out there.)

I don't hate Bloomberg. In fact, I think he's been a pretty good mayor. But he is a rich, narrow-visioned, Manhattan-centric import from Massachusetts who doesn't understand a lot of the city beyond his rarefied experience. Even his plans for Williamsburg/Greenpoint, Prospect Heights, Downtown Brooklyn, etc. show his sense of city planing is limited to the plastic, high-rise, Upper East Side development model.

I don't think he means to be limited or "evil". He likes his life-style and environment; it's all he knows. And he wants the rest of the city to "enjoy" it whether they like it or not (or even can as the cost of accommodations rises), just as the Bush administration wants to spread our way of living to the rest of the world whether they want it or not.

All these sweet "leaders" want to share the sanitized goodness of their existence with bizarro foreigners and commoners. It's a form of noblesse oblige.

We should be grateful.

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Bloomberg's a fool to pass this up. Just goes to show how biased he was to only have Olympics and to only have it in a stadium in Manhattan. He can be a real Manhattan-centric fame whore.

[3] Posted by: Think twice | November 11, 2006 8:46 PM

traffic woes, no subways

He can be a real Manhattan-centric fame whore.

Or maybe he doesn't want to deal with another NIMBY nightmare.

Think twice

Bloomberg's a fool to pass this up. Just goes to show how biased he was to only have Olympics and to only have it in a stadium in Manhattan. He can be a real Manhattan-centric fame whore.

Andrew J. Lederer

There should be a permanent World's Fair in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. It should have the most notable exhibits and pavilions from the '39 and '64 fairs and new international offerings. It would be spectacular for the economy of the area and it would be a wonderful tribute to New York's past and the world's future.

Robert Pietrusko

Your assumptions are correct, the city dismissed the idea of another fair pretty decisively. Michael Saul wrote a short piece about it for the Daily News back in May.

Still available online here:

Bloomy Gloomy on World Fair In City

Unfortunately, Bloomberg's response is a pretty common one—"I was surprised that they still had World's Fairs."

It looks like the 2015 fair, which the New York bid was aiming for, will be held in either Turkey or Italy.