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lifestyle MONDAY, APRIL 14, 2014 RevisitingTRAVEL NYC’s 1964 World’s Fair, 50 years later ou can just barely see them through the unique experience,” said Janice Melnick, Queens museum window of the No. 7 subway as it rattles Flushing Meadows Corona Park administrator. The museum is housed in a building that Yinto the elevated station in Corona, And yet, as you walk out of the 111th Street dates to the 1939 World’s Fair, which marks its Queens: a gigantic steel sphere, two rocket train station, there’s something about Corona 75th anniversary this year. It also briefly housed ships, and towers that appear to be capped by that also brings to mind an older, simpler New the United Nations General Assembly after flying saucers. York. No hipsters here; no luxury condo sky- World War II. Exhibits include posters from both These unusual landmarks are among a scrapers. Instead, you’ll find modest brick number of attractions still standing from the apartment buildings and single-family homes, 1964 World’s Fair, which opened in Flushing pizzerias and diners, barber shops and variety Meadows Corona Park 50 years ago, with mar- stores. That throwback sensibility adds a layer vels ranging from microwave ovens to of nostalgia to the experience of revisiting fair Disney’s “it’s a small world” ride to Belgian waf- sites, especially for boomers who attended the fles with strawberries and whipped cream. event as kids. But visiting the area today is as much about “I think for many people, the fair represents 21st century Queens as it is a walk down this last moment of true optimism,” said memory lane. Many of Queens’ contemporary Melnick. “We were looking into the future, and cultural institutions - like the Queens Museum the future was going to be bright. That really and the New York Hall of Science - grew out of struck a chord with a lot of people.” fair attractions and incorporate original fair exhibits. Other relics are stupendous in their The unisphere own right, like the Unisphere, a 12-story steel The fair’s best-known symbol, an elegant globe so glorious to behold, you almost feel steel globe, has appeared in movies like “Men This April 9, 2014 photo shows a section of the “Panorama of the City of New York,” a scale like you’re seeing Earth from outer space. in Black” and “Iron Man 2.” Visitors enjoy set- model of the city on display at the Queens Museum of Art in Flushing Meadows Park in There’s also a modern zoo, an antique carousel ting up photos so that they appear to be hold- Corona in the Queens borough of New York. and outdoor sculptures. ing the world in their hands. Located in the Here’s a guide to celebrating the 50th park, outside the Queens Museum of Art. that pop artist Andy Warhol did for the ‘64 anniversary of the 1964 World’s Fair on a visit World’s Fair, inspired by mug shots of the city’s to Queens. New York State Pavilion 13 most-wanted criminals from 1962. The You can’t miss the towers topped by flying posters were too controversial for the fair and The neighborhood saucers, surrounded by 100-foot-high (30- were never shown. Located in the park, near On weekends, Flushing Meadows Corona meter-high) concrete pillars. This was the New the Willets Point stop on the No. 7 train. Park is packed with people from the dozens of York State Pavilion, where visitors rode eleva- ethnic groups that populate Queens, speaking tors to an observation deck above an enor- Rockets and New York Hall of Science many languages, eating food from around the mous suspended roof of translucent colored This April 9, 2014 photo shows two NASA Two NASA rockets stand 100 feet high (30 world and playing soccer with a seriousness of tiles. Today the structure is padlocked, rusted rockets on display outside the New York meters) outside the New York Hall of Science, purpose often found among those who grew and cracked, with preservationists and critics Hall of Science in Corona in the Queens a museum that opened a few years after the up with the sport. That makes for “a wonderful fighting over its future. borough of New York. ‘64 fair, replacing a temporary pavilion. The rockets were part of a space park at the fair that captured the excitement of the era’s quest to get a man on the moon. Towering over the Hall of Sciences is an undulating concrete building called the Great Hall, an architectural marvel that was an original fair site. Undergoing renovation now, it’s due to reopen in October, when visitors will be able to experience the other-worldly interi- or covered in blue stained glass. The Hall of Science has undergone a series of renovations over the years and today hous- es exhibits exploring everything from microbes to the science of basketball. It also This April 1, 2014 file photo shows a has a small but worthwhile display in a sec- restored statue and a giant metal globe ond-floor hallway of brochures, tickets and called the Unisphere, the remaining sym- other memorabilia from the fair, along with a bols from the 1964 World’s Fair in the first-floor display of photos of World’s Fairs Queens borough of New York. going back to the 19th century. fairs and a replica of Michelangelo’s “Pieta,” Wildlife conservation which was shown in the Vatican Pavilion during society’s queens zoo the ‘64 fair. The museum’s most famous display, A geodesic dome from the ‘64 fair serves as the “Panorama of the City of New York,” is a the zoo’s walk-through aviary. The zoo special- scale model of the city that debuted at the ‘64 izes in North and South American animals, fair. The panorama includes models of each of ranging from bears to pumas. the city’s 895,000 buildings built before 1992, along with every street, park and bridge, on a Carousel scale of 1 to 1,200. The island of Manhattan is The carousel dates to the early 1900s and 70 feet long (21 meters), the Empire State was brought to Queens for the ‘64 fair from This undated photo provided by the New York City Parks Department shows children riding a carousel in Flushing Meadows Corona building 15 inches tall (38 centimeters). Coney Island, Brooklyn. Located outside the Park. —AP photos Opening April 27 is an exhibit of posters zoo, near 111th Street and 55th Avenue. Relics of NYC World’s Fair Eyesores or icons? hey were designed for the 1964 World’s use in such movies as “Men in Black” and Fair as sleek, space-age visions of the “Iron Man 2.” Tfuture: three towers topped by flying- saucer-like platforms, and a pavilion of pillars What’s so special? with a suspended, shimmering roof that was Although occasionally opened for tours, billed as the “Tent of Tomorrow.” That imag- the towers and pavilion - the last major struc- ined tomorrow has come and gone. Now the tures still standing from the World’s Fair that structures are abandoned relics, with rusted have not been preserved - have largely served beams, faded paint and cracked concrete. As as a stoic landmark for travelers on the Van the fair’s 50th anniversary approaches, the Wyck Expressway. Two pad-locked gates - one remains of the New York State Pavilion are chain-link, one metal - keep the Tent of getting renewed attention, from preserva- Tomorrow shuttered. “It should be called the tionists who believe they should be restored, ‘Tent of Yesterday,’” says Ben Haber, who lives and from critics who see them as hulking near the park. “This is not the Parthenon, it’s not the Sphinx, it’s not the pyramids. ... So what’s so special that we should keep it?” At the heart of the debate is the cost. While the city’s Parks Department commissioned studies on the cost of scrapping or renovating the complex, it is still unclear where that money would come from and, if restored, how the structures would be used. If the money comes through, work on the city-owned pavilion could begin as early as next year once officials make a decision. Queens Borough President Melinda Katz has formed a task force dedicat- ed to preserving the pavilion, noting that other structures from the World’s Fair have been saved, most notably the 12-story-tall metal globe called the Unisphere, the Hall of Science and the Queens Museum. Repainting the pavilion Among the ideas are to convert the towers This April 1, 2014 file photo shows the space-age towers, topped by flying-saucer-like platforms, and a ring of pillars that once housed the once again into observation decks or an ele- New York State Pavilion at the 1964 World’s Fair in the Queens borough of New York. — AP photos vated garden or even a platform for bungee eyesores that should be torn down. Neither debuted with the rest of the World’s Fair on 9,000-square-foot terrazzo tile map of the jumping, with the open-air pavilion turned option would come cheap: an estimated $14 April 22, 1964, and quickly became among its state, with details of cities, towns and high- into a performance space with a removable million for demolition and $32 million to $72 most popular attractions. Visitors rode glass ways. In the years after the fair, the pavilion stage and bleachers. million for renovation.

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