Tuesday, June 2, 2020 – ROCK FORMATION IN LONG ISLAND CITY
EDITORIAL
Our country has suffered so much the last 3 months and we could tolerate being home, teaching our own kids, wondering what food would be available in the market. The day after we realized 100,000 human beings including friends and many of our family members have succumbed to this plague the scene changed.
The pandemic feels minor since the murder in Minneapolis.
No one can justify any action taken that day by a peace officer.
Being in a community where we respect every person, we cannot fathom this action. My heartfelt sympathies, and the fury we feel over the actions we have seen. May our States have leadership to make this country stronger.
Judith Berdy
TUESDAY
JUNE 2, 2020
RIHS’s 68th Issue of
Included in this Issue:
ROCK FORMATION IN LONG ISLAND CITY
REMEMBERING CRISTO IN CENTRAL PARK AND
BISCAYNE BAY
MID-CENTURY ARCHITECTURE IN LONG ISLAND CITY
(c) ROOSEVELT ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
LONG ISLAND CITY PEDESTRIAN PLAZA HIGHLIGHTS ANCIENT ROCK FORMATION
The city and a developer converted the little-used block into a pedestrian oasis
By Caroline Spivack
This new Street Seat in Long Island City highlights an ancient rock formation on 12th Street. The VOREA Group A Long Island City street with an unusual, ancient impediment has been transformed from a derelict strip of concrete into a vibrant pedestrian plaza. The city’s Department of Transportation (DOT) has partnered with developer the VOREA Group to overhaul a stretch of 12th Street between 44th Avenue and 43rd Road, where through traffic was previously prohibited by a glacial rock formation.
The partnership came to be through the Street Seats program, a citywide effort that converts underused streets into public spaces. The geological quirk left the street, which originally lacked pedestrian sidewalks, in a sort of limbo; it couldn’t easily be accessed by the public, so was previously used as employee parking for a local company.
Enter VOREA, which owns properties along the street, and who applied to work with the city to turn the block into a pedestrian oasis in a largely industrial swath of the Queens neighborhood. Now, instead of functioning as an obstacle, the rock formation and its history serves as a focal point. “That was the vision we had with the developer, to highlight that as a unique element within the space,” says Samantha Dolgoff, the director of strategic initiatives with DOT. “We didn’t want the rock to just be there. We wanted it be more prominent in the space.”
Designed by MAPOS Architecture and Design, the spacious Street Seat creates a pedestrian-friendly environment with outdoor seating and planters. Bright blue paint outlines the glacial rock and is used for striping, lending a vibrant pop of color to the space. Its design was inspired by Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s 1983 “Surrounding Islands” installation, where 11 small, uninhabited islands were surrounded by 6.5 million square feet of hot pink fabric in Miami.
The VOREA Group The block will also offer a space for displaying artwork crafted by local artists and makers. “Our goal was to use art as a vehicle to celebrate the unique history of LIC and help breathe new life into this incredible, creative pocket of the neighborhood,” says Adam Joly of VOREA. The Street Seat is the second to be rolled out in Queens—16 were installed in the city last year in Manhattan and Brooklyn—and DOT hopes more will apply through the program so that additional underutilized spaces throughout the borough can be revitalized.
Transportation officials and VOREA hope the community will take advantage of the space not only on lunch breaks and outdoor respites, but also for hosting neighborhood events, which can be done by securing a permit through the city’s Street Activity Permit Office. “One of the great things about this space in particular is it’s a pretty large space that’s been dedicated to pedestrians,” says Dolgoff. “It’s great for community events.”
Aerial view of area
The concept for the art was inspired by Cristo’s Surrounding Islands in Biscayne Bay in Miami..
MTA NY SUBWAYS POSTER FOR “THE GATES”
Courtesy of Eunice Chang
Jerome Perlstein – Walter Lippmann Building,Long Island City NY
Queens-based architect Jerome Perlstein (January 2, 1924-November 13, 1984) designed a wide range of structures, including restaurants, athletic clubs, residences, and synagogues, but put he put his mark on the borough largely with his quirky interventions to industrial structures.
Perlstein was born in New York City and even before graduating from high school in 1940 was already assisting his father, architect Morris Perlstein, as a draftsman. He served in World War II, studied at New York University and Pratt Institute, and then returned to his father’s office until 1949. In 1950 he set out on his own. One of his earliest extant works is the Do All Eastern Building, a long, low industrial building of tan brick with a contrasting red brick entrance surround and a corner wall of picture windows.
The Queens Chamber of Commerce gave it an honorable mention in its building awards program. In 1962, Perlstein became a consultant to Propper Manufacturing Company, a maker of medical devices, owned by Seymour Schuman. In the 1960s, Schuman began branching out into real estate development, eventually controlling numerous small industrial sites around Long Island City under the names Propper Properties and Schuman Properties. Perlstein was hired to rehabilitate many of these.
Between 1962 and 1975 Perlstein altered at least 10 buildings with eye-catching but cost effective designs. He used numerous materials, primarily in facade alterations, to make the street view of these buildings more compelling. The facades incorporate Roman brick, stone veneer, glass, concrete, enamel paneling, metal screens, and mosaic tiling, as quick ways to enliven largely utilitarian complexes.
Perlstein or Schuman also labeled each building with small metal plaques naming the buildings after specific individuals, both famous and obscure. A small garage at 11th Street and 44th Drive with red enamel brick and a jaunty metal facade screen is named after Perlstein.
The Queens Chamber of Commerce honored three of these industrial structures, as well as two restaurants, a bank, and a commercial building that all exhibit the same design characteristics. Awards also went to the Harold Felixson residence in Bayside, a long, wood house on a narrow site, and a more standard apartment complex in Forest Hills, designed with Jack Brown, architect of LeFrak City.
Perlstein died in 1984 at the age of 60. Note: A version of this biography appeared in docomomo_us New York/Tri-State’s mōd, issue 2, 2017.
SOME NOTES
This morning I needed a visual that has been here a long time. The giant rock outcropping in Queens qualified. I discovered the site last October when trying to find an architectural office. Tucked away in an alley was the
bright blue painted paving leading to the rock formation.
This morning, when reading about it, the Cristo art piece “The Islands” was mentioned!! Cristo who passed away yesterday. Coincidence.
Then I remembered that Eunice Chang donated a series of posters to the RiHS. There is was… a 46 inch long poster for the event. I have enclosed photos of the poster.
I was always intrigued by the moderne building in Long Island City. The description of it is fascination and proves that Queens has wonder mid-century architecture.
Best wishes,Judith Berdy
212 688 4836
jbird134@aol.com
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Text by Judith Berdy
Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS
Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website
Edited by Melanie Colter and Deborah Dorff
FUNDING PROVIDED BY:
ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION THRU PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDING
CITY COUNCIL MEMBER BEN KALLOS DISCRETIONARY FUNDS THRU DYCD
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