Friday, August 23, 2024 – THE ORIGINAL FAUX ARCHITECTURE IN QUEENS

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FAKE HISTORY

FOR

REAL PEOPLE

FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2024


ISSUE # 1291

OLD STRUCTURES ENGINEERING

DON FRIEDMAN

August 21, 2024

Most people don’t properly understand the built environment of their childhood until they grow up, and even then maybe not until they’ve lived somewhere else and come home. Growing up in Queens, I didn’t question some of the styles around me that are not unique to the borough but are definitely concentrated there. One of my favorites, now, is the fake Tudor half-timber apartment house.

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In terms of architectural history, it’s gibberish. No Tudor building every looked like this, and the “timbers” on the facade are veneer a couple of inches thick, nailed to a brick wall built like every other apartment house constructed under the Multiple Dwelling Law. In other words, the appearance pretends to be historical but is not, and the appearance implies a form of construction that it is not.

But…

Many of the people who moved to these apartments – Harding Court, above, was constructed in 1923 – were moving from Old Law tenements, which often had fancy front facades but were terrible inside. The newer buildings had much better apartments but the architects wanted to keep them from being plain brick boxes, and so added ornament to the facades. For whatever reason, possibly because it was a style that had not been used in the older tenements, fake-Tudor was common in Queens in the 1920s and 30s. I’ve know plenty of people born between 1920 and 1940 for whom these buildings looked classier than other styles.

The timber veneer and projecting elements are hard to maintain, and this particular building has been stripped of much of the ornament. I think that’s simultaneously more honest, less ridiculous, and sadder. Exuberant gibberish is not so bad as an architectural statement.

PHOTOS OF THE DAY

MORE PAINTINGS BY YVONNE SMITH
NOW ON VIEW IN THE RIVERCROSS DISPLAY WINDOW

CREDITS

OLD STRUCTURES ENGINEERING
DON FRIEDMAN

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