New Life & New Mission
New York Times, July 17, 2004
Philip Johnson's steel and concrete fantasia in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park,
designed as the New York State Pavilion for the 1964-65 World's Fair has been
crumbling for decades. Now it is finally getting some attention.
Mr. Johnson who turned 98 last week was unavailable for comment but Alan Ritchie
[Philip Johnson's design partner] said "Mr. Johnson cringed every time
he passed the crumbling pavilion on the way to the airport."
Manhattan Architect Frankie Campione has proposed turning the pavilion into
an aerospace museum. Mr. Campione said he was concerned that the [pending] theater
addition would detract from Mr. Johnson's composition. Worse, he said, construction
could damage the existing building, which, because it was not intended to be
permanent, was constructed on wooden pilings.
The [pavilion] is only one of several significant building projects in Flushing
Meadow Corona Park. A radical alteration to the Queens Museum, by the Los Angeles
architect Eric Owen Moss is in the panning stages and a 55,000 sf addition to
the Hall of Science by Polshek Partnership Architects of Manhattan is nearing
completion.
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