I am old enough to remember visiting the 1964-65 New York City World’s Fair and was of the opinion architect Philip Johnson’s New York State Pavilion was one of the least interesting structures and not up to his usual high standards.
It was nothing more than a few towers, one of which had a restaurant and an open-sided steel structure with a tile floor. It had little architectural merit when initially constructed and after decades of neglect even less. The towers in their current condition are incapable of any use.
As for the so-called steel tent, the notion that it is worthy of rehabilitation at a projected cost of $72 million — if indeed we ignore common sense that nothing is built for the so-called projected cost — makes no sense. What makes more sense is to demolish the current structure, something that should have been done decades ago, at a fraction of the cost it would take to restore it to its initial, uninteresting state.
Its initial use as a place for people to congregate for concerts and other similar activities can easily be accomplished on a grassed-over area (“Pavilion rescue wins ally,” TimesLedger Newspapers, Feb. 14-20, 2014).
While Flushing Meadows Corona Park is the second-most used park in our city, it also has the dubious distinction of being the most abused, suffocated with all sorts of non-urban park structures thanks to myopic politicians who have not the vaguest idea what urban parks are all about.
Demolition of this eyesore to be replaced with a grassy area is a step in the right direction in recognizing we are dealing with urban parkland. We should face up to the fact that the Pavilion is not the Parthenon.
Benjamin M. Haber
Flushing
