Efforts to Save the New York State Pavilion Continue
Proposal sent to NYC Parks Dept. in 2007:
Presented by The World's Fair Preservation Society (Now World’s Fair Historical Society)
Artist: Steve Lowtwait, www.campsteve.com.
Located on the same site as the 1939 NY World’s Fair was held, the World's Fair Historical Society believes the New York State Pavilion from the 1964 world’s fair should be saved. Unfortunately, it has been allowed to deteriorate and its future is uncertain, having been mired in proposals, none of which so far have seemed to catch on with the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. This department has jurisdiction over the structure and Flushing Meadows - Corona Park that it is in.
This structure did make landmark status in late 2009 which was a progressive step.
Its towers might be familiar to you if you saw the first "Men in Black" movie which used them for their UFO's.
Read the complete proposal for the New York State Pavilion.
A good link to find out more is:
http://www.newyorkstatepavilion.org/
This has been sponsored by the Flushing Meadows – Corona Park World’s Fair Association which at one point was helping promote another proposal to turn it into a Air and Space Museum. That proposal was completely funded with sponsors and the NYC Parks Department still turned it down.
The Trylon Theater
Read more about the Trylon Theater Project
The Belgium Pavilion - Bells for Peace
On May 1, 2006 the World’s Fair Historical Society found out that the Belgium Building at the 1939 New York World’s Fair had been given to Virginia Union University by the government of Belgium after the Fair had closed. An organization by Dianne Watkins, www.bellsforpeace.org, was created to raise money to put bells back in its tower, the original ones went to Stanford University, and restore the building.
This is an exciting project and readers can find out more by going to their website. Below is a poster they have done to promoting their cause.
Also, one of our members; Richard Shupp, Jr., that teaches and lives in Easton, PA wrote us in December of 2006. He said Lafayette University there has 7 stained glass windows that were displayed at the Belgium Pavilion and 6 are displayed in Pardee Hall. One is cracked and has been in storage. We are currently researching this for updated information on the status of the windows.
Read more about the project and Bells for Peace.