Photo credit: Flickr / Joe Shlabotnik
The iconic New York State Pavilion, largely dormant and deteriorating in the years since it was built for the 1964 World’s Fair, will open to the public next month for the first time in decades.
Volunteer preservation groupPeople for the Pavilion announced this week that the pavilion will open for its upcoming 50th anniversary on Tuesday, April 22. Visitors interested in glimpsing the interior of the long-inaccessible facility will be required to wear hard hats as they peer into the three observation towers and the remnants of the350- by 250-foot “Tent of Tomorrow.”
Queens Borough President Melinda Katz last week chaired the first meeting of a task force intent on preserving the structure that famously looms over Flushing Meadows-Corona Park.
The preservationists hope to see the pavilion revitalized as a public space. It could cost between $43 million and $72 million to preserve it and about $14 million to tear down, according to theParks Department.
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