Queens Plaza, Queens
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Queens Plaza is a
plaza A town square (or public square, urban square, city square or simply square), also called a plaza or piazza, is an open public space commonly found in the heart of a traditional town or city, and which is used for community gatherings. Rela ...
straddling the western end of
Queens Boulevard Queens Boulevard is a major thoroughfare connecting Midtown Manhattan, via the Queensboro Bridge, to Jamaica in Queens, New York City, United States. It is long and forms part of New York State Route 25. Queens Boulevard runs northwest to ...
in
Long Island City Long Island City (LIC) is a neighborhood within the New York City borough of Queens. It is bordered by Astoria to the north; the East River to the west; Sunnyside to the east; and Newtown Creek, which separates Queens from Greenpoint, Brook ...
,
Queens Queens is the largest by area of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located near the western end of Long Island, it is bordered by the ...
, between 21st Street and Jackson Avenue/
Northern Boulevard New York State Route 25A (NY 25A) is a state highway on Long Island in New York (state), New York, United States. It serves as the main east–west route for most of the North Shore (Long Island), North Shore of Long Island, running ...
(NY 25A). The
Queensboro Bridge The Queensboro Bridge, officially the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge, is a cantilever bridge over the East River in New York City. Completed in 1909, it connects the Long Island City neighborhood in the borough of Queens with the Midtown Manhattan ...
starts near the middle of the plaza. It has a
New York City Subway The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system in New York City serving the New York City boroughs, boroughs of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx. It is owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Tr ...
stop for the , the
Queens Plaza station The Queens Plaza station is an express metro station, station on the IND Queens Boulevard Line of the New York City Subway. Located under the eastern edge of Queens Plaza (Queens), Queens Plaza at the large Queens Plaza interchange, it is serve ...
below ground along the eastern edge, and another stop for the , the
Queensboro Plaza station The Queensboro Plaza station (originally named the Queensboro Bridge Plaza station or simply Bridge Plaza station) is an elevated New York City Subway station at Queens Plaza (originally called Queensboro Bridge Plaza or simply Bridge Plaza) i ...
above the west central part of the plaza on elevated tracks.


History

The location was the center of the 18th century village of
Dutch Kills Long Island City (LIC) is a neighborhood within the New York City borough of Queens. It is bordered by Astoria to the north; the East River to the west; Sunnyside to the east; and Newtown Creek, which separates Queens from Greenpoint, Brook ...
; two
millstone Millstones or mill stones are stones used in gristmills, used for triturating, crushing or, more specifically, grinding wheat or other grains. They are sometimes referred to as grindstones or grinding stones. Millstones come in pairs: a s ...
s were preserved as
relics In religion, a relic is an object or article of religious significance from the past. It usually consists of the physical remains or personal effects of a saint or other person preserved for the purpose of veneration as a tangible memorial. Reli ...
of that time, to be displayed in a green space.


20th century

The plaza itself was built to accommodate the connection of the Queensboro Bridge to Queens Boulevard, which opened in 1909. A street, named Jane Street, was widened by and was renamed Bridge Plaza North and South. Grassy
median The median of a set of numbers is the value separating the higher half from the lower half of a Sample (statistics), data sample, a statistical population, population, or a probability distribution. For a data set, it may be thought of as the “ ...
s, cut off at each intersection, divided the main and service lanes of the plaza. Sculptures made out of flowers and trees, including a "crescent with a Japanese cherry tree at its center", were prevalent. At the time, it was spacious, with only a few buildings on the sides and a solitary
flagpole A flagpole, flagmast, flagstaff, or staff is a pole designed to support a flag. If it is taller than can be easily reached to raise the flag, a cord is used, looping around a pulley at the top of the pole with the ends tied at the bottom. The fla ...
in the center of the plaza. Immediately to the southeast of the plaza was the
Sunnyside Yard Sunnyside Yard is a large coach yard, a railroad yard for passenger cars in the Sunnyside neighborhood of Queens in New York City. The yard is owned by Amtrak and is also used by New Jersey Transit. The Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) complet ...
, a storage yard for the
Pennsylvania Railroad The Pennsylvania Railroad ( reporting mark PRR), legal name as the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, also known as the "Pennsy," was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At its ...
(now
NJ Transit Rail Operations NJ Transit Rail Operations is the rail division of NJ Transit. It operates commuter rail service in New Jersey, with most service centered on transportation to and from New York City, Hoboken, and Newark. NJ Transit also operates rail service ...
). The addition of railroads and a bridge made Queens Plaza easily accessible from
Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...
. Queensboro Bridge Plaza or simply Bridge Plaza, as it was originally called, soon experienced an increase in real estate development. By 1915, the bridge was overcrowded with traffic, and subway tracks were built above the plaza. The
Queensboro Plaza station The Queensboro Plaza station (originally named the Queensboro Bridge Plaza station or simply Bridge Plaza station) is an elevated New York City Subway station at Queens Plaza (originally called Queensboro Bridge Plaza or simply Bridge Plaza) i ...
, a large two-level subway hub for the
Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation The Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation (BMT) was an urban transit holding company, based in Brooklyn, New York City, United States, and incorporated in 1923. The system was sold to the city in 1940. Today, together with the IND subway sy ...
and
Interborough Rapid Transit Company The Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) was the private operator of New York City's original underground subway line that opened in 1904, as well as earlier elevated railways and additional rapid transit lines in New York City. The IRT ...
, opened above Queens Plaza in 1916-1917. The construction of the Queensboro Plaza station necessitated the removal of Queens Plaza's landscaped medians. From the 1920s through
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, Queens Plaza served as the location for many factories and warehouses, some of which later became office buildings, as well as a financial hub with several banks. The Brewster Building, a factory along the plaza, made
horse-drawn carriage A carriage is a two- or four-wheeled horse-drawn vehicle for passengers. In Europe they were a common mode of transport for the wealthy during the Roman Empire, and then again from around 1600 until they were replaced by the motor car around 1 ...
s, Rolls-Royces and other cars, and the
Brewster F2A Buffalo The Brewster F2A Buffalo is an American fighter aircraft which saw service early in World War II. Designed and built by the Brewster Aeronautical Corporation, it was one of the first U.S. monoplanes with an arrestor hook and other modificatio ...
fighter plane. The
Long Island Savings Bank Long may refer to: Measurement * Long, characteristic of something of great duration * Long, characteristic of something of great length * Longitude (abbreviation: long.), a geographic coordinate * Longa (music), note value in early music mensu ...
, Silvercup Bakery and
Chase Manhattan Bank Building Sven (originally known as Queens Plaza Park) is a residential building located at 29-59 Northern Boulevard (next to Queens Plaza) in the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens, New York City. At tall, Sven is the third-tallest building in Q ...
also were built on the plaza. Other banks included the
Corn Exchange Bank The Corn Exchange Bank was a retail bank founded in 1853 in New York state. Over the years, the company acquired many community banks. History In 1855, the Corn Exchange Bank moved into an existing building in New York City at the northwest co ...
,
First National City Bank Citibank, N.A. ("N. A." stands for " National Association"; stylized as citibank) is the primary U.S. banking subsidiary of Citigroup, a financial services multinational corporation. Citibank was founded in 1812 as City Bank of New York, and ...
, and
Title Guarantee and Trust Company A title is one or more words used before or after a person's name, in certain contexts. It may signify their generation, official position, military rank, professional or academic qualification, or nobility. In some languages, titles may be ins ...
. By 1928, 86,000 cars went through the Queensboro Bridge and onto the plaza each day. Queens Plaza came to be characterized as a "a new downtown", supplanting the Hunters Point section of Long Island City in that regard. In 1933, the
Queens Plaza station The Queens Plaza station is an express metro station, station on the IND Queens Boulevard Line of the New York City Subway. Located under the eastern edge of Queens Plaza (Queens), Queens Plaza at the large Queens Plaza interchange, it is serve ...
, an underground subway station on the
Independent Subway System The Independent Subway System (IND; formerly the ISS) was a rapid transit rail system in New York City that is now part of the New York City Subway. It was first constructed as the IND Eighth Avenue Line, Eighth Avenue Line in Manhattan in 1932. ...
's Queens Boulevard Line, opened at the southeast corner of the plaza. In the 1970s, Queens Plaza became a place for drug dealers, pimps, and prostitutes to frequent, and was filled with trash, drugs, and broken glass. Later, "aging Chinese takeout
restaurant A restaurant is an establishment that prepares and serves food and drinks to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on the premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and Delivery (commerce), food delivery services. Restaurants ...
s, humid fried-chicken joints, sad-seeming doughnut shops, ndthe Queens Plaza Municipal
Parking Garage A multistorey car park (Commonwealth English) or parking garage (American English), also called a multistorey, parking building, parking structure, parkade (Canadian), parking ramp, parking deck, or indoor parking, is a building designed fo ...
, a brown concrete structure resembling a 1970's filmmaker's idea of an intergalactic battle station" opened along the plaza.
Strip club A strip club (also known as a strip joint, striptease bar, peeler bar, gentlemen's club, among others) is a venue where strippers provide adult entertainment, predominantly in the form of striptease and other erotic dances including lap dances. St ...
s appeared in the 1990s, around the time that rehabilitation of the plaza started to be considered.


21st century

By the early 2000s, Long Island City was going through
gentrification Gentrification is the process whereby the character of a neighborhood changes through the influx of more Wealth, affluent residents (the "gentry") and investment. There is no agreed-upon definition of gentrification. In public discourse, it has ...
, and new buildings were being put up, especially around Queens Plaza. In 2001, the area was rezoned, and 2,500 of about 5,000 apartments were built or planned within two blocks of the plaza. City officials decided to clean up the plaza, since the area was being gentrified. In 2005, the
U.S. Congress The United States Congress is the legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is a bicameral legislature, including a lower body, the U.S. House of Representatives, and an upper body, the U.S. Senate. They both ...
approved a measure to demolish the municipal parking lot and turn it into a park. In 2009, $75 million was earmarked to clean and spruce up the area and to renovate the plaza. The renovation itself cost $45 million. It created a new
public park An urban park or metropolitan park, also known as a city park, municipal park (North America), public park, public open space, or municipal gardens (United Kingdom, UK), is a park or botanical garden in cities, densely populated suburbia and oth ...
within the plaza, on the former site of the municipal parking lot; the park was envisioned as an "urban oasis" or neighborhood meeting place. Another new public park, named Dutch Kills Green, was built as part of the renovation; it has 500 trees,
wetlands A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially ...
, and pavers for storm drainage. It is right next to two new
hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a re ...
s: the 16-floor, 183-room
Hilton Garden Inn Hilton Garden Inn is an American chain of full-service hotels targeting business and leisure travelers looking for an upscale experience. The brand is owned by Hilton Worldwide. , it has 862 properties with 126,086 rooms in 49 countries and ter ...
, and a 31-floor, 160-room Marriott. New office buildings are also coming into the area. Even though the
Metropolitan Life Insurance Company MetLife, Inc. is the holding corporation for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (MLIC), better known as MetLife, and its affiliates. MetLife is among the largest global providers of insurance, annuities, and employee benefit programs, w ...
moved two-thirds of its employees from the Brewster Building on Queens Plaza North back to
Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...
in 2006 because of the distance and lack of
restaurant A restaurant is an establishment that prepares and serves food and drinks to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on the premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and Delivery (commerce), food delivery services. Restaurants ...
s in Queens Plaza, airline company
JetBlue JetBlue Airways Corporation, stylized as jetBlue, is an American major airline headquartered in Long Island City, in Queens, New York City. Primarily a point-to-point carrier, JetBlue's network features six focus cities including its main hub ...
and advertising and public relations firm
Publicis Publicis Groupe S.A. is a French multinational advertising and public relations company. As of 2024, the company is the largest advertising company in the world by revenue. Based in Paris, it is one of the 'Big Four' advertising commpanies, al ...
later moved into the same former factory. Real estate developer
Tishman Speyer Tishman Speyer is an American multinational corporation based at 45 Rockefeller Plaza in Midtown Manhattan. The conglomerate invests in high-profile real estate properties, has developed multiple buildings around the world, and has owned famou ...
was also looking for tenants for its Queens Plaza South skyscraper, named 2 Gotham South. While only 1,000 people lived on the streets immediately surrounding the plaza as of the 2000 United States Census, the area has been undergoing substantial new development. About 4,700 new rental units in 25 new residential buildings were expected to be completed in the Queens Plaza area by around 2019, as it grows along with the rest of
Long Island City Long Island City (LIC) is a neighborhood within the New York City borough of Queens. It is bordered by Astoria to the north; the East River to the west; Sunnyside to the east; and Newtown Creek, which separates Queens from Greenpoint, Brook ...
.


Notable places

The New York City Traffic Control Center at 28-11 Queens Plaza North controls the city's traffic lights. The
Chase Manhattan Bank Building Sven (originally known as Queens Plaza Park) is a residential building located at 29-59 Northern Boulevard (next to Queens Plaza) in the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens, New York City. At tall, Sven is the third-tallest building in Q ...
is a
New York City designated landmark The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) is the New York City agency charged with administering the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. The LPC is responsible for protecting New York City's architecturally, historically, and c ...
, having been given such a designation in 2015. Located at 29-27 41st Avenue, with one side facing Queens Plaza North, it was one of the most prominent buildings on Queens Plaza when it was completed in 1927.


References


External links


QueensPlaza.com: Your Gateway to Long Island City and Queens
{{Authority control Squares in Queens, New York Buildings and structures in Queens, New York Long Island City