Queens Plaza is a
plaza
A town square (or square, plaza, public square, city square, urban square, or ''piazza'') is an open public space, commonly found in the heart of a traditional town but not necessarily a true geometric square, used for community gatherings. ...
straddling the western end of
Queens Boulevard in
Long Island City,
Queens, 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, United States. It serves as the main east–west route for most of the North Shore of Long Island, running for from Interstate 495 (I-495) at the ...
(NY 25A). The
Queensboro Bridge
The Queensboro Bridge, officially named the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge, is a cantilever bridge over the East River in New York City. Completed in 1909, it connects the neighborhood of Long Island City in the borough of Queens with the Upper East ...
starts near the middle of the plaza. It has a
New York City Subway stop for the , the
Queens Plaza station
The Queens Plaza station is an express station on the IND Queens Boulevard Line of the New York City Subway. Located under the eastern edge of Queens Plaza at the large Queens Plaza interchange, it is served by the E train at all times, by t ...
below ground along the eastern edge, and another stop for the , the
Queensboro Plaza station
The Queensboro Plaza station (originally named 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) in th ...
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; two
millstones were preserved as relics 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
medians, 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 Sunnyside, Queens in New York City.
Description
The yard is owned by Amtrak and is also used by New Jersey Transit. The shared tracks of the Long Island Rail Road ( ...
, a storage yard for the
Pennsylvania Railroad
The Pennsylvania Railroad (reporting mark PRR), legal name 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. It was named ...
(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.
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 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) in th ...
, 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 ...
and
Interborough Rapid Transit Company, 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, 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 carriages,
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 modification ...
fighter plane. The
Long Island Savings Bank,
Silvercup Bakery and
Chase Manhattan Bank Building 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 ...
,
First National City Bank
Citibank, N. A. (N. A. stands for " National Association") is the primary U.S. banking subsidiary of financial services multinational Citigroup. Citibank was founded in 1812 as the City Bank of New York, and later became First National City Ba ...
, and
Title Guarantee and Trust Company.
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 station on the IND Queens Boulevard Line of the New York City Subway. Located under the eastern edge of Queens Plaza at the large Queens Plaza interchange, it is served by the E train at all times, by t ...
, an underground subway station on the
Independent Subway System
The Independent Subway System (IND or ISS), formerly known as the Independent City-Owned Subway System (ICOSS) or the Independent City-Owned Rapid Transit Railroad (ICORTR), was a rapid transit rail system in New York City that is now part of th ...
's
Queens Boulevard Line
The IND Queens Boulevard Line, sometimes abbreviated as QBL, is a line of the B Division of the New York City Subway in Manhattan and Queens, New York City, United States. The line, which is underground throughout its entire route, contains 23 ...
, 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 a business 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 food delivery services. Restaurants vary greatly in appearance ...
s, humid
fried-chicken joints, sad-seeming
doughnut shop
Doughnut shops (also spelled donut shops) specialize in the preparation and retail sales of doughnuts. A doughnut is a type of fried dough confectionery or dessert food. The doughnut is popular in many countries and prepared in various forms as ...
s,
ndthe Queens Plaza Municipal
Parking Garage, a brown concrete structure resembling a 1970's filmmaker's idea of an intergalactic battle station" opened along the plaza.
Strip clubs 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 of changing the character of a neighborhood through the influx of more affluent residents and businesses. It is a common and controversial topic in urban politics and planning. Gentrification often increases the ec ...
, 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 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 municipal park (North America) or a public park, public open space, or municipal gardens ( UK), is a park in cities and other incorporated places that offer recreation and green space to resi ...
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 ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free ( anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The ...
, and
pavers for
storm drainage. It is right next to two new
hotels: the 16-floor, 183-room
Hilton Garden Inn, 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, wi ...
moved two-thirds of its employees from the
Brewster Building on Queens Plaza North back to
Manhattan in 2006 because of the distance and lack of
restaurant
A restaurant is a business 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 food delivery services. Restaurants vary greatly in appearance ...
s in Queens Plaza, airline company
JetBlue
JetBlue Airways Corporation (stylized as jetBlue) is a major American low cost airline, and the seventh largest airline in North America by passengers carried. The airline is headquartered in the Long Island City neighborhood of the New York C ...
and advertising and public relations firm
Publicis later moved into the same former factory. Real estate developer
Tishman Speyer
Tishman Speyer Properties is an American company that invests in real estate.
History
The firm was founded in 1978 by Robert Tishman and Jerry Speyer.
In March 1988, the company announced its first project in Europe, the construction of a 70 ...
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 United States census of 2000, conducted by the United States Census Bureau, Census Bureau, determined the resident population of the United States on April 1, 2000, to be 281,421,906, an increase of 13.2 percent over the 248,709,873 people en ...
,
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.
Notable places
The New York City Traffic Control Center at 28-11 Queens Plaza North controls the city's traffic lights.
[Rebeca Henely]
Changing Midtown signals in LIC
Yournabe.com 2011 July 31
The
Chase Manhattan Bank Building is a
New York City designated landmark, 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