Leslie Apartments

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Leslie Apartments

Address: 159 Greenway Terrace
Neighborhood: Forest Hills Gardens
Architect:  Fellheimer and Wagner
Year: 1948
Current Status: Extant
Award:  Bronze Plaque for Apartments without Stores
Typology:  Apartment Building

The Leslie Apartments are an unusual Queens Modern award winner, a large apartment complex that brings together modern fire safety and conveniences with the strict old world design of the private community of Forest Hills Gardens. The building occupies a large triangular plot located not far from the main entrance to the Gardens and was the last building to be constructed, rising on the site of the Russell Sage Foundation’s sales office. The foundation was responsible for the development of this garden city style community. The Leslie itself is surrounded by a decorative wall and entered through arched brickwork or through the underground parking garage beneath the building. The building seems to have received its award partially for its novel approach to fire access which eliminated fire escapes while still providing two means of egress from each apartment. Today the high style historicist Leslie Apartments speak to an interesting marriage of modern convenience with historical design.