Birnbaum, Philip | Bronze Plaque for Apartments | Extant | Jackson Heights | Apartment Building | 1954 | While looking from the exterior like every other red brick mid-century apartment building, the award program write-up tells another story. The description claims that Roosevelt Terrace was the first building in the country to employ terraces on both facades of each apartment, offering cross-ventilation for every unit. Primary access to units is also provided by the terraces eliminating the need for some interior hallways. No surprise that the architect for this innovation was Philip Birnbaum, the prolific apartment designer, largely forgotten today but responsible for hundreds of major scale residential buildings across the city.
Samuel Paul and Seymour Jarmul | Bronze Plaque for Commercial-Retail | Demolished | Bayside | Commercial Building | 1967 | The Water’s Edge Building is one of the few intentionally temporary structures in the Queens Modern pantheon. It was constructed by the Birchwood Park Organization as a showroom for the neighboring Water’s Edge community, a large planned development that also won its own award. The exhibit center included a landscaped garden, a model of the entire Water’s Edge community, and access to model homes. In the late 1960s it was replaced with a somewhat banal group of townhouses.
Wuest and Bailey | Honorable Mention | Extant | Long Island City | Industrial Building | 1958 | This two story pale brick elevator company building has subtle brick designs and simple angles that make it seem like it could date from the early 1940s instead of the late 50s. It is very dissimilar to the larger Armor Elevator headquarters built three years later or even the Otis Elevator building built the same year, both of which evoke their period more typically.
Brown, Guenther and Booss | Honorable Mention | Extant | Flushing | Religious Building | 1955 | The orientation of this church is puzzling. Sited on a corner lot, the rear of the church and the apse are located closest to the street while a small, side entrance and the nave are set back along a walkway. The end facing the church incorporates a large cross as decoration. The firm of Brown Guethner Booss designed at least one other religious building in New York, a convent done this same year.
Mathieu, Joseph | Honorable Mention | Extant | Queens Village | Religious Building | 1955 | Joseph Mathieu, this church’s architect, designed another chapel at this same time which won a Queens Chamber Award. Both buildings have stone facade veneer elements that gives texture to the overall design. On the church itself, a stained glass window tops the entrance doors within a recessed frame of polished red granite. The facade has elements of art deco design with streamlined angel carvings and the facade is topped by an image of the church’s patron saint framed with golden rays. The roof is peaked and clad in slate. The neighboring school also incorporates deco elements including a vertical recessed metal window element above the entrance and black bricks patterns in contrast to the lighter colored primary stone. The complex contains numerous other buildings including the rectory, social hall, and separate chapel.
