Birnbaum, Philip | Extant | Forest Hills | Apartment Building | 1966 | Kennedy House was seen as the height of fashion when it was built and today still retains cache for its high end amenities and stringent board. It was designed by the prolific Philip Birnbaum and was the tallest building in the borough when completed, at 34 stories. It is set back at an angle to Queens Boulevard, taking up less than 25% of the entire site with a wide entrance drive that originally included reflecting pools. The lobby is double-height and includes an enormous chandelier, original to the building. There is a rooftop swimming pool and apartments have large smoked-glass balconies.
Persich and Giacopelli | Bronze Plaque for Commercial-Retail | Extant | Flushing | Restaurant | 1966 | Highlighting both the continued popularity of traditional architecture and the ongoing adaptability of modern materials, the Villa Bianca Restaurant is a modern fireproof shell with interior and exterior finishes designed to make it look like a traditional Italian style structure. These details include a stucco exterior, multi-paned windows facing the street and a sloped roof covered in terra cotta tiles. Today the building houses a Korean church but the overall structure remains the same, although it is unclear what remains of the teak flooring, and terrazzo and marble on the interior.
Evans and Delehanty | Bronze Plaque for Banks | Demolished | Elmhurst | Bank | 1966 | This building was at the corner of Queens Boulevard and Broadway, a location especially chosen to give the bank prominent placement. It is unclear why a round bank was designed although the award”s program states that the round shape was informed by the corner lot and need for an entrance facing the intersection. However, with Skidmore Owings and Merrill’s complex of round buildings for Macy’s and National City Bank just down Queens Boulevard, it is possible that this bank was inspired by its nearby neighbors, completed just the year before. The bank was constructed with a precast concrete exterior while the disengaged roof was held up on interior columns. The interior also included a symmetrical arrangement of teller stations and a Venetian terrazzo floor. The building was demolished in 2004 and the lot is currently empty.
Sirof and Sivertsen | Bronze Plaque for Industrial | Extant | Long Island City | Industrial Building | 1965 | This building today serves as a social services center for the disabled but largely remains the same on the exterior from its industrial days as a factory for knitting and sewing. The structure is a large, singular rectangle with clad in brick with some granite details at ground level. There is a prominent double-height entrance framed by vertical and horizontal exposed steel beams, which originally had a cantilevered entrance staircase, since modified. The building is sited on a slope which accommodates a garage underneath the building for parking.
Neumann, Herbert W. with Ryder, Alfred H. | Bronze Plaque for Rehabilitations and Alterations | Significantly Altered | Jamaica | Office Building | 1965 | The rehabilitation of this office building consisted of recladding the first floor in white granite and adding porcelain enamel panels of blue and white to the upper floors. The building also included newly designed stylized signage including the company’s blue gas flame, a projecting blue and white sign, and blue lettering above the new central entrance. Today the building has been completely stripped of all decorative elements and paneling, although the white granite at the base is still visible around the side entrances.
