Braunstein, Benjamin | Bronze Plaque for Commercial-Industrial | Significantly Altered | Jamaica | 1948 | The one-story Lincoln-Mercury building featured a rounded showroom with floor to ceiling windows and finished with brick and terra cotta trim. Behind this was an open plan service station and repair shop. Schildkraut Inc. had sold Fords and Mercurys at this location since at least 1941, although its unclear if they commissioned this new building. On the site today is a rounded one-story structure that is connected to a much larger storage warehouse. Although this may be the remnant of the auto showroom, if so it has been too altered to confirm
Heller, Simeon | Bronze Plaque for Office Buildings | Demolished | Flushing | Office Building | 1948 | This building addressed the issue of inserting a mixed use into a residential neighborhood. The structure, which housed both a residence and medical office had the character of a low ranch structure facing north to allow light to enter the examination and operating rooms. The building had a low hipped roof and a facade of brick and stone. It was demolished in approximately 2001 and the site is now filled by multifamily attached housing. Coincidentally, there is a similar building immediately nearby, the award-winning 1959 residence of Dr. Elmer Kestler, which also addresses the same issue and remains largely intact.
Thomas, Andrew J. | Honorable Mention | Extant | Jackson Heights | Commercial Building | 1948 | This corner commercial space harkens back to a time of quaint storefronts and the Colonial Revival style. The building was meant to blend into the surrounding neighborhood and incorporates white brick, shutters, picture windows, a slate roof, and a classical cornice. The building looks remarkably the same although the trim is now black and some of the picture window details have been modernized.
John O'Malley and Associates | Extant | Edgemere | Religious Building | 1962 | St. Gertrude’s auditorium is one of architect John O’Malley’s lesser works. The building is a large rectangular auditorium with a separate entrance connected to the rear of the existing, older St. Gertrude’s Roman Catholic Church. Today the building is closed and decaying on a stretch of the Rockaways filled with new construction but also numerous empty lots.
Lorimer Rich and Associates | Bronze Plaque for Office Buildings | Extant | Jamaica | Office Building | 1958 | The Otis Elevator Company stands semi-derelict on a somewhat forlorn block of Jamaica with empty lots on either side. The building remains intact with its brick and limestone facade and the aluminum windows are now behind metal mesh screens. The metal Otis Elevator signage is now gone and the entrance area is surrounded by a blue wooden partition. The awards program states that the building is 90 x 99 feet and uses the Larson system of continuous membrane waterproofing.
