St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church
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.
Armor Elevator Company
Stein, Julius | Bronze Plaque for Industrial | Extant | Woodside | Industrial Building | 1961 |One of two Armor facilities to be honored, this is the much larger plant that encompasses an entire block (the other building is a tiny administrative showroom in Long Island City). The 70,000 square foot building is two-stories of orange brick and a prominent entrance of aluminum and enamel panels. Originally these panels were turquoise but have since been replaced with brown. The front of the building houses offices and executive spaces on two floors, while the rear of the facility is the same height but all one level of factory space with clerestory windows.
Metropolitan Industrial Bank
Birnbaum, Philip | Bronze Plaque for Banks | Extant | Forest Hills | Bank | 1952 |A true standout among the award winners, this design is as striking as when it was originally unveiled. The corner bank gleams with an exterior of stainless steel and granite. Floor to ceiling windows illuminate the three-story height space. Patrons enter through a curved corner entrance up a short flight of stairs. The interior the original mosaic floors and teakwood walls although the mural featuring Forest Hills has been lost. The bank is surprisingly unlike most of architect Philip Birnbaum’s other designs; he was primarily known for his large apartment building towers in brick.
Church of the Transfiguration
Mulokas, Jonas | Honorable Mention | Extant | Maspeth | Religious Building | 1962 |The Church of the Transfiguration is one of the most unique and striking structures honored by the Chamber of Commerce during this era. Nestled within a compact residential part of Maspeth, the A-frame church incorporates traditional Lithuanian symbols into a definitively modern structure. The front facade is a wall of colored glass which sits recessed under the projecting eaves of the A-frame. The red entrance doors are surrounded by white brick, have a red undulating canopy over them, and above that a modern sculpture of the Transfiguration. The base of the building and the short projecting wings are clad in orange brick. Symbols of Lithuanian culture abound on the exterior as well as the interior, which was designed by V. K. Jonynas. A prominent bell tower rises up with a stylized shrine at the top. The architect Jonas Mulokas specialized in Lithuanian Catholic churches and several of his works still exist in Illinois among other places. An older rectory sits to the right of the church and was reclad in orange brick to match the newly constructed church.