Sole, George J. | Honorable Mention | Extant | Douglaston | School or College | 1960 | George Sole, this building’s architect, is known mostly for designing buildings for the Catholic dioceses including prominent commissions at JFK Airport and near the United Nations. Here however, he designed an international-style public school on a steeply sloping site. The entrance, at the intersection of 60th Avenue and Marathon Parkway is one-story, clad in fieldstone and topped with a curved roof overhang. The school then spreads out behind the entrance, dropping to five stories above ground at the rear of the site. Other materials used include blue and red brickface, tan enamel panels, and aluminum detailing at the entrances and window surrounds.
Morris Rothstein and Sons | Extant | Forest Hills | Apartment Building | 1956 | The Balfour is essentially two separate brick apartment complexes tied together with a one story entrance wing in the middle. Built to serve a more luxury clientele, the complex is well-maintained and incorporates amply open space covering 60% of the site. The brick-clad, six-story apartment buildings have minimal exterior detailing but originally boasted a host of modern conveniences inside. The Cord Meyer Development Company developed this and several other Queens Chamber Award winners during this era.
Marks, Irving M. | Honorable Mention | Extant | Douglaston | Residence | 1956 | This ranch-style house extends along a gently sloping lot near Little Neck Bay. The building is of frame construction but does incorporate brick cladding around the lower half of the exterior. There is a garage under the structure at the lowest part of the slope. The residence is sited within the Douglaston Historic District.
Weston, Martyn N. | Honorable Mention | Extant | Glendale | Office Building | 1955 | The Mount Lebanon Cemetery administrative offices are housed in this understated building just inside the cemetery gates. Built on a slope, there is a parking lot on either side of the site. The building itself is clad in brick and has had several additions added or spaces enclosed. The structure can still be identified by the vertical pylon to the right of the entrance. The Brooklyn-based architect Martyn Weston is buried in the cemetery not very far away from this award-winning structure he designed.
Alexander D. Crossett and Associates | Special Bronze Plaque | Extant | Jackson Heights | Office Building | 1953 | The first Borough’s Outstanding Award was presented in 1953 to the Bulova Watch complex. This monumental building uses a severely classical design, evoking many European and American classical municipal structures from the 1930s. Alexander Crossett was not a prominent architect of the period so it is unclear why he was offered such a major commission. Most of his other buildings in the city were small utilitarian industrial buildings. However Aymar Embery III, Robert Moses’ chief architect and designer of many of the Depression-era pool and recreational complexes across the city was the consulting architect here, which could explain the strong 1930s classical evocation. The design was inspired by the Federal Reserve Bank in Washington, DC.
