Salkowitz, A. H. | Honorable Mention | Extant | Forest Hills | Apartment Building | 1959 | The Diplomat was one of the first white brick apartment houses in Queens and stands out among the more prevalent red brick towers of Forest Hills. As with many of the apartment towers going up at this time, the aim was to provide the latest amenities and the real estate brochure for the Diplomat lists more than 30 features, from a roofdeck and garden to Venetian blinds for all windows. The architect, A. H. Salkowitz, was known for his apartment designs so it makes sense he was chosen here, although the Diplomat was quickly surpassed by larger and most costly apartment buildings as the 60s progressed.
Engelhardt, T. H. | Bronze Plaque for Commercial | Significantly Altered | Forest Hills | Commercial Building | 1949 | The basic shape of this curved corner commercial site is still visible although otherwise largely altered. The original design attempted to be classic yet contemporary by being both low-scale with numerous windows and use of elegant materials such as limestone, white marble, stainless steel, and granite. There were also originally numerous neon signs advertising the commercial establishments located here, although not referenced in the award program. Today the building is a bank and over the entrance in the recessed curve is a large mural of the sites of Forest Hills, a fitting addition to a commercial building built and owned by the company that developed much of the surrounding neighborhood.
Salkowitz, A. H. | Bronze Plaque for Apartments | Extant | Forest Hills | Apartment Building | 1959 | Warner House is one of numerous rather interchangeable red brick apartment buildings in Forest Hills that received an award. The The E-shaped building is six stories and includes a central entrance faced in black marble. The building sits on a slope with access to a parking garage at one end of the site. The architect A. H. Salkowitz also won an honorable mention for a white brick apartment building on Queens Boulevard, The Diplomat, completed the same year.
Samuel Paul and Seymour Jarmul | Bronze Plaque for Apartments | Extant | Forest Hills | Apartment Building | 1965 | These striking towers stand out from the red brick apartment houses in Forest Hills. Instead of the usual, here we get 3 30-story buildings in tan brick with curvilinear baconies stretching across the main facade fronted by blue glass railings. There is also underground parking and an above ground swimming pool surrounded by an eye-catching blue and yellow patterned patio. The buildings were given the names The Bel Air, the Toledo, and The Kyoto with each one having lobbies that originally referenced the buildings name in an over the top decor. An unusual and still elegant response to luxury housing in Forest Hills.
Liebman-Liebman and Associates | Bronze Plaque for Office Buildings | Extant | Forest Hills | Office Building | 1969 | The Cord Meyer Office Building is a late gasp of corporate modernism in Queens. Cord Meyer was responsible for much of the development of Forest Hills, developing housing from the turn of the century through the 1980s and later switching efforts to coop conversions and real estate management. Their nine-story office building occupies a prominent intersection in Forest Hills along Queens Boulevard, standing conspiciously among significantly lower-rise residential neighbors. The building is clad in a bronze-colored aluminum and glass exterior curtain wall capped by a masonry tower at one end. The whole building floats above a commercial base which has been altered. The Building Award still hangs inside the lobby entrance.
