Weschsler and Schimenti | Bronze Plaque for Office Buildings | Extant | Long Island City | Office Building | 1954 | As of 2014, the Crescent Building is undergoing a gut renovation and exterior alteration. Interestingly, unlike many of its neighbors, the develop has chosen to keep the existing shell of the building, possibly speaking to the original quality of the structure and its adaptability. The Chamber Award program speaks directly to this in stating that “The Cresent Building in Long Island City enhances the value of property in its immediate vicinity and could well serve as the impetus for future commercial-business development in the Queens Plaza area.” The basic layout is 9 floors of reinforced concrete, brick face on the exterior, and a plethora of windows.
Silverstone, Oscar | Honorable Mention | Extant | Flushing | Bank | 1954 | This branch of the Jamaica National Bank is a limestone block clad box with simple details including patterned panels under the windows, a metal framed entrance vestibule, and a stone veneer retaining wall. The building is oriented to face a triangular green space replete with flagpole.
Gordon, Miles A. | Honorable Mention | Significantly Altered | Woodside | Commercial Building | 1954 | Black and Decker is long gone but this simple one-story building today exists as Parrillada Restaurant. Everything but the basic shape and the corner window bay has been altered.
Miller, George C. | Bronze Plaque for Apartments | Extant | Beechhurst | Apartment Building | 1954 | Located immediately adjacent to the taller and later Cryder House and facing the much larger complex of Levitt House, these three massive six story buildings hold 325 apartments on a small percentage of the overall 9 acre site. There is also a private beach and boat dock. The buildings look similar to the adjacent Levitt House complex, also designed by Queens-based architect George Miller.
Birnbaum, Philip | Bronze Plaque for Apartments | Extant | Jackson Heights | Apartment Building | 1954 | While looking from the exterior like every other red brick mid-century apartment building, the award program write-up tells another story. The description claims that Roosevelt Terrace was the first building in the country to employ terraces on both facades of each apartment, offering cross-ventilation for every unit. Primary access to units is also provided by the terraces eliminating the need for some interior hallways. No surprise that the architect for this innovation was Philip Birnbaum, the prolific apartment designer, largely forgotten today but responsible for hundreds of major scale residential buildings across the city.
