Chapman Evans and Delehanty | Bronze Plaque for Public Buildings | Extant | Long Island City | School or College | 1958 | Aviation High School is a specialized trade high school purpose built for its somewhat unusual focus. Taking up an entire city block on Queens Boulevard in Woodside and accommodating 2,500 students, the school includes normal educational facilities like classrooms and a cafeteria but also a hangar and shops where students work on donated aircraft. The complex is of a Miesian design, largely unaltered, and includes a curtain wall design with aluminum framed windows and enamel panels in a green-blue hue. A light colored brick is also employed. The main entrance, actually on 36th Street, features a large stainless steel sculpture running up the side of the building and according to the Queens Awards program is an abstraction of aircraft vapor.
S. J. Kessler and Sons | Bronze Plaque for Apartments | Extant | Jamaica | Apartment Building | 1958 | While the main architects of The Highlander were the Kesslers, the lobby was designed by none other than architect Morris Lapidus, most well known for his exuberant Miami modern hotels. Lapidus was a prolific interior designer as well, creating high-style lobbies and lounges for his hotels as well as commercial establishments in New York City. Not much is known about what the lobby originally looked like here. The Highlander’s entrance is down a set of rambling stairs and originally had meandering paths and rock gardens flanking it. The apartments themselves were open plan to accommodate modern living. Fred Trump was the developer of the property.
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.
