Shaftel, Stanley | Bronze Plaque for Residences | Demolished | Flushing | Residence | 1965 | This residence was a product of the era, an L-shaped structure on a large corner plot with an unusual low asphalt-shingle roof that included a dome shape with three octagonal windows over the central entrance. These windows overlooked an open cathedral-style entrance and a spiral staircase for access to the second floor. The awards description also states that all rooms led off the central hallway like spokes on a wheel. The main living space also included a sunken living room with floor to ceiling windows. The exterior was clad in Sayre and Fisher brick, a longstanding brick manufacturer from New Jersey that experienced a resurgence in popularity in the 1960s but closed in 1970. The Capanegro residence was demolished in 2004 and replaced by two McMansions.
Levien, Robert E. | Bronze Plaque for Industrial | Extant | Long Island City | Industrial Building | 1965 | The Russ Togs building is a large blank building, its facade of blocks of tan brickface intersected at regular intervals by narrow vertical lines of dark windows. There is a central core differentiated by a slightly higher facade wall, dark grey brickface, and a wall of windows above the entrance. The structure housed a prominent clothing manufacturer, well known and expanding when this facility was built, but bankrupt by 1991. The layout of three floors with 20 foot ceilings and 70,000 square feet was directly for the needs of the company’s line of business. Today the structure houses a cosmetic manufacturer.
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.
Sirof and Sivertsen | Bronze Plaque for Industrial | Extant | Long Island City | Industrial Building | 1965 | This building today serves as a social services center for the disabled but largely remains the same on the exterior from its industrial days as a factory for knitting and sewing. The structure is a large, singular rectangle with clad in brick with some granite details at ground level. There is a prominent double-height entrance framed by vertical and horizontal exposed steel beams, which originally had a cantilevered entrance staircase, since modified. The building is sited on a slope which accommodates a garage underneath the building for parking.
Neumann, Herbert W. with Ryder, Alfred H. | Bronze Plaque for Rehabilitations and Alterations | Significantly Altered | Jamaica | Office Building | 1965 | The rehabilitation of this office building consisted of recladding the first floor in white granite and adding porcelain enamel panels of blue and white to the upper floors. The building also included newly designed stylized signage including the company’s blue gas flame, a projecting blue and white sign, and blue lettering above the new central entrance. Today the building has been completely stripped of all decorative elements and paneling, although the white granite at the base is still visible around the side entrances.
