FAIRWAY APARTMENTS Testimony
Statement of the Historic Districts Council
Designation Hearing
March 22, 2011
Item 4
LP – 2484
BOROUGH OF Queens
FAIRWAY APARTMENTS, 76-09 34th Avenue (aka 76-01 to 76-09 34th Avenue)
The Historic Districts Council is the advocate for New York City’s designated historic districts and neighborhoods meriting preservation.
The 1937 Fairway Apartments, which derives its name from being constructed on the former site of the community golf course, was a later addition to the Jackson Heights neighborhood. While other apartment buildings around the city were being built at this time in the Art Deco and Moderne styles, architect Joshua Tabatchnik chose the Tudor Revival style reflecting the romantic revival designs that predominated in the neighborhood. He outfitted the full blockfront structure with all the trappings of a Tudor Castle – from the arched batten style wooden entry door with flanking semi-circular towers up to the roofline of turrets, battlements, and ramparts. However, Tabatchnik’s design fit in with the earlier buildings not just in its style, but also in its form which highlighted the open, green feeling for which the neighborhood was, and is still, famed; with front and side courtyards.
While HDC is happy to see the Fairway Apartments back for consideration as an individual landmark 21 years after its first hearing and supports the designation, we feel it would be much more fitting as part of a larger extension to the existing historic district. The building, just across 34th Avenue from the northern border of the 1993 city-landmarked district, is part of the 1998 State and National Register Historic District. HDC asks that the Commission take a look at and consider those blocks on the Register that have not yet been landmarked by the city. Tabatchnik took great effort to design a building that would be contextual with the earlier pieces of Jackson Heights, and over 70 years later his work has stood the test of time. The Fairway Apartments mean more to the history of New York City as part of the Jackson Heights Historic District, and the district would be stronger if it included this and other worthy structures