Parks Department Lets World's Fair Map Weather the Winter Without Protection
World’s Fair map could be in peril
BY Nicholas Hirshon
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Monday, February 9th 2009, 9:59 PM
Farriella for News
The interior of the New York State Pavillion in Flushing Meadows Corona Park where a giant roadmap of New York State from the 1964 Worlds Fair is in danger of cracking due to extreme weather conditions.
Farriella for News
The New York State Pavillion in Flushing Meadows Corona Park.
The city has let ice blanket a faux-marble road map from the 1964 World’s Fair multiple times this winter instead of dishing out $20,000 to protect the cartographic curiosity, Queens News has learned.
Preservationists fear frost will dislodge or fracture panels on the 9,000-square-foot map in the New York State Pavilion, a crumbling, yet iconic, relic of the fair in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park.
Even more galling to preservationists is that conservators devised a shelter plan for the map just last year – to bury its panels under fabric, sand and gravel, blocking water and sunlight that feeds crack-widening weeds. But the city still hasn’t carried it out.
“I don’t understand why it’s taking so long,” said Professor Frank Matero, a preservation expert at the University of Pennsylvania, who helped develop the never-implemented program.
John Krawchuk, historic preservation director for the Parks Department, said the city bought enough fabric and some sand for Matero’s plan, but stopped $20,000 short of paying for all the required materials.
He admitted the city has the cash but decided to direct it elsewhere. “We have many needs throughout the entire parks system that are always competing for funds,” he said.