14 United Nations Avenue South
New York, NY 11355
(718) 760-0064
The Queens Museum, formerly the Queens Museum of Art, is an art museum and educational center located in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in the borough of Queens in New York City, United States. The museum is housed in the New York City Building, which was built for the 1939 New York World's Fair, and which then hosted the United Nations General Assembly from 1946 to 1950. The museum itself was founded in 1972, and has, among its permanent exhibitions, the Panorama of the City of New York, a scale model of the five boroughs built for the 1964 New York World's Fair.The Queens Museum has focused on outreach and access for a wide range of audiences, and is known for international contemporary art exhibitions that reflect the cultural diversity of the borough. The museum’s Education Department is the first in America to employ art therapists in a dedicated, fully accessible classroom, while the Public Events department has hired community organizers to work on local improvement initiatives. The Queens Museum is, in addition to a fine arts collecting museum, also a historical site, community center, and educational classroom.Building historyThe Queens Museum is located in the New York City Building, the historic pavilion designed by architect Aymar Embury II for the 1939 World’s Fair. From 1946 to 1950, the pavilion was the temporary home of the United Nations General Assembly, and was the site of numerous defining moments in the UN’s early years, including the creation of UNICEF, and the partitions of both Korea and Palestine.
The Queens Zoo is an 18acre zoo located in Flushing Meadows – Corona Park in the New York City borough of Queens. The zoo is part of an integrated system of four zoos and one aquarium managed by the Wildlife Conservation Society in partnership with the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, and is accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA).HistoryConstructed on the site of the 1964 New York World's Fair and opened in 1968, it is the first to be designed from the start as a cageless zoo. Robert Moses turned the first shovel full of earth for the new construction on August 20, 1966, and cut the ceremonial ribbon to the new 18acre "Flushing Meadows Zoo" a bit more than two years later on October 26, 1968.The zoo's aviary is a geodesic dome designed by Thomas C. Howard of Synergetics, Inc. and used during the 1964 Fair. The dome was originally designed as the fair's major indoor assembly hall, with no indoor supports blocking anyone's view, and repurposed for the 1965 season as a tribute to Winston Churchill after he died in 1964. The 175ft diameter dome was one of the largest single-layer structures of its time. It was dismantled and stored after the fair, and was later reassembled in its current location with a mesh netting covering instead of the solid tent of the original dome.