Monday, April 25, 2016

Friday, April 22, 2016

LaGuardia Marine Air Terminal, Queens, New York, New York

The Marine Air Terminal, located at New York City's LaGuardia Airport, is the only active airport terminal dating from the first generation of passenger travel in the United States, a.k.a. the "Golden age of the flying boat." Originally built to handle seaplanes, the Marine Air Terminal, an Art Deco building designed in 1939 by William Delano of the firm Delano & Aldrich, consists of a central circular core of two stories with an attic, from which a rectangular entrance pavilion and two symmetrically opposed one-story wings project.

Inside the terminal hangs "Flight," a mural measuring 12 feet in height and 237 feet in length, the largest mural created as part of the Great Depression-era Work Projects Administration (WPA).   Completed by James Brooks in 1940, "Flight" depicts the history of man's involvement with flight.
The mural was painted over without explanation by the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey in the 1950s, possibly because some saw left-wing symbolism in it.  After an extensive restoration project headed by aviation historian Geoffrey Arend, the mural was rededicated on September 18, 1980.

PanAm logo on transom


couple holding hands and binoculars aspiring to travel, Port Authority thought this subversive and painted over mural
statue of Fiorello LaGuardia

flying fish on waves








Public Safety Answering Ctr (PSAC II), Bronx. New York, New York

The $800 million PSAC II, a 240-by-240-by-240-foot concrete fortress, designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill is where more than 11 million emergency 911 calls (230 operators) are taken by Police and Fire Depts. each year.  It is intended to be self-sufficient for 3 days.  It is surrounded by an earthen berm, appearing to make building float.  Phytoremediation, the use of plants to purify the interior, was undertaken by Rensselaer Polytechnic Inst.

350 Marconi St.