Queens Plaza (Queens)

File:Queensboro Plaza 42nd Ave.JPG

The location was the center of the 18th century village of Dutch Kills; two millstones were preserved as relics of that time, to be displayed in a green space.{{cite news |title=Colonial-era millstones in danger at Queens Plaza construction site, preservationists peeved |first=John |last=Lauinger |url=https://www.nydailynews.com/2009/09/23/colonial-era-millstones-in-danger-at-queens-plaza-construction-site-preservationists-peeved/ |newspaper=Daily News |location=New York |date=September 24, 2009 |access-date=April 12, 2024}}

The plaza itself was built to accommodate the connection of the Queensboro Bridge to Queens Boulevard, which opened in 1909. A street, named Jane Street, was widened by {{convert|90|ft|m}} and was renamed Bridge Plaza North and South. Grassy medians, cut off at each intersection, divided the main and service lanes of the plaza. Sculptures made out of flowers and trees, including a {{convert|75|ft}} "crescent with a Japanese cherry tree at its center", were prevalent. At the time, it was spacious, with only a few buildings on the sides and a solitary flagpole in the center of the plaza.{{cite web|url=http://s-media.nyc.gov/agencies/lpc/lp/2570.pdf|title=Bank Of The Manhattan Company Building|date=May 12, 2015|publisher=New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission|pages=2–3|access-date=2020-01-26}} Immediately to the southeast of the plaza was the Sunnyside Yard, a storage yard for the Pennsylvania Railroad (now NJ Transit Rail Operations). The addition of railroads and a bridge made Queens Plaza easily accessible from Manhattan. Queensboro Bridge Plaza or simply Bridge Plaza, as it was originally called, soon experienced an increase in real estate development.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1911/09/10/archives/queens-building-record-to-occupy-entire-block-front-on-queensboro.html|title=QUEENS BUILDING RECORD.; To Occupy Entire Block Front on Queensboro Bridge Plaza.|date=1911-09-10|work=The New York Times|access-date=2020-01-26|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}

By 1915, the bridge was overcrowded with traffic, and subway tracks were built above the plaza. The Queensboro Plaza station, a large two-level subway hub for the Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation and Interborough Rapid Transit Company, opened above Queens Plaza in 1916-1917.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1916/11/05/archives/new-subway-link-first-train-at-noon-today-from-east-42d-st-to.html|title=NEW SUBWAY LINK.; First Train at Noon Today from East 42d St. to Queensboro Plaza.|date=1916-11-05|work=The New York Times|access-date=2020-01-26|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}{{cite web|url=https://bklyn.newspapers.com/image/54438288/|title=First Train Runs On Elevated Line to Astoria Section|date=February 1, 1917|via=Brooklyn Public Library; newspapers.com {{open access}}|access-date=June 29, 2015|newspaper=Brooklyn Daily Eagle}} The construction of the Queensboro Plaza station necessitated the removal of Queens Plaza's landscaped medians.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xskXPwAACAAJ|title=300 Years of Long Island City: 1630-1930|last=Seyfried|first=V.F.|publisher=Edgian Press|year=1984|series=Queens community series|access-date=January 26, 2020}}{{Rp|140}} From the 1920s through World War II, Queens Plaza served as the location for many factories and warehouses, some of which later became office buildings, as well as a financial hub with several banks. The Brewster Building, a factory along the plaza, made horse-drawn carriages, Rolls-Royces and other cars, and the Brewster F2A Buffalo fighter plane. The Long Island Savings Bank, Silvercup Bakery and Chase Manhattan Bank Building also were built on the plaza. Other banks included the Corn Exchange Bank, First National City Bank, and Title Guarantee and Trust Company.

By 1928, 86,000 cars went through the Queensboro Bridge and onto the plaza each day.{{Rp|139}} Queens Plaza came to be characterized as a "a new downtown", supplanting the Hunters Point section of Long Island City in that regard.{{Rp|138}} In 1933, the Queens Plaza station, an underground subway station on the Independent Subway System's Queens Boulevard Line, opened at the southeast corner of the plaza.{{cite web|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1933/08/18/99841892.pdf|title=TWO SUBWAY UNITS OPEN AT MIDNIGHT; Links in City-Owned System in Queens and Brooklyn to Have 15 Stations.|date=August 18, 1933|work=The New York Times|access-date=November 7, 2015}}{{cite news|url=http://fultonhistory.com/highlighter/viewer/?file=http%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FNewspaper%252014%2FJamaica%2520NY%2520Long%2520Island%2520Daily%2520Press%2FJamaica%2520NY%2520Long%2520Island%2520Daily%2520Press%25201933%2FJamaica%2520NY%2520Long%2520Island%2520Daily%2520Press%25201933%2520-%25204319.pdf&highlightsFile=http%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2Fhighlighter%2Fhits%2F4b038616712c5736ea2d11c006e2761c#page=1|title=New Queens Subway Service Will Be Launched Tonight; Tunnel From Manhattan Open to Jackson Heights; Service Will Eventually Be Extended Through To Jamaica|date=August 18, 1933|work=Long Island Daily Press|access-date=July 27, 2016|page=20|via=Fultonhistory.com}}{{cite news|url=http://fultonhistory.com/highlighter/viewer/?file=http%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2FNewspaper%252011%2FNew%2520York%2520Evening%2520Post%2FNew%2520York%2520NY%2520Evening%2520Post%25201933%2520Grayscale%2FNew%2520York%2520NY%2520Evening%2520Post%25201933%2520Grayscale%2520-%25203621.pdf&highlightsFile=http%3A%2F%2Ffultonhistory.com%2Fhighlighter%2Fhits%2Fdc3270b9b47b7092cbaa4226fb0c5c6c#page=1|title=New Queens Tube To Open Saturday: Brooklyn-Long Island City Link of City Line Also to Be Put in Operation|date=August 17, 1933|work=New York Evening Post|access-date=July 27, 2016|page=18|via=Fultonhistory.com}}

In the 1970s, Queens Plaza became a place for drug dealers, pimps, and prostitutes to frequent, and was filled with trash, drugs, and broken glass.{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/15/realestate/commercial/just-over-the-bridge-from-manhattan-queens-plaza-undergoes-a-major-renewal.html?_r=0 | title=A Major Renovation on the Doorstep of Queens | newspaper=The New York Times | date=January 15, 2014 | access-date=May 21, 2015 | first=Terry |last=Pristin|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}} Later, "aging Chinese takeout restaurants, humid fried-chicken joints, sad-seeming doughnut shops, [and] the Queens Plaza Municipal Parking Garage, a brown concrete structure resembling a 1970's {{sic}} filmmaker's idea of an intergalactic battle station" opened along the plaza. Strip clubs appeared in the 1990s, around the time that rehabilitation of the plaza started to be considered.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/09/nyregion/thecity/09plaz.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1 |newspaper=The New York Times|title=For Joey Hot Dog, a World on the Wane|date=July 9, 2006|access-date=May 21, 2015|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}

File:Queens Plaza May 26 2017.jpg

By the early 2000s, Long Island City was going through gentrification, and new buildings were being put up, especially around Queens Plaza. In 2001, the area was rezoned, and 2,500 of about 5,000 apartments were built or planned within two blocks of the plaza. City officials decided to clean up the plaza, since the area was being gentrified. In 2005, the U.S. Congress approved a measure to demolish the municipal parking lot and turn it into a {{convert|1.5|acre|m2|adj=on}} park. In 2009, $75 million was earmarked to clean and spruce up the area and to renovate the plaza.{{cite news |title=Cleaning the Grit Off Long Island City |first=J. Alex |last=Tarquinio |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/29/business/29queens.html |newspaper=The New York Times |date=July 28, 2009 |access-date=July 31, 2010}}

The renovation itself cost $45 million. It created a new public park within the plaza, on the former site of the municipal parking lot; the park was envisioned as an "urban oasis" or neighborhood meeting place. Another new public park, named Dutch Kills Green, was built as part of the renovation; it has 500 trees, wetlands, and pavers for storm drainage. It is right next to two new hotels: the 16-floor, 183-room Hilton Garden Inn, and a 31-floor, 160-room Marriott. New office buildings are also coming into the area. Even though the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company moved two-thirds of its employees from the Brewster Building on Queens Plaza North back to Manhattan in 2006 because of the distance and lack of restaurants in Queens Plaza, airline company JetBlue and advertising and public relations firm Publicis later moved into the same former factory. Real estate developer Tishman Speyer was also looking for tenants for its Queens Plaza South skyscraper, named 2 Gotham South.

While only 1,000 people lived on the streets immediately surrounding the plaza as of the 2000 United States Census, the area has been undergoing substantial new development. About 4,700 new rental units in 25 new residential buildings were expected to be completed in the Queens Plaza area by around 2019, as it grows along with the rest of Long Island City.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/12/realestate/queens-plaza-a-neighborhood-under-construction.html|title=Queens Plaza, a Neighborhood Under Construction|last=Konrad|first=Walecia|date=2015-07-08|work=The New York Times|access-date=2020-01-26|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}

{{Multiple image

|align=center|total_width=700|direction=horizontal

|image1=QP eastern millstone jeh.jpg|caption1=The millstones, returned to Dutch Kills Green in the 2014 renovation

|image2=Dutch Kills Green west jeh.jpg|caption2=Park in eastern part of plaza, after renovation

|image3=Queens Plaza Feb 2020 17.jpg|caption3=Bike lane in Queens Plaza after renovation

}}

The New York City Traffic Control Center at 28-11 Queens Plaza North controls the city's traffic lights.{{cite news |first=Rebecca |last=Henely |url=http://www.yournabe.com/articles/2011/07/21/queens/qns_bloomberg_midtown_project_20110721.txt |title=Changing Midtown signals in LIC |work=YourNabe.com |date=July 21, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111004211749/http://www.yournabe.com/articles/2011/07/21/queens/qns_bloomberg_midtown_project_20110721.txt |archive-date=October 4, 2011}}

The Chase Manhattan Bank Building is a New York City designated landmark, having been given such a designation in 2015. Located at 29-27 41st Avenue, with one side facing Queens Plaza North, it was one of the most prominent buildings on Queens Plaza when it was completed in 1927.

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Category:Squares in Queens, New York

Category:Buildings and structures in Queens, New York

Category:Long Island City