NY State Pavilion Looking for Identity
Queens Chronicle, July 15, 2004
"The Parks Department is looking to reuse the rusting New York State Pavilion
from the 1964 World's Fair and is currently asking developers for their ideas.
But one man, who has been pushing his plan for three years, says he will continue
to pursue establishing a non-profit group to raise funds for an aerospace museum
or other venue that would restore the pavilion because money is the bottom line
with the Parks Department. "It hurts me to see those buildings deteriorate",
said Frankie Campione of Manhattan.
One reason the aerospace museum wasn't seriously considered [three years ago]
was that the two developers wanted the city to kick in $8 million to stabilize
the structures before they started fundraising for the museum. Campione, and
his [pavilion] partner, former Flushing resident Charles Aybar of Arizona are
willing to raise the approximately $6 million they now estimate it will take
for stabilization and then proceed with a permanent use. "This time, we will
go with money in our hands and have already told the Parks Department to give
us an idea for future usage, which they didn't," Campione said.
Campione, who runs CREATE Architecture Planning & Design, has submitted
the paperwork for non-profit status to Albany. Once granted, the new group,
Save New York State Pavilion Organization, will seek to raise the millions of
dollars needed from corporations and individuals. His team already includes
Philip Johnson Alan Ritchie architects of Manhattan. "Johnson, now 98, wants
to save his own building," he added.
Under Campione's proposal presented, elevators in the towers would bring visitors
to an entrance level where glass a glass sky bridge would bring them into the
upper museum. Below would be aircraft and suspended space capsules. Hands on
exhibits would be featured in the upper mezzanine and one of the towers would
become a mock control tower."
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