NY State Pavilion's New Look: $3 Million Paint Job Finished

Visitors would be amazed to see the old New York State Pavilion at the Flushing Meadows-Corona Park because it was recently painted in bright attractive colors, Curbed reported.

Over the weekend, the Open House NY event was observed to mark the 50th anniversary of the World's Fair closing ceremony in 1965. Aside from that, the event also sets a new beginning to the Philip Johnson-designed structure as it got a new makeover.

In an effort to rehabilitate it, it got a $3 million paint job since it is one of the last remaining World's Fair structures that still exist up to this day. Due to its history and its design, the structure is one of the most notable stops in the area. But after the paint job, it looked even more attractive and worth the visit.

The structure has been sporting a rust brown drab look but according to officials, the new look is historically accurate.
"Painting it was the easy part, but rigging it was difficult because the steel was so intricate," Jed Coldon, executive director of The New York Structural Steel Painting Contractors' Association said according to Gothamist. "It took professional painters more than 8,000 hours and 1,600 gallons of paint to get the job done...That included power-washing off decades of rust, applying primer and the historically accurate paint."

As of this posting, about $8 million funding was already raised by Queens Borough President Melinda Katz for the rehabilitation of the structures saying, "It's amazing what a fresh coat of paint can do for even an architectural marvel like the New York State Pavilion."

"The pavilion is a living reminder of the World's Fair's timeless message that is ever-present to this day: 'Peace Through Understanding'. Residents certainly recognized it to be worthy of being preserved and restored, and today we can count this achievement as one more victory toward its preservation," Katz added, according to NY Daily News.

The famous pavilion is a 350-foot-by-250-foot structure that is supported by 16 columns, 100 feet tall, used for the 1964-65 fair. The structure is also dubbed as the "Tent of Tomorrow" which houses a huge terrazzo map of New York State and used the largest cable suspension roof in the world. It also includes three tiered observation towers that are 60, 150 and 226 feet tall.