It’s stunning that so much stunning detail survives in a space heavily advertised as gutted:
This section from the de-landmarked auditorium is about 1 sq ft of 34,600 sq ft (includes the balcony)
The relief sculpture face is from the de-landmarked auditorium, actually one of many surviving details in a space advertised as having nothing left; a convenient thought if believe as the former BP does:“The RKO Keith’s has been like a cancer in downtown Flushing forever”.
Yes I too jumped to conclusions, after only seeing the first page of the site (one gets used to only hearing bad news about the Keith’s). I thought Cinema Treasures was only going to have a first page – kind of like a cover sheet – that would be preserved, followed by 17 pages of real estate rental listings. In a parallel to the theatre itself I was assuming there could never possibly be anything of value by looking further.
It was fully landmarked on 2/28/84
It was de-landmarked on 7/12/84 by the Board of Estimate at the behest of Donald Manes as a favor to Huang(in 1984 he was voted “Man of the Year” by the Queens Chamber of Commerce). The BOE was declared unconstitutional and dissolved in 1986, that same year the RKO was sold to Thomas Huang.
Views of the interior (January 1982) and exterior (April 1982} of the RKO from the New York Landmarks Conservancy files can be found at:
[url]http://www.oprhp.state.ny.us/hpimaging/hp_view.asp?GroupView=7409[/url]
In the last view you can see relief faces in the detail plaster work over each spiral column. In Matt’s photo of the same area you can see they have been specifically removed (absconded, crated and in the theatre somewhere?)
I saw no evidence of vermin when I was there, melting snow dripping through the ~6' dia. hole in the roof over the stage area was the only sound I heard. As William said: with a food source long gone… in 1986 maybe. I’d be more concerned with hooligans and the homeless. The best way in is to cross the Flushing Bay pedestrian bridge from Willets Point, then knock on the undulating glass door, after winding your way through 17,460 sq ft of retail space, find your way up to the third floor senior center, find a studio apartment occupied with several of the many “undocumented and uncounted by the census” people and ask to climb down their fire escape to the roof of an adjacent property, from there a short drop down will get you inside.
Of course it’s not apples to apples but for money you’ve got:
Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Borough President Helen Marshall and some members of the borough’s City Council delegation helped break ground Tuesday on the Queens Museum of Art’s $65 million expansion project (actually repurposes the existing building).
The RKO got a bit of a break yesterday with the announced ground breaking of a huge new complex of 12 story buildings called “One Fulton Square” adding 63,000 sf of retail space, because the first spade to hit the ground makes all subsequent development more difficult. In the nest 3 years Flushing Commons adds 235,000 sf of retail. Sky View Center adds 800,000 (that’s $815M not the $185M I said before)sf of retail and the just opened New World Mall adds 165,000 sf of retail. Add the RKO’s assumed 17,460 sf of retail and you’ve got over 1,280,000 sf of retail space going into an area described by all as over crowded already (even by Helen).
The large tarped space in Matt’s picture of the foyer probably has the crates of auditorium artifacts shown in an earlier pic. The balcony structure and stairways are intact and would be among the largest cost drivers if they were missing.
Thanks Matt! Exactly as I saw it in February. Much of the missing auditorium artifacts were hacked off, crated and stored in the theater. I’ve stated the facts that the RKO is a cultural asset in a community that has few. The census, traffic flow, vacancy rate and tax assessment are also public record, it is acknowledged even by proponents for Flushing Commons that Flushing is over crowded. Projects like these would take over 3 years to complete, during that time traffic flow will go from extremely bad to impossible. The rhetoric has Flushing as “booming” and somehow has defied gravity. As congestion increases it will become even more difficult to sell. The facts are on the ground lots of empty buildings and people struggling to get on the subway, the golden goose has laid its last golden egg.
The sad reality is that the economic rebound is not around the corner a fact underscored by the census. The RKO was not designed as a theater but to accommodate live performances. That a plan does not exist for adaptive reuse is thanks to the ownership of 3 consecutive developers. When Thompson’s plan falls through because he will not get final approval or funding it will fall back on the bank and ultimately the city. If anyone can advocate something as preposterous as a pedestrian bridge to Willets Point before Flushing Bay even has funding or a plan for clean up then funding can be found for public works other than pursuing the pipe dream of increasing the population density but improving the quality of life.
Straying off topic toward the pros and cons of urban renewal across NYC does nothing to examine the RKO and its place in Flushing’s history. The entire interior was landmarked in 1984 and reduced to just the lobby the same year, by the now defunct board of estimate, at the behest of Manes to facilitate the sale to Huang 2 years later. The fact is Flushing is saturated: there is already an 8% vacancy rate, they can’t find buyers or renters for what is already built. The 357 market rental scheme can become low income housing subsidized by the government through the voucher program if tenants default. Who is going to pay for restore: never a developer (as long as they own the property) Thankfully property ownership means nothing as shown in Willets Point.
So how many subways serve the financial district and how many serve Flushing. The population of Flushing is 54,884 nominally up from 54,329 in 2000. The overcrowding is from the over 100,000 people that funnel into Flushing every day to get to the No. 7.
The Bridge to Nowhere:
On 3/14/11 Bloomberg unveiled Vision 2020, which outlines plans for the borough’s waterfront for the next decade and beyond. Two weeks later the City’s Willets Point plans hit legal pothole when the judge asked authorities why she shouldn’t reverse her earlier dismissal of lawsuit to block the redevelopment after city skirted restrictions. Though plentiful, the longer-term plans are not yet funded do not have definite dates attached and are often described using the word “explore†; Flushing River did not receive immediate funding. Meanwhile Shulman continues to push her vision of a pedestrian bridge over the creek as a key component of revitalizing the waterfront. The census showed the population in Flushing as stagnent at best, actually saturated to a maximum for the last 10 years (if they missed some numbers they will not those in the market for luxury condos), developers seem to be banking on population growth, while all these articles bemoan the high density of downtown. That Times article ends with words of caution: “The success of most of these projects depends on large amounts of financing, which is far from certain in this economy”. The RKO will most likely look the same next year and the real cancer is over development.
Thank you Layla & BobyS. Looks like the census results aren’t supporting the picture of unbridled and continuous growth that the BP and developers would have you believe.
That’s the Parks Dept.,a different ball of wax, with the BP getting their name on a plaque. Shulman acts more like a BP than the current one in her position as president and chief executive officer of the “LDC” (local development corp.) that spawned the “TOD” (transit oriented development). The LDC: “Flushing is experiencing an enormous amount of growth in an exceedingly concentrated area that not only strains the existing mass transportation infrastructure". Their solution: build three 13-story buildings and a two-level parking garage at the LIRR station. So it makes perfect sense to build 357 units at the RKO.
The BP nowadays is a ceremonial position with little power and a small budget, but enough to spend $103,000 on office furniture in 2008. In 1989 (5 years after they de-landmarked the RKO) the Board of Estimate was declared unconstitutional the following year it was abolished and the Borough President’s power reduced to only making recommendations – (to 3 term). The last BP who had any real power was Donald Manes.
Exactly, the community could have a landmark building in a better location instead of a second rate imitation. The similarity is only in the style it aspires to.
Speaking of density:
Not so fast: Daily News
In the rush to demolish part of Flushing’s history, this fallen column got left behind in the balcony:
It’s stunning that so much stunning detail survives in a space heavily advertised as gutted:
This section from the de-landmarked auditorium is about 1 sq ft of 34,600 sq ft (includes the balcony)
Fireplace in Ladies Smoking Room No. 144 (de-landmarked); July 2011.
From the auditorium, July 2011:
The relief sculpture face is from the de-landmarked auditorium, actually one of many surviving details in a space advertised as having nothing left; a convenient thought if believe as the former BP does:“The RKO Keith’s has been like a cancer in downtown Flushing forever”.
Yes I too jumped to conclusions, after only seeing the first page of the site (one gets used to only hearing bad news about the Keith’s). I thought Cinema Treasures was only going to have a first page – kind of like a cover sheet – that would be preserved, followed by 17 pages of real estate rental listings. In a parallel to the theatre itself I was assuming there could never possibly be anything of value by looking further.
It was fully landmarked on 2/28/84
It was de-landmarked on 7/12/84 by the Board of Estimate at the behest of Donald Manes as a favor to Huang(in 1984 he was voted “Man of the Year” by the Queens Chamber of Commerce). The BOE was declared unconstitutional and dissolved in 1986, that same year the RKO was sold to Thomas Huang.
Views of the interior (January 1982) and exterior (April 1982} of the RKO from the New York Landmarks Conservancy files can be found at:
[url]http://www.oprhp.state.ny.us/hpimaging/hp_view.asp?GroupView=7409[/url]
In the last view you can see relief faces in the detail plaster work over each spiral column. In Matt’s photo of the same area you can see they have been specifically removed (absconded, crated and in the theatre somewhere?)
To quote the developer:
“It’s still a challenging marketplace for lending,â€
You’re right about one thing Luis: it’ll never happen as long as the current developer owns the property.
I saw no evidence of vermin when I was there, melting snow dripping through the ~6' dia. hole in the roof over the stage area was the only sound I heard. As William said: with a food source long gone… in 1986 maybe. I’d be more concerned with hooligans and the homeless. The best way in is to cross the Flushing Bay pedestrian bridge from Willets Point, then knock on the undulating glass door, after winding your way through 17,460 sq ft of retail space, find your way up to the third floor senior center, find a studio apartment occupied with several of the many “undocumented and uncounted by the census” people and ask to climb down their fire escape to the roof of an adjacent property, from there a short drop down will get you inside.
Of course it’s not apples to apples but for money you’ve got:
Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Borough President Helen Marshall and some members of the borough’s City Council delegation helped break ground Tuesday on the Queens Museum of Art’s $65 million expansion project (actually repurposes the existing building).
The RKO got a bit of a break yesterday with the announced ground breaking of a huge new complex of 12 story buildings called “One Fulton Square” adding 63,000 sf of retail space, because the first spade to hit the ground makes all subsequent development more difficult. In the nest 3 years Flushing Commons adds 235,000 sf of retail. Sky View Center adds 800,000 (that’s $815M not the $185M I said before)sf of retail and the just opened New World Mall adds 165,000 sf of retail. Add the RKO’s assumed 17,460 sf of retail and you’ve got over 1,280,000 sf of retail space going into an area described by all as over crowded already (even by Helen).
The large tarped space in Matt’s picture of the foyer probably has the crates of auditorium artifacts shown in an earlier pic. The balcony structure and stairways are intact and would be among the largest cost drivers if they were missing.
Thanks Matt! Exactly as I saw it in February. Much of the missing auditorium artifacts were hacked off, crated and stored in the theater. I’ve stated the facts that the RKO is a cultural asset in a community that has few. The census, traffic flow, vacancy rate and tax assessment are also public record, it is acknowledged even by proponents for Flushing Commons that Flushing is over crowded. Projects like these would take over 3 years to complete, during that time traffic flow will go from extremely bad to impossible. The rhetoric has Flushing as “booming” and somehow has defied gravity. As congestion increases it will become even more difficult to sell. The facts are on the ground lots of empty buildings and people struggling to get on the subway, the golden goose has laid its last golden egg.
The sad reality is that the economic rebound is not around the corner a fact underscored by the census. The RKO was not designed as a theater but to accommodate live performances. That a plan does not exist for adaptive reuse is thanks to the ownership of 3 consecutive developers. When Thompson’s plan falls through because he will not get final approval or funding it will fall back on the bank and ultimately the city. If anyone can advocate something as preposterous as a pedestrian bridge to Willets Point before Flushing Bay even has funding or a plan for clean up then funding can be found for public works other than pursuing the pipe dream of increasing the population density but improving the quality of life.
Straying off topic toward the pros and cons of urban renewal across NYC does nothing to examine the RKO and its place in Flushing’s history. The entire interior was landmarked in 1984 and reduced to just the lobby the same year, by the now defunct board of estimate, at the behest of Manes to facilitate the sale to Huang 2 years later. The fact is Flushing is saturated: there is already an 8% vacancy rate, they can’t find buyers or renters for what is already built. The 357 market rental scheme can become low income housing subsidized by the government through the voucher program if tenants default. Who is going to pay for restore: never a developer (as long as they own the property) Thankfully property ownership means nothing as shown in Willets Point.
So how many subways serve the financial district and how many serve Flushing. The population of Flushing is 54,884 nominally up from 54,329 in 2000. The overcrowding is from the over 100,000 people that funnel into Flushing every day to get to the No. 7.
The Bridge to Nowhere:
On 3/14/11 Bloomberg unveiled Vision 2020, which outlines plans for the borough’s waterfront for the next decade and beyond. Two weeks later the City’s Willets Point plans hit legal pothole when the judge asked authorities why she shouldn’t reverse her earlier dismissal of lawsuit to block the redevelopment after city skirted restrictions. Though plentiful, the longer-term plans are not yet funded do not have definite dates attached and are often described using the word “explore†; Flushing River did not receive immediate funding. Meanwhile Shulman continues to push her vision of a pedestrian bridge over the creek as a key component of revitalizing the waterfront. The census showed the population in Flushing as stagnent at best, actually saturated to a maximum for the last 10 years (if they missed some numbers they will not those in the market for luxury condos), developers seem to be banking on population growth, while all these articles bemoan the high density of downtown. That Times article ends with words of caution: “The success of most of these projects depends on large amounts of financing, which is far from certain in this economy”. The RKO will most likely look the same next year and the real cancer is over development.
Thank you Layla & BobyS. Looks like the census results aren’t supporting the picture of unbridled and continuous growth that the BP and developers would have you believe.
That’s the Parks Dept.,a different ball of wax, with the BP getting their name on a plaque. Shulman acts more like a BP than the current one in her position as president and chief executive officer of the “LDC” (local development corp.) that spawned the “TOD” (transit oriented development). The LDC: “Flushing is experiencing an enormous amount of growth in an exceedingly concentrated area that not only strains the existing mass transportation infrastructure". Their solution: build three 13-story buildings and a two-level parking garage at the LIRR station. So it makes perfect sense to build 357 units at the RKO.
The BP nowadays is a ceremonial position with little power and a small budget, but enough to spend $103,000 on office furniture in 2008. In 1989 (5 years after they de-landmarked the RKO) the Board of Estimate was declared unconstitutional the following year it was abolished and the Borough President’s power reduced to only making recommendations – (to 3 term). The last BP who had any real power was Donald Manes.
She’s on a “give the developer what they want” roll, approving up-zoning in residential Whitestone yesterday.
Exactly, the community could have a landmark building in a better location instead of a second rate imitation. The similarity is only in the style it aspires to.