A Stroll Through Queens Plaza

Dutch Kills Green

Williamsburgers and Greenpointers curious about the vast territory above Newtown Creek need do no more than take the B62 bus to the end of the line — or walk or bike across the Pulaski Bridge and take Jackson Avenue to Queens Plaza — to take a look at one of Queens’ most interesting revivals in recent times.

Until a couple of years ago the east end of Queens Plaza, where Northern Boulevard begins a nearly 90-mile run (as Route 25A) to the end of Long Island, was home to a run of the mill parking lot called the John F. Kennedy Commuter Plaza. Its southern end, running along the elevated Queensboro Plaza station, was home to fast food restaurants and strip joints.

But a recent multimillion dollar, five-year restoration has  converted the once moribund spot into a green oasis replete with separated bike and pedestrian paths.

The new Dutch Kills Green park houses a native-plant wetlands, a collection of artist-created benches, a small amphitheater, and two Dutch millstones from the 1600s, whose fate has been subject to a great deal of debate. The Greater Astoria Historical Society has petitioned to relocate them within its offices on Broadway, but this has not happened, and the millstones remain open to deterioration or possible vandalism.

While you’re here, check out some of the other features of the area — which is currently in the midst of a residential and commercial construction boom.

Long before Citi Tower was finished in 1989, the Queens Plaza area had its own skyscraper — the 15-story Bank of Manhattan building. Finished in 1927, it’s something Howard Roark from Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead may have conceived.

That year, American architecture was shedding Beaux Arts and adopting the more streamlined techniques of the Machine Age. That didn’t stop the bank’s architects from adding all kinds of Easter eggs way up high, like the four-sided clock and terra-cotta water bearers, fish and seashells.

At Queens Plaza North and 29th Street is the former Corn Exchange Bank, which through a lengthy series of mergers is now part of JP Morgan Chase. The building is now the Q4 budget hotel. When riding past at night on the No. 7 train, note its unusual yet attractive lighting.

A block away, between 27th and 28th Streets at Queens Plaza North, is the Brewster Building. This six-story, 400,000-square-foot monster, built in 1911, once turned out horse-drawn carriages, Rolls Royce automobiles, and World War II fighter planes. Brewster & Company, an American coach and car manufacturer established in 1810, was once so famed that Cole Porter included “Brewster bodies” in his lyrics for “You’re the Top.”

Today it’s the home of Met Life Insurance offices and Jet Blue Airlines, and has been beautifully restored, though its original clock tower has been absent since 1950.

Cross to Queens Plaza South at 27th Street and walk west to 21st Street and you will get a good look at the illuminated Silvercup Studios sign. For many years this was the site of a bakery where the Gordon Baking Co. turned out Silvercup bread. The bakery building, which originally had four grain silos, was built in the 1920s. A 1975 strike forced the company to fold and Silvercup joined Bond, Taystee and other names in the NYC bread graveyard.

Silvercup Studios, which produces both TV and theatrical works, moved in in 1983, and wisely saved the iconic sign. Popular shows such as Person of Interest, Elementary and The Sopranos are or were taped here.