Car culture, aircrafts and space age were a strong combination that influenced the alien architecture developed in the Flushing Meadows Corona Park.
It’s called Googie Architecture. For those who haven’t heard about it – a must if we’re supposed to live in the US for a while – Googie Architecture is a perverse form of architecture that combines futurism with car and aircraft industries, together with the so-called Spatial and Atomic Ages.
You got it! It was born in the States during the 40’s and remained present in almost every single architecture event till the 60’s. The New York World’s Fair wasn’t an exception and contributed to the construction of many examples still alive in the heart of Queens… if “alive” means plainly “standing up”.
I highly recommend this visit. Not only is it worth it to know by first hand vivid examples of Googie Architecture (the single architecture style that can be explained through a McDonnald’s stand), but also because the site is quite inspiring and alien to any other park I’ve been to before. Spring is almost here, grab a coffee and find yourself wandering through the landscape that was supposed to represent the future. How different things ended up being… or maybe not so different!
