Flushing Meadows Corona Park

The Terrace on the Park was constructed for the 1964-65 New York World’s Fair. The Port Authority of New York commissioned the structure as an “aerial gateway” for helicopter transportation from locations around New York City. Chief architect A. Gordon Lorimer, engineers John Kyle and Ray Monte, and planning chief E. Donald Mills designed the 120-foot high heliport for the Transportation Area of the fair. Horizontal and vertical windows create a large “T”, for transportation, on each side of the structure. The building’s four towers were topped by a helicopter-landing platform that measured 175 feet by 200 feet. 

The top floor of the exhibit featured the 1,100-seat Top of the Fair restaurant with terraces for visitors to enjoy the commanding view. The lower floors featured the 400-seat Drinks Around the World cocktail lounge that served aperitifs from 24 locations around the globe. The Port Authority Heliport and Exhibit Building also featured a twelve-minute film about the amenities of the Port of New York and New Jersey on a 360-degree screen.

Robert Moses (1888-1981) served as president of the World’s Fair Corporation for the 1964-65 New York World’s Fair, which opened on April 22, 1964 in Flushing Meadow-Corona Park. U.S. Steel constructed its symbol, the Unisphere, which still sits in the park today. The fair theme was “Peace through Understanding,” and hosted 80 countries, the United States government, 24 states, and the City of New York. Popular exhibitions included General Motors’ “Futurama II” that portrayed the world of 2064, American Telephone and Telegraph’s models of the Picturephone, the large dinosaur sculptures in Sinclair Oil’s “Dinoland”, International Business Machines (IBM) presentation of basic computers, the New York State Pavilion, the Hall of Science, and the intricate “Panorama” of the five boroughs in the New York City Building. 

Following the closing of the World’s Fair, the building continued as a restaurant and catering facility, valued by generations of New Yorkers for its city views. 

Know Before You Go

World's Fair Marina

Flushing Meadows Corona Park