24-620: Queens Plaza may refer to: Queens Plaza (Queens) in Queens, New York, U.S. Queens Plaza (IND Queens Boulevard Line) , an underground station QueensPlaza , a shopping centre in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia See also [ edit ] Queensboro Plaza (New York City Subway) , an elevated station at Queens Plaza in New York City Queensboro Bridge ,
48-650: A 75 feet (23 m) "crescent with a Japanese cherry tree at its center", were prevalent. At the time, it was spacious, with only a few buildings on the sides and a solitary flagpole in the center of the plaza. Immediately to the southeast of the plaza was the Sunnyside Yard , a storage yard for the Pennsylvania Railroad (now NJ Transit Rail Operations ). The addition of railroads and a bridge made Queens Plaza easily accessible from Manhattan . Queensboro Bridge Plaza or simply Bridge Plaza, as it
72-412: A brown concrete structure resembling a 1970's [ sic ] filmmaker's idea of an intergalactic battle station" opened along the plaza. Strip clubs appeared in the 1990s, around the time that rehabilitation of the plaza started to be considered. By the early 2000s, Long Island City was going through gentrification , and new buildings were being put up, especially around Queens Plaza. In 2001,
96-694: A capacity of 526 cars. The South Yard had 45 tracks with a 552 car capacity. Factories surrounded Sunnyside Yard. On the south side the Degnon Terminal rose, with businesses served by the railroad. It included the American Chicle company factory for chewing gum, the Eveready Battery Company factory for batteries, and the Loose-Wiles Sunshine Biscuits factory. The Swingline Stapler factory
120-469: A green space. The plaza itself was built to accommodate the connection of the Queensboro Bridge to Queens Boulevard, which opened in 1909. A street, named Jane Street, was widened by 90 feet (27 m) and was renamed Bridge Plaza North and South. Grassy medians , cut off at each intersection, divided the main and service lanes of the plaza. Sculptures made out of flowers and trees, including
144-596: Is also used by New Jersey Transit . The Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) completed construction of the yard in 1910; it was originally the largest coach yard in the world, occupying 192 acres (0.78 km ). Harold Interlocking , the United States' busiest rail junction , is part of the yard. The shared tracks of the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) Main Line and Amtrak's Northeast Corridor pass along
168-481: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Queens Plaza (Queens) Queens Plaza is a plaza straddling the western end of Queens Boulevard in Long Island City , Queens , between 21st Street and Jackson Avenue/ Northern Boulevard (NY 25A). The Queensboro Bridge starts near the middle of the plaza. It has a New York City Subway stop for
192-608: The E , M , and R trains, the Queens Plaza station below ground along the eastern edge, and another stop for the 7 , <7> , N and W trains, the Queensboro Plaza station above the west central part of the plaza on elevated tracks. The location was the center of the 18th century village of Dutch Kills ; two millstones were preserved as relics of that time, to be displayed in
216-588: The Independent Subway System 's Queens Boulevard Line , opened at the southeast corner of the plaza. In the 1970s, Queens Plaza became a place for drug dealers, pimps, and prostitutes to frequent, and was filled with trash, drugs, and broken glass. Later, "aging Chinese takeout restaurants , humid fried-chicken joints , sad-seeming doughnut shops , [and] the Queens Plaza Municipal Parking Garage ,
240-682: The 16-floor, 183-room Hilton Garden Inn , and a 31-floor, 160-room Marriott . New office buildings are also coming into the area. Even though the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company moved two-thirds of its employees from the Brewster Building on Queens Plaza North back to Manhattan in 2006 because of the distance and lack of restaurants in Queens Plaza, airline company JetBlue and advertising and public relations firm Publicis later moved into
264-403: The Queens Plaza area by around 2019, as it grows along with the rest of Long Island City . The New York City Traffic Control Center at 28-11 Queens Plaza North controls the city's traffic lights. The Chase Manhattan Bank Building is a New York City designated landmark , having been given such a designation in 2015. Located at 29-27 41st Avenue, with one side facing Queens Plaza North, it
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#1732776004911288-415: The area was rezoned, and 2,500 of about 5,000 apartments were built or planned within two blocks of the plaza. City officials decided to clean up the plaza, since the area was being gentrified. In 2005, the U.S. Congress approved a measure to demolish the municipal parking lot and turn it into a 1.5-acre (6,100 m ) park. In 2009, $ 75 million was earmarked to clean and spruce up the area and to renovate
312-677: The bridge between Manhattan and Queens which feeds into Queens Plaza in New York City Queens (disambiguation) for other places named "Queens" or "Queen's" Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Queens Plaza . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Queens_Plaza&oldid=899967891 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description
336-417: The plaza. The renovation itself cost $ 45 million. It created a new public park within the plaza, on the former site of the municipal parking lot; the park was envisioned as an "urban oasis" or neighborhood meeting place. Another new public park, named Dutch Kills Green, was built as part of the renovation; it has 500 trees, wetlands , and pavers for storm drainage . It is right next to two new hotels :
360-558: The plaza. Other banks included the Corn Exchange Bank , First National City Bank , and Title Guarantee and Trust Company . By 1928, 86,000 cars went through the Queensboro Bridge and onto the plaza each day. Queens Plaza came to be characterized as a "a new downtown", supplanting the Hunters Point section of Long Island City in that regard. In 1933, the Queens Plaza station , an underground subway station on
384-592: The removal of Queens Plaza's landscaped medians. From the 1920s through World War II , Queens Plaza served as the location for many factories and warehouses, some of which later became office buildings, as well as a financial hub with several banks. The Brewster Building , a factory along the plaza, made horse-drawn carriages , Rolls-Royces and other cars, and the Brewster F2A Buffalo fighter plane. The Long Island Savings Bank , Silvercup Bakery and Chase Manhattan Bank Building also were built on
408-429: The same former factory. Real estate developer Tishman Speyer was also looking for tenants for its Queens Plaza South skyscraper, named 2 Gotham South. While only 1,000 people lived on the streets immediately surrounding the plaza as of the 2000 United States Census , the area has been undergoing substantial new development. About 4,700 new rental units in 25 new residential buildings were expected to be completed in
432-588: The southern edge of the yard. Northeast of the yard a balloon track (or reverse loop) is used for "U-turning" Amtrak and NJ Transit trains which terminate at Penn Station. Leading eastward near the south side of the yard, this balloon track switches off and turns left under the LIRR/Amtrak tracks, turns left once again, and merges with the Sunnyside yard track to turn the train west toward Penn Station. The Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) completed construction of
456-564: The yard in 1910. At that time, Sunnyside was the largest coach yard in the world, occupying 192 acres (0.78 km ) and containing 25.7 miles (41.4 km) of track . The yard served as the main train storage and service point for PRR trains serving New York City. It is connected to Pennsylvania Station in Midtown Manhattan by the East River Tunnels . The Sunnyside North Yard initially had 45 tracks with
480-474: Was announced that the city would begin a feasibility study into the construction of 21,000 to 31,000 units of housing on top of the rail yard. The project, which would be similar to the Hudson Yards development over West Side Yard , has stoked public controversy over the affordability of units, pedestrian and road connections, open space, and a nearby Superfund site. In September 2019, a public meeting
504-522: Was awarded to address congestion at Harold Interlocking, the United States' busiest rail junction , which is part of the yard. The work will allow for dedicated tracks to the Hell Gate Line right of way for Amtrak trains arriving from or bound for New England , thus avoiding NJT and LIRR traffic. Some of the interlocking improvement projects are complete as of early 2023. Other projects are ongoing and will be complete by late 2025. In 2017 it
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#1732776004911528-470: Was immediately east of there, at 32-01 Queens Boulevard. As part of the East Side Access project to the new LIRR terminal at Grand Central Terminal (opened January 25, 2023), some LIRR trains diverge from the main line and travel through a tunnel under the yard. The project would also create a new station at Queens Boulevard, named Sunnyside . In May 2011, a $ 294.7 million federal grant
552-531: Was one of the most prominent buildings on Queens Plaza when it was completed in 1927. Sunnyside Yard 40°44′59″N 73°55′37.37″W / 40.74972°N 73.9270472°W / 40.74972; -73.9270472 Sunnyside Yard is a large coach yard , a railroad yard for passenger cars in the Sunnyside neighborhood of Queens in New York City . The yard is owned by Amtrak and
576-581: Was originally called, soon experienced an increase in real estate development. By 1915, the bridge was overcrowded with traffic, and subway tracks were built above the plaza. The Queensboro Plaza station , a large two-level subway hub for the Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation and Interborough Rapid Transit Company , opened above Queens Plaza in 1916-1917. The construction of the Queensboro Plaza station necessitated
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