NEW YORK — Fifty years after the 1964 World’s Fair opened, the New York State Pavilion, one of the last architectural vestiges of the fair, was named a “National Treasure” on Tuesday by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, a nonprofit organization.
The Pavilion, which consists of a cluster of curvaceous towers reminiscent of the television cartoon “The Jetsons,” has deteriorated over the decades, and the structures are permanently closed off, their surfaces marred by rust.
The city’s parks department has been studying options for the site’s restoration, and the designation by the National Trust could help raise money in that effort. The Pavilion, which is in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, the site of both the 1939 and 1964 World’s Fairs, joins more than 40 other so-called National Treasures.
They are generally historic, cultural, or natural sites threatened by development or neglect. Among them are the rustic bridges of Yosemite National Park, the National Cathedral in Washington, and the Ellis Island hospital complex in New York City.
In recent years, the parks department has commissioned two engineering studies of the Pavilion, which, along with the observation towers, includes the red-and-white-striped Tent of Tomorrow, an open-air space with a cable-suspension roof.
Demolition, which would cost $14 million, was considered as an option. But while the structures need extensive rehabilitation work, they are fundamentally sound, parks officials say. And the public responses ran overwhelmingly in favor of preserving the Pavilion.