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Super-Cool NYC: Queens Panorama
By
Jacob Dobkin
Published Jan 8, 2006
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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By
Jacob Dobkin
Published Jan 8, 2006
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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Our absolute favorite Brooklyn blogger Callalillie took a trip outside her home borough to the Queens Museum-- home of the amazing, stupendous model of New York City. Some info about the model:
The Panorama of the City of New York was the creation of Robert Moses and Raymond Lester. It was originally presented in the New York City Pavilion as part of the 1964/65 New York World's Fair. At the time of its creation, it was considered the world's largest scale model.
Constructed at the Lester Associates Workshops in Westchester, N.Y., the Panorama contains 273 separate sections, many of which are four-by-ten foot rectangular panels. It was built on a scale of 1 inch equals 100 feet (for instance, the Empire State Building measures 15 inches) and accurately replicates the topography of the 320 square miles of New York City. The Panorama occupies 9,335 square feet. It includes miniature cars, boats and an airplane landing at and taking off from La Guardia Airport. There are more than 895,000 individual wooden or plastic buildings on the model; 25,000 were custom-made to approximate major landmarks such as skyscrapers, colleges, museums and major churches. The Panorama also uses various types of color to depict different aspects of the city such as parks, parkways, cemeteries, playgrounds, and basketball courts. The most accurate structures on the Panorama are the 35 major bridges made of brass and shaped by a chemical milling process.
The model was last ovehauled more than ten years ago, but there was a fairly heated debate over whether or not to remove the World Trade Center after the September 11th attacks. As Callalillie's pictures demonstrate, the final decision was to leave the WTC in the model. Related: even more panorama facts.
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Jacob Dobkin
Jake Dobkin co-founded Gothamist with Jen Chung. In 2019, Jake released Ask a Native New Yorker, a book based on his Gothamist advice column.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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