24 The Queens Courier • july 24, 2014 for breaking news visit www.queenscourier.com SHOW ME THE WAY QUEENSWAY COMES ALIVE WITH NEW EXHIBIT Queens Billboard won the second place prize. It was designed by Nikolay Martynov of Switzerland. BY ERIC JANKIEWICZ @ericjankiewicz/ejankiewicz@queenscourier.com An exhibition last week featured winners of a QueensWay design competition. The Center for Architecture hosted the exhibit, “QueensWay Connection: Elevating the Public Realm,” and the competition, which occurred earlier this year, was held by the Emerging New York Architects committee of the American Institute of Architecture. In the competition, contestants were asked to come up with theoretical designs for what the 3.5-mile stretch from Rego Park to Ozone Park could be used for. The four winning designs and an honorable mention of the biennial competition will now go on to be displayed in Manhattan, where the Center of Architecture is located. The QueensWay, an abandoned rail line, has been a point of much debate and controversy, with advocates arguing that it should be turned into a park like Manhattan’s High Line park. Since the LIRR Rockaway Beach Line was abandoned in the 1960s, little has been changed on the elevated train track. But over the last few years, the Trust for Public Land and Friends of the QueensWay are currently studying the area. New York Assemblyman Phil Goldfeder, along with the Queens College Urban Studies Department, launched a community impact study to help assess the best use for the line. The competition received 120 entries from 28 countries. They were judged, according to the Emerging New York Architects, “based on the design’s ability to provide an effective and welcoming transition between the street and future greenway.” The city has not made a decision on whether to repurpose the rail line. Photos Courtesy of the Emerging New York Architects EBB & Flow by Jessica Shoemaker of Albuquerque, New Mexico, was recognized with the $1000 student prize.
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