Flushing Meadows Park
Flushing Meadows Park is located in northern Queens, New York at the intersection of the Long Island Expressway and the Grand Central Parkway. It is the largest park in the City of New York and was created as the site of the 1939/1940 New York World's Fair and also hosted the 1964/1965 New York World's Fair.
The Unisphere, built as the theme symbol for the 1964/1965 World's Fair, is the main sculptural feature of the park. It stands on the same site occupied by the Perisphere during the 1939/1940 World's Fair.
The US Open Tennis Championship takes place in Flushing Meadows Park at the USTA National Tennis Center; its center court is Arthur Ashe Stadium and its secondary stadium court is Louis Armstrong Stadium. Rental boats are available for rowing on the park's two lakes, Meadow and Willow, which feed into the Flushing River and thence into Long Island Sound.
The park is also the home of Queens Theater in the Park, the New York Hall of Science, the Queens Museum of Art, "Terrace on the Park" (a banquet and catering facility, the Fair's former helipad), an indoor ice skating rink and many other recreational playing fields and playgrounds.
The New York State Pavilion, constructed as the state's exhibit hall for the 1964/1965 New York World's Fair, is also a feature of the park. However, no new use for the building was found after the Fair and the structure sits derelict and decaying, a stark contrast to the well-maintained park. The futuristic towers of the New York State Pavilion were featured in the 1997 movie Men In Black. The other buildings left for a while after the Fair's conclusion to see if a new usage for them could be found, such as the United States Pavillion, have subsequently been demolished.
