After decades of decay, Queens’ long abandoned “Tent of Tomorrow” will now illuminate the sky nightly.
Built for the 1964 World’s Fair and best known beyond New York for playing spaceships in 1997’s “Men in Black,” the towers are currently under renovation and have been freshly equipped with lights.
Last Saturday, they were formally turned on for the first time.
“Perhaps the most iconic landmark in our parks system, the NYS Pavilion in Flushing Meadows Corona Park is a reminder of our city’s historic past, and a beacon towards the future,” said NYC Parks Commissioner Sue Donoghue in a press release.
The new, “dynamic architectural lighting” is part of a larger $24 million rehabilitation of the empty observation towers that loom over the park.
Saturday’s otherworldly green light display at the architectural behemoths marked the completion of the first phase of structural repairs on the outer borough oddities, and the beginning of their career as colorful beacons
The lights “will be lit every night, seven days a week,” the release announced.
For holidays and special events, they’ll follow “a specific schedule” à la the Empire State Building, which sometimes expresses controversial sports decisions with its own lighting display.
Once finished, the refurbishment — the first major preservation project since the towers were erected nearly 60 years ago — will allow for “limited guided tours of the towers,” too.
Although simply strange shapes on the horizon to many, the old New York Pavilion has a hallowed cultural history.
In addition to being a highly visible, popular exhibit featuring works by Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein at the World’s Fair — and making a cameo in the blockbuster Will Smith flick — the buildings served as the home of the Queens Playhouse.
It was after that theater ceased to operate there in 1985 that the structures fell into disrepair.