A Great Day in Queens

The Louis Armstrong Center, designed by Caples Jefferson Architects, opens to the public.

On a hot day in June, a crowd gathered on 107th Street in Corona, Queens, to celebrate an event that was decades in the making: the opening of the Louis Armstrong Center, a 14,000-square-foot, $26 million new building designed by Caples Jefferson Architects. It’s sited across the street from the Louis Armstrong House Museum, where the world-famous jazz trumpeter and his (fourth) wife, Lucille, lived.

To mark the occasion, elected officials and museum leaders past and present offered messages of encouragement prior to a performance by pianist and artist Jason Moran, who also curated the center’s inaugural exhibition, Here to Stay. The fanfare was briefly interrupted when a man fleeing law enforcement ditched his vehicle and ran through the crowd. He pushed New York State assemblyman for District 35 and Speaker Pro Tempore Jeffrion L. Aubry, who had just finished his remarks, to the ground, injuring him. The suspect was quickly captured down the block.

Police pursuits aside, the new building is a tribute to Armstrong’s art and the community of Queens, then and now. In contrast to the vinyl siding– and brick-clad homes nearby, its facade is shaped by a curving curtain wall and overhead canopy, which reference the bell

The new extension brings the famed walkway closer to Hudson Yards and Penn Station. The recently completed Moynihan Connector is a joint endeavor by SOM and James Corner Field Operations—the latter an original member of the High Line design team. It was led by Empire State Development, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Brookfield Properties, and Friends of the High Line.

Kristine Klein

curves of a trumpet. The IGUs of the former are embedded with a wire mesh that also gives it a brassy, trumpetlike color.

Inside, light enters through skylights and colors are deployed enthusiastically, including a blue-plaster elevator volume, a 75-seat venue finished in wood paneling and red paint, and gold walls on the south side of the building. Upstairs, a secure facility houses the 60,000-piece Louis Armstrong Archive—the world’s largest for any jazz musician. The second floor also includes a balcony, which mirrors the Armstrongs’ home across the street. To close the opening ceremonies, a choir of trumpets appeared on both to fanfare the crowd. What a wonderful world, indeed. JM