Long Island City: The fine art of industry

43rd Anniversary Edition LIC is the ‘heart of New York City’

Center of art, culture and innovation with a can-do spirit

by Deirdre Bardolf

Associate Editor

Long Island City’s spirit of innovation and creativity can be traced back to its earliest days. It was destined to be an urban hub since its residents voted overwhelmingly in favor of consolidating with New York City in 1897 as a rejection of political corruption and failing infrastructure.

“Their future was tied to the city,” said Kara Schlichting, a historian and assistant professor at Queens College.

That vote resulted in how the Queens and Nassau counties of today came to be.

Although Long Island City was an industrial center already with asphalt and gas plants, light factories and the growing Steinway & Sons piano company, the municipality had mounting debt and little regulation. In 1876, Long Island City had over $1 million in debt, compared to only $10 million for all of New York State. Teachers and police had not been paid in months and schools and roads could not be built. They needed the help of a new city government.

Following the consolidation of the five boroughs, Long Island City growth catapulted. The Queensboro Bridge was built in 1901, the 7 line, the first subway line in Queens, was built in 1915 and the Long Island Rail Road was expanding to create further interconnectedness for LIC and the rest of the city.

Bob Singleton, historian and executive director of the Greater Astoria Historical Society, recognizes Long Island City’s importance to the whole city from the colonial days when it was just farms and tide mills for flour.

“Tide mills are what saved New York City,” said Singleton. “ If you look at the New York City coat of arms today, that’s exactly what you’ll see — two barrels and a tide mill ... there was this ‘cando’ spirit.”

Then in the 1800s, a German-American piano maker was building a company town in what was still part of LIC at the time.

“Steinway helped make New York City the intellectual and cultural capital of the world,” said Singleton. He calls Long Island City a “cradle of creativity.”

LIC remained a center for arts and culture through the 20th century.

In 1961, Japanese-American artist and landscape architect Isamu Noguchi moved in and purchased studio space on the corner of 10th Street and 33rd Road.

It was a convenient place to be because of the stone and metal suppliers and other artisan shops that were there at the time, said Brett Littman, director of The Noguchi Museum.

Ten years later, Noguchi’s friend and fellow sculptor Mark di Suvero opened a studio there as well; he founded Socrates Sculpture Park with a coalition of artists and community members, said Littman.

“Isamu Noguchi set a certain tone for artists’ presence in the neighborhood, quietly transforming and revitalizing the abandoned industrial building and lot he purchased into an oasis for future generations, while maintaining a subtle profile and minimal interference with its surroundings.”

At about the same time, the Institute for Art and Urban Resources Inc. opened. It later became PS1 Contemporary Art Center and then MoMA PS1 once it became an affiliate of The Museum of Modern Art in 2001. Elizabeth Lusskin is the president of the Long Island City Partnership, a neighborhood development organization.

“LIC is at once true to its past, and constantly evolving,” she said in an email.

“This is a place where creativity thrives — whether in the arts, food, design or cuttingedge tech — and where you can make a true live-work home. World-class museums, parks, and transportation have attracted a highly diverse community of companies, residents and innovators in a true ‘city within the city.’” Edjo Wheeler is the executive director at Culture Lab LIC at The Plaxall Gallery, which gives space and support to arts and culture organizations and nonprofits.

“It’s not always immediately apparent how many hidden gems are in this area, how many jazz clubs and musicians and artists are embedded into this neighborhood,” he said.

“In the ’80s, it was SoHo and then it was Williamsburg in the late ’90s and then in the 2000s it was Bushwick,” he said. “Now it is Queens’ turn.”

But even in Long Island City, the spaces available for arts and culture are starting to get “stretched thin,” said Wheeler.

“So, either we all come together and we’re able to solidify and help grow the arts and cultural organizations that are here now, and it remains one of the hotbeds of art and culture moving forward or we don’t come together, we don’t get the attention of the broader community, and the arts organizations continue to get squeezed out.”

“I personally believe this is going to be a time of expansive growth,” he said.

Plaxall, Inc. is a manufacturing company that has been operating in LIC for over 75 years, founded by Louis Pfohl. It donates the space in which Culture Lab operates today.

“Louis Pfohl was a true visionary, but we don’t think even he could have imagined how LIC has evolved,” said his granddaughter, Paula Kirby, managing director of Plaxall, in an email.

“What was once an area solely devoted to industrial manufacturing — where driving on the sidewalks was a regular occurrence and babies in strollers and dog walkers were nowhere to be seen — has transformed into a neighborhood of small businesses and maker spaces, families and schools, nonprofits and civic institutions, waterfront parks, and arts and culture,” Kirby said.

Seeing babies in strollers is just one selling point that draws young families to Long Island City today.

George Estreich is a designer and artist with two children, 9 and 7 years old, in Long Island City. He and his wife lived in Brooklyn, then moved to New Paltz, NY, to start a family but ultimately landed in LIC 10 years ago.

“It really jumped out to us because of the

proximity to Manhattan and the inherent beauty of the neighborhood,” he said. “We saw parents with strollers, streaming in every direction,” he recalled of their first visits to scope out the neighborhood. That, along with the area’s schools, made it a great place to raise their children, who now have a “solid core” of kids they have grown up with in the neighborhood. One thing he loves about the area is how quickly they can get into the city, even just to visit the New York Public Library or go to dinner. Now, he’s considering guitar lessons for his daughter in the West Village. “It’s so easy to get there and I’m not restricted by just what Long Island City has to offer,” he said. Shawn Mazzarone, a real estate agent in LIC who lived there for three years, knows that proximity to Manhattan is just one of the many draws. “In the ’90s, there was no reason to be there other than that you live close to Manhattan and now there are dozens of reasons to live there,” he said. The Long Island City skyline, seen here from Anable Basin, is constantly evolving with new devel- “The neighborhood is not like a little brother opments, as the area remains a hub for industry and transportation. PHOTO BY MICHAEL SHAIN or little sister to Manhattan anymore. I think that it stands on its own.” Mazzarone said that prices have begun to reflect that realization as the average residential purchase price per square foot is about $1,100 and a one-bedroom apartment currently goes for at least $3,000 a month and as much as $5,000 for a two-bedroom. “People have found out about Long Island City and all that it has to offer and what a great place it is to live,” he said. Since moving to the Upper East Side of Manhattan, Mazzarone said he misses the small-town feel that LIC still manages to offer, like knowing the employees at the local deli LONG ISLAND CITY and grocery store and always getting a seat at his favorite bar, which was Gantry Bar & Kitchen on Vernon Boulevard. He said that although some new high-rises are going up, he does not see much more residential construction coming to the area, especially near the waterfront where air rights have been purchased, and therefore that community vibe can remain. Over the past 10 years, Estreich, the designer, has noticed that the area was drawing more residents and tourists, like at Gantry State Park and the restaurants they used to frequent without a reservation. “I feel like we’re getting a ton of people coming from Long Island and coming from Eastern Queens,” he said. “The secret is definitely out at this point.” But living in the only townhouse remaining on his Fifth Street in LIC, and in close proximity to the subway lines, parks, East River, Long Island Rail Road and the Long Island Expressway, Estreich said he cannot imagine going anywhere else. “It’s absurdly convenient,” he said. “We’re in this perfect, charming spot here.” Q