Photo Credit: David Sundberg @ Esto
The “valley of ashes” in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby was a real place, known in Fitzgerald’s time as the Corona Ash Dumps. In the early 20^(th) century, it was literally a vast disposal area for coal-burning stove ash—as well as manure and garbage. Previously an estuary into Long Island Sound, it was an unmitigated eyesore.
In the late 1930s, “master builder” Robert Moses, then the New York City Parks Commissioner, cleared the area and created what was then called “Flushing Meadow Park,” in anticipation of the iconic 1939-1940 World’s Fair. Twenty-five years later, the World’s Fair returned to the park, with soaring structures and the massive Unisphere that made the park world-famous.
The pool/rink building designed by Handel Architects was first conceived in the late 1990s as a community recreation facility. Construction was started but suspended after the events of 9/11. The effort was rekindled in the early 2000s for the city’s 2012 Olympic bid. The new building was to be the water polo venue, and it needed to accommodate 5,000 spectators for only 2 months of the Olympic events. Since pilings were already driven, the architects studied whether the building could be sited as originally planned—the pool facility and ice rink facility perpendicular to one another—or whether there was a better arrangement that retained as many piles as possible, accommodated the temporary seating, and would function post-Olympics as the community facility originally intended.