The Elmhurst branch of the former Jamaica Savings Bank is a modern gem that shines across the gray, exhaust-ridden expanse of Queens Boulevard. In its 1967 review of the new building, the New York Times noted that “motorists on Queens Boulevard are doing double-takes as they go through the Elmhurst section near Woodhaven Boulevard,” and over forty years later, you can bet that they still do. Catch a glimpse of the twisting glass pyramid today and you’ll think you’ve stumbled upon some forgotten early work of Eero Saarinen. Could it be some permutation of his Kresge Auditorium or an early stab at the concrete wings of the TWA terminal at JFK?
Alas, the building sprang from humbler architectural origins at a later time, but this fact in no way diminishes its dynamic presence along the boulevard. It’s both a quirky roadside attraction that begs you to pull over (and open an account while you’re at it), and a 1960s Modernist glass and concrete institutional outpost that could be sharing a Midtown corner with Lever House or the Seagram Building. The structure no longer houses the Jamaica Savings Bank, but rather a Capital One Bank branch—the product of a couple of mergers and renamings, with which New Yorkers are all to familiar (to this day Chemical Bank coin wrappers still seem to surface in the kitchen junk drawer).
The Jamaica Savings Bank was founded in 1866 to support the growing southeast Queens community of Jamaica. Unlike the globalized behemoths of today, Jamaica Savings kept its sights local, and supported retail banking and neighborhood development in Queens. In 1966 the bank was celebrating its centennial, and it commissioned the William F. Cann Company to create a new branch office in Elmhurst at 56th Avenue and Queens Boulevard. The site was chosen to try and take advantage of the new shoppers drawn to the nearby Skidmore Owings and Merrill-designed Macy’s (the circular Queens Place Mall at 56th Avenue) and Alexander’s (now the Rego Park Center at 63rd Road) department store, as well as the growing population of the large LeFrak City housing development.
William Cann and his team were charged with planning a dynamic bank building that could hold its own amongst the boldly geometric forms of the nearby retail developments, and build it on an irregular diamond-shaped plot with no right-angled corners (see image at right). Cann’s elegant solution came in the form of a dynamic glass structure, with two large marble-clad concrete piers that support a sweeping hyperbolic paraboloid roof. The undulating reinforced concrete roof is clad with green copper panels and seems to float above the bronze-tinted quarter-inch thick plate-glass walls set with silver and bronze mullions. The column-free banking floor is grand, but human-scaled at only 43 feet at its tallest point. To help Queens Boulevard drivers identify the purpose of the oddly-shaped building, a tall vertical cylinder was erected in the parking lot that featured the bank’s name.
Despite over forty years in continuous use as a retail-banking establishment, the integrity of the design has remained with only minor alterations. In 2005 the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to designate the building a landmark, but had its decision revoked by the City Council. Despite the lack of formal protection, the building retains it’s googie meets gray-flannel charm and Queens is better off for it.
View the Jamaica Savings Bank Flickr photo-set here.
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I remember my father (Alex Alexander) sitting at the table working on this design night and day when i was a child, along with many other designs throughout his lifetime. It saddens me to only see the Company name being credited. I also remember him driving us by the newly constructed bldg once it was done. Why are the architects involved in this not mentioned at all? I find that so disgusting. I have never seen him acknowledged for his wonderful and creative ideas. sighs…………….