Queens Fashion Mall, Rego Park
A 1971 Queens retail project tied to pioneering architect Norma Merrick Sklarek.
The original Rego Center shopping complex (Rego Center I), formerly an Alexander's department store, at the northwest corner of Queens Boulevard and 63rd Road in Rego Park, Queens. Photographed in 2019; a current view, not a construction-period photograph.
Current view · 2019 · Photo: Tdorante10 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source
Why this project matters
- Project identity
- Verified
- Kelly connection
- Family source
- Masonry scope
- Probable
Rita’s list
Transcription: Queens Fashion Mall — 1971
Recorded by Rita Bartscherer · Bartscherer family record
KM-092
1 of two
“Queens Fashion Mall — 1971”
The Library of Congress preserves a Queens Fashion Mall project file dated 1970–73; a 1976 retail ad still lists the Gap at 'Rego Park, Queens Fashion Mall.'
The Queens Fashion Mall archive is a window into how shopping centers were imagined before construction. Raymond Loewy's papers preserve a 1970–73 project file, and the design team connects the scheme to Gruen Associates and pioneering architect Norma Merrick Sklarek. The surviving record may represent an unbuilt or transformed proposal rather than today's Rego Center—making Rita's entry a story about commercial ideas that changed on the way to the street.
What Kelly did here
Family source
Probable
Likely: most likely interior CMU/block shafts, service cores, fire-rated partitions and masonry backup; exterior brickwork is likely only if the project-specific facade was brick rather than stone, precast, metal or glass.
This scope is recorded as probable, not documented. It is a disciplined reading of the building and the trade practice of the period, not a contract-level record of Kelly’s work.
The construction team
- 01Architect
Gruen Associates; Norma Merrick Sklarek associated with project
What happened to it
Altered / original identity lost
Sources
4 citedOpen →
- 01tile.loc.gov
ms003009
- 02arccadigest.org
norma sklarek faia honored
- 03savingplaces.org
four more african american architects you should know
- 04worldradiohistory.com
Phonograph Record 1976 01 R
- Tdorante10 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons · Taken on 1
The original Rego Center shopping complex (Rego Center I), formerly an Alexander's department store, at the northwest corner of Queens Boulevard and 63rd Road in Rego Park, Queens. Photographed in 2019; a current view, not a construction-period photograph.
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