Exclusive | Intricate Worlds Fair mosaics to be demolished despite activists desperate pleas

They’re trying to pick up the pieces.Five historical mosaics commemorating Queens’ World Fairs will be demolished in the next few months — despite preservationists’ impassioned pleas to rescue the pieces of New York’s past.History lovers are outraged that the Parks Department is abandoning hope of restoring the intricate medallions adorning the entrance to Flushing Meadows Corona Park, with officials claiming the severely eroding tiles pose a safety hazard to pedestrians.“In Europe and the Middle East, mosaics are rediscovered after many, many centuries of abandonment.They are uncovered and they exist.

Archeologists and government officials go to great lengths to preserve those — why should Queens, AKA the World’s Borough, be treated any differently?” fumed Michael Perlman, founder of the Rego-Forest Preservation Council.Perlman says preservationists have been banging the drum for 15 years to rescue the deteriorating Passerelle Plaza Mosaics, but their pleas have fallen on deaf ears.The parks department may have even contributed to the accelerated decay, Perlman alleged, by “obnoxiously” tossing on the artwork to melt snow and by driving heavy vehicles over the installations.

“Nobody’s been taking care of them.I’ve been photographing them for over one and a half years and they continuously get worse and worse,” said Gloria Nash, 70, whose upcoming book “Looking Back at the Future” chronicles the living relics of the ’39 and ’64 World’s Fairs in Queens and across the globe.As many as ten medallions have already been lost to history since they were laid in 1997 at the base of David Dinkins Circle, adjacent to the Billie Jean King Tennis Center, as a tribute to the ’39-40 and ’64-65 Fairs.Each mosaic honored a different scene from the historical fairs, including the synchronized swimming show dubbed the “Aquacade” and the still-standing New York State Pavilion, which once invited parkgoers to climb its observation dec...