Crossing Into the Supermarket

What Do You Think You're Looking At? #50

Mar 23

Sometimes in this series I look at pretty ordinary buildings and their uses over the years, and other times I look at adaptive reuse projects where buildings have been left standing but adapted or changed dramatically. You can probably guess from the image below which of those two categories today’s building falls into.

But before that, I’d like to note that this is the 50th entry in this series, a nice round number that I had no idea whether or not I’d get to when I started this newsletter in April of last year. Two more weeks, and I’ll have been writing every day here for a year. Thank you for signing up, reading, sharing, and upgrading to paid subscriptions. I’m not stopping any time soon.

But on to the building, which I know you can’t wait to see. Here’s a shot from the outside that I found on Flickr. It’s in New York City, and currently the spot is a Trader Joe’s grocery store:

Here’s a screenshot from the Google reviews showing the interior:

Based on those pictures alone, I’d have two guesses: theater or bank. What would yours be?

It’s a bit of a trick question, because it isn’t exactly a building at all. Here is the full street view from Google Maps:

This is a retail space underneath the city’s Queensboro Bridge! Those windows between the intersection and the TJ Maxx are the same windows as shown in the closeup photo.

The space has been in existence for as long as the bridge itself: since 1909. Bloomberg News reported when the Trader Joe’s opened:

The century-old vaulted market under the Queensboro Bridge has reopened as a Trader Joe’s.
The Bridgemarket, located inside the base of the bridge connecting Manhattan and Queens, was home to a Food Emporium for 16 years until it closed in 2015. The space was completed in 1909 after architect Rafael Guastavino, known for his contributions to landmarks including Grand Central Terminal, Ellis Island and the Bronx Zoo, was tapped for the project.

An event space company using some of the space under the bridge notes that the space began as a market, closed in the Great Depression, was used for decades by the New York City Department of Transportation, became subject to a redevelopment fight, and then in the 1990s was restored and revived as a retail space.

From a movie theater engulfed by a car dealership, to a diner encased within a strip mall, to grain silos turned into circular hotel rooms to an old department store used by a university for classes, I’ve seen a lot of interesting building histories. This is definitely one of the most interesting.

Flickr image credit ajay_suresh, CC BY 2.0

Related Reading:

“Excuse Me, Where’s the Car Aisle?”

A Lesson in Adaptive Reuse

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