About this Event
A History of Queens: Rural County, Urban Borough
With Architect Laura Heim
Tuesday, March 10th at 6:00 P.M.
An In-Person and Online Program
The in-person program will be followed by a Book-signing and Reception
Presented in Partnership with
In celebration of the late Jeffrey A. Kroessler’s book Rural County, Urban Borough: A History of Queens, his widow, the architect Laura Heim will discuss the unique production process and engaging content of this first comprehensive history of the great borough of Queens. A former wetland, Queens today is a crowded cityscape of dense urban neighborhoods and suburban sprawl. Rural County, Urban Borough is a history of place, charting the rapid transformation of the Queens landscape, identifying what drove the borough’s development, from public infrastructure, architecture, and transportation to technological innovation and urban planning.
In this talk, Laura Heim will tell the story of Queens, “the world’s borough,” and describe its diversity and how it transformed, in less than one hundred years, from an agricultural hinterland to a vital urban corridor. She will reveal why Queens is integral to New York City and the wider world and show how, in its architecture and evolution, the whole arc of American urban history unfolds.
Jeffrey A. Kroessler (1952–2023) was a professor at the Lloyd Sealy Library of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY. His many books include Sunnyside Gardens: Planning and Preservation in a Historic Garden Suburb, New York Year by Year: A Chronology of the Great Metropolis, and Historic Preservation in Queens.
He was a passionate advocate for the borough of Queens, including co-founding the Queensborough Preservation League, involvement in the effort to landmark Long Island City’s New York Architectural Terra Cotta Works Office Building, and helping lead the successful campaign to designate the Sunnyside Gardens Historic District. He served on The Historic Districts Council's (HDC) boards of directors and advisers for 36 years, helping to craft the organization’s advocacy strategies and educational programs on preservation across the city. He also served on the Municipal Art Society Preservation Committee and as president of the City Club of New York.
Laura Heim, FAIA LEED AP, is an award-winning architect with a firm in historic Sunnyside Gardens, Queens. Her firm, Laura Heim Architect, has a particular expertise in historic preservation and adaptive reuse/renovation. She has served as the Chair of Architecture on the Steering Committee of the Sunnyside Gardens Preservation Alliance, as president of the AIA Queens chapter, and on the Board of Directors of AIA New York State. She was the Co-Chair of the AIANY Fellows Committee in 2023. Currently, she is on the Board of Directors of the Historic Districts Council. She frequently collaborated on historic preservation work with her late husband, Jeffrey Kroessler, author of Rural County, Urban Borough.
Rural County, Urban Borough: A History of Queens,will be available to purchase in-person at the lecture and available online
General Admission: $15; General Society Members, New York Landmarks Conservancy Members and Senior Citizens: $10; Students: $5
Advance Registration required.
The General Society Library, 20 West 44th Street, New York City, www. generalsociety.org
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
The General Society Library, 20 WEST 44th Street (BETWEEN 5th AND 6th AVENUES), New York City, New York, United States
USD 5.00 to USD 15.00
