The Queens Museum is located in the New York City Pavilion at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park,[4] designed by architect Aymar Embury II for the 1939 World's Fair.

[4][5] The fair was first announced in 1935,[6] and engineering consultant J. Franklin Bell drew up preliminary plans for the fairground the next year, including a structure for the New York City government.

[20] Next to the building was a plaza named City Hall Square,[21] which separated it from the Trylon and Perisphere, the central monument of the 1939 fair.

[19][26] The pavilion included exhibits on such topics as the WNYC radio station, the city's courts, and the Independent Subway System,[26] along with stage shows and a voting demonstration.

[32] A memorial plaque was installed on the New York City Pavilion after two policemen were killed in 1940 while attempting to defuse a bomb nearby.

[58] To celebrate the New York City Pavilion's usage as a temporary General Assembly hall, the building was depicted in a stamp released by the United Nations in 1958.

[65] Almost all of Flushing Meadows–Corona Park was closed in early 1961 in advance of the fair, except for the New York City Building's ice skating rink.

[107] Originally, the Queens County Art and Cultural Center occupied 50,000 square feet (4,600 m2), and two-fifths of the museum's space was taken up by the Panorama.

[99] There was only about 10,000 square feet (930 m2) of actual display space, which meant that the museum had to close every time a temporary exhibit was being added or replaced.

[108] The museum's main entrance was at the northern end of the New York City Pavilion building, while the ice-skating rink occupied the structure's southern half.

[131] The New York City Council provided more than $500,000 for an expansion of the Queens Museum shortly afterward, which would add over 20,000 square feet (1,900 m2) of exhibition space.

By 1982, the New York Daily News reported that the museum's gallery, studios, workshops, office, and backroom spaces took up nearly half the building.

[151] During the renovation, the museum recorded fewer visitors, in part because the Panorama was temporarily removed and because the existing exhibits did not appeal to Queens's increasingly ethnically diverse population.

[159] Laurene Buckley took over as the museum's executive director in July 1999, with plans to expand the permanent collection and attract more visitors.

[162][163] The plans called for the relocation of the ice skating rink,[162][164] as well as a new bent-glass roof, an exhibition space at the center of the structure, and a dirt mound facing Grand Central Parkway to the west.

[172][169] Finkelpearl said at the time that many visitors to Flushing Meadows Corona Park continued to ignore the museum because the building looked "like it's closed, even when we're open".

[165][173] The museum solicited a new proposal from Grimshaw Architects,[174] which agreed to work with local engineering firm Ammann & Whitney.

[179] Grimshaw Architects and Ammann & Whitney developed plans for 50,000 square feet (4,600 m2) of exhibition, education, and office space, as well as eight new artist studios.

[186] During the first inauguration of Donald Trump as U.S. president in January 2017, the museum closed temporarily in conjunction with a protest hosted by artists.

Raicovich told the Times that these events had been intended to counter a decline in visitor numbers that occurred after Trump's election.

[186] In 2017, the museum controversially[187] canceled an agreement to rent space for a party celebrating the 70th anniversary of the Israeli Declaration of Independence.

[187][189] The event included a staged reenactment of the November 29, 1947, United Nations vote to partition the British Mandate for Palestine.

[192] As a consequence of the controversy, the Queens Museum's board commissioned an investigation into misbehaviors by Raicovich and deputy director David Strauss.

[205] The eastern end of the building has a set of revolving doors embedded within a 30-foot-tall (9.1 m) curtain wall, which in turn is recessed behind a colonnade.

[208] The largest permanent exhibition at the Queens Museum is the Panorama of the City of New York, which was constructed by Lester Associates for the 1964 World's Fair.

[213] The current installation, dating to a 1990s renovation of the museum by Rafael Viñoly, features accessible ramps and an elevated glass floored walkway which surround the Panorama.

[217] The map was restored by the McKay Lodge Fine Arts Conservation Lab in Oberlin, Ohio, between 2006 and 2008, then displayed at the Queens Museum.

[97][154] Exhibits in the first decade of the 21st century included a showcase of crime scene photographs from the Daily News' archives,[242] a showcase of banners created by schoolchildren,[243] a show about the diplomat Ralph Bunche,[244] drawings from the court reporter William Sharp,[245] and an exhibit of photographs of Robert Moses's work.

[247] When the museum reopened after the COVID-19 pandemic, it hosted exhibitions about the concept of home, the photographer Bruce Davidson, and children's art.

[249] Starting in 2004, the museum helped sponsor the Queens Culture Trolley, which traveled between Flushing Meadows and the neighborhoods of Corona and Jackson Heights.