At an early December reception held at Terrace on the Park in Corona, the Queens Chamber of Commerce presented the chamber’s 97th annual Building Awards to 32 recipients. All but one prize referred to a residential, public, commercial or industrial building. The lone exception was the winner of the lifetime achievement award, Joshua L. Muss, president of Muss Development Group. Among the other winners, Jet Blue Airways’ Terminal 5 at Kennedy Airport and Frank Sinatra H.S. of the Performing Arts in Astoria were entered into the QCC Building Hall of Fame. An overall award was extended to Court Square Plaza in Hunters Point, Long Island City. The remainder of the awards went to fitting examples of new construction, rehabilitation construction and interiors.

QCC President Albert Pennisi presented the lifetime achievement award to Muss, the third generation head of a development group founded by his immigrant grandfather. “Building New York City Since 1906” is the motto of Muss Development Group, which Pennisi praised, saying, “They build neighborhoods and have developed value.” Though as the motto indicates, the group is citywide, Muss said, “It’s exciting to build in Queens,” where a current project is Sky View Parc in Flushing. Two sharing space on the dais with Muss were Scott DeMatteis of Leon D. DeMatteis Construction Corp. and Sharon Greenberger of the city School Construction Authority. DeMatteis accepted the QCC Building Hall of Fame honor given to his company for Frank Sinatra H.S. of the Performing Arts, while Greenberger spoke about that school and others being built throughout the city. In Queens, she said, 13,000 classroom seats are needed and out of the city’s $5 billion budget for school construction, $1.4 billion is being expended to meet the borough’s “significant needs”.

Another person on the dais was Richard T. Anderson, president of the New York Building Congress, who was described by Pennisi as an urban planner. Anderson noted that one-fifth of building construction in the city is conducted by the School Construction Authority. Construction itself went from a condition he called “white hot” during the early years of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s second term to ice cold recently, dropping from 34,000 projects underway in the boom time to 6,300 in the past year, a four-fifths decline. At the moment the empty office space in the city is a total of 45 million square feet, he said. “We got spoiled,” he added in reference to that time when private and public construction was thriving. Now, in contrast, the building slump of the 1990s is being repeated. He observed that currently there is much rezoning of land in Queens, some of which could foretell construction projects. But it is crucial, he said that “a partnership between government and major institutions” remains vibrant. He cited schools such as NYU and Columbia as institutional examples, coincidentally with Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s lament that the court decision enjoining Columbia University’s plan to develop large parts of West Harlem would impede social progress in the city.

The QCC Building Hall of Fame award to Jet Blue Airways’ Terminal 5 was conferred jointly on the owner, Jet Blue Airways Corp.; the architect/ engineer firm, Gensler & DMJN (AECOM), and the builder/contractor, Turner Construction Co. The other Hall of Fame award winner was Frank Sinatra H.S. for the Performing Arts, 35-12 35th Ave. in Astoria. The owner is the New York City School Construction Authority; the architect/ engineer firm is Polshek Partnership Architects, LLP; the builder is Leon D. DeMatteis Construction Corp.

The overall award for excellence and design went to the United Nations Federal Credit Union building at Court Square Plaza, 24-01 44th Rd. in Long Island City. The architect/engineer firm is HLW International and the builder/contractor is Tishman Construction Corp.

There were 12 winners for rehabilitation construction, 14 for new construction and two for interiors. Of the rehabs, three of interest are the Harriet and Kenneth Kupferberg Holocaust Resource Center and Studio Square, a bar/restaurant, and the residence at 233-38 Bay St. The Kupferberg building, a 9,000-square-foot structure of glass and Jerusalem stone at Queensborough Community College in Bayside, was opened in October after five years of construction. The design is by TEK Architects and the builder is Summit Construction. Studio Square is at 35-37 36th St. in Astoria, near Kaufman Astoria Studios and the Museum of the Moving Image. Steve Callides is the owner; the architectural firm is Gerald J. Caliendo, RA, PC and the builder is D&D Contractors. The residence at 233-38 Bay St. is an old Douglaston house owned by Joseph Torres. The architectural firm, which in its rehabilitation evidently respected the original design of the house, is AM/PM Design & Consulting; the builder is All American Building.

The Jamaica Hospital Nursing Home at the Jamaica Hospital Medical Center was a winner in the new construction, health care facility category. Among the other winners were the American Airlines Ground Service Equipment Repair building at Kennedy Airport and Packard Square, the Long Island City commercial/residential building that won in the new construction, mixed use category. Jamaica Hospital Nursing Home, located at 89-40 135th St., is designed by RSBD, Architects and the builder is Barr & Barr Inc. The American Airlines repair facility at JFK Terminal 8, is designed by the architectural firm of Graf & Lewent and built by VRH Construction Corp. Packard Square, at 41-34 Crescent St., is owned by the builder, Ciampa Crescent LLC.

The architectural firm is Fakler, Eliason & Porcelli, AIA.

The interior awards went to a commercial establishment and a public building.

The commercial site was Ah Ree Soo Restaurant, at 38-10 138th St., located in the heart of Flushing and owned by Jennifer Chiu. The architect is SD90 Design Inc. and the builder is Nextcom Construction Inc. The winning public interior space is the Queens Visitors’ Center in Queens Center Mall, 90-15 Queens Blvd., which is owned by the Queens Economic Development Corporation. The designer is Lin & Associates Architects, PC and the builder is Aurora Electric/Local 3/All Target Construction. The QCC Building Hall of Fame award to Jet Blue Airways’ Terminal 5 was conferred jointly on the owner, Jet Blue Airways Corp.