New York City Departments of Education and Transportation Building
28-11 Queens Plaza North
1921
This nine-story Italianate building flanking Queens Plaza houses the New York City Department of Education and the New York City Department of Transportation, including the Bureau of Traffic Operations and its Traffic Management Center, which controls all of the city’s traffic lights. The building’s façade consists of a four-story limestone base topped by five floors of unadorned brown brick, enlivened by arched windows on the central seven bays at the eighth story and crowned by a dentilled cornice with brick corbelling. The empty steel framework sitting on the rooftop survives as a reminder of the large neon signs that once crowned this building.