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LIKE CONSCIENTIOUS King Kongs, a crew of workers is gluing the last few skyscrapers onto the 9,300-square-foot scale model of New York that sits at the center of the Queens Museum of Art in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park.
After years of neglect, the architectural model, which attracted some 1,400 visitors per hour during the 1964 World's Fair, has been updated as part of a three-year, $15-million reconstruction effort at the museum.
The project culminates tomorrow, when the museum's new face-lift is unveiled to the public. Tonight the museum will host an invitation-only gala celebration with jazz saxophonist and Queens College professor Jimmy Heath as the guest of honor.
Housed in the former New York City Building, which showcased city departments at the 1939 and 1964 New York World's Fairs, the museum will continue to display artifacts and images from the two future-world extravaganzas. And the model, called the "Panorama of the City of New York," is still the physical center of attention.
But Carmen Fauntleroy, the museum's executive director, is quick to point out that the overhaul is more than just superficial. With double the gallery space, Fauntleroy hopes to transform the relic of a financially...