Rockaway Beach, New Yorkers’ Favorite Escape, Sees a Creative Resurgence

Looking out at the Atlantic Ocean from Rockaway Beach, Manhattan and the rest of New York City feels far away. In reality, the 10-mile long peninsula extending from Queens past John F. Kennedy Airport is part of New York City—the distant tip of the concrete jungle, the last stop on the A train, and a place many New Yorkers go to escape.

Rockaway has actually been a respite for city dwellers for hundreds of years. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, it was an urban seaside playground with an amusement park, thousands of bungalows, and luxury hotels—when the Marine Pavilion Hotel and Resort opened in 1833, it was said to be the most expensive hotel ever constructed at the time.

“Everybody from the city would come down and spend their summers here in this bungalow community,” says Terence Tubridy, a third-generation Rockaway resident and a partner in the Rockaway Hotel. “There are about 200 or so bungalows left; there used to be thousands that stretched all the way down the peninsula.”

Beyond the shoreline, Rockaway is somewhat gritty, a place where the urban grid meets the sea. Robert Moses left his mark here too, in the form of Jacob Riis Park, along with three highways and public-housing towers meant to be as far away from Manhattan as possible.

When Hurricane Sandy hit Rockaway in 2012, it caused millions of dollars of damage. But the recovery effort brought an influx of people wanting to help, and the creative scene began to flourish. Soon, there was a brand-new boardwalk, revitalized concession stands, ferry service, and a groundswell of artists moving to the area, some drawn there by Klaus Biesenbach, the former director of MoMA PS1, who had bought a bungalow a few months before Sandy.

In 2014, he partnered with the Rockaway Artists Alliance (RAA) on Rockaway!, a music and art festival designed to bring people to the Rockaways. Over the years, the festival hosted large-scale installations by Yayoi Kusama, Katharina Grosse, and Patti Smith, who also has a home in Rockaway. Biesenbach moved to Los Angeles in 2018, and the current installation—an augmented reality piece by Nancy Baker Cahill, on view through July 4—was sponsored by the Rockaway Hotel.

The hotel, a chic 50-room property designed by Morris Adjmi Architects and Curious Yellow Design that was unveiled late last summer, is one of the most exciting, design-forward openings in Rockaway in generations. And thanks to its community outreach and local connections, it has become a de facto gallery of sorts. The lobby houses two pieces by Tom Sachs (who lives nearby), as well as works by Roe Etheridge (who also has a home here), Katharina Grosse, Derrick Adams, and a piece by Alessandro Teoldi made out of airline blankets, in a nod to the proximity of JFK. On June 18, the hotel unveiled a botanical seascape mural on its facade by NYC artist Ivan Forde.

Lesser-known names are represented as well, and they are mainly local. Fabiola Sheppard created macramé plant holders with pots by ceramicist Michelle Cortez, and Rockaway surf photographers Susannah Ray and Joni Sternbach have photographs hanging in rooms and hallways.