TURNING THE VALLEY OF ASHES INTO A TENNIS HAVEN: THE DEVELOPMENT HISTORY OF THE USTA SITE IN QUEENS, NY-Paper

Paper

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The Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens was built on land with a dramatic history and difficult ground conditions. The site was once a tidal salt marsh within an ancient buried river valley. After the marsh was used as an ash dump—the setting associated with F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “Valley of Ashes”—it was filled and developed for the 1939 and 1964 World’s Fairs. The USTA moved there in 1978, and later expansions included Arthur Ashe Stadium and its retractable roof.<br /><br />Beneath the fill are thick deposits of weak organic silts, clays and peat, followed by glacial sands and deep layers of varved silt and clay. Bedrock lies roughly 250–400 feet below ground. The soft soils settle over time, while the contrast between them and the bedrock can significantly amplify earthquake shaking. Some saturated fill may also liquefy during a design earthquake.<br /><br />These conditions require project-specific investigations and foundation designs. Major buildings are generally supported on driven or drilled piles that transfer loads into deeper glacial deposits; smaller structures may use shallow foundations in the fill. Designs account for settlement, downdrag, lateral and seismic loads, and potential liquefaction. Site-specific seismic analyses use soil and shear-wave data to estimate ground response. Investigations also map remnants of earlier World’s Fair foundations that could obstruct new construction.<br /><br />The paper traces how engineering approaches evolved from the early World’s Fair structures to modern stadium facilities. It highlights the coordinated geotechnical and structural work needed to expand the tennis complex on challenging ground, including the composite Tapertube piles used to support the Arthur Ashe Stadium roof.

Keywords

Billie Jean King National Tennis Center

Queens

World's Fairs

geotechnical engineering

soft soil

pile foundations

liquefaction

seismic analysis

Arthur Ashe Stadium

retractable roof