Queens Botanical Garden was part of the 1964 World’s Fair.  It occupies a  39-acre site in the Kissena Corridor, a series of interconnected green spaces that stretches 4.5 miles across the Borough of Queens.  It is tied closely to its urban context. Major buildings are visible on Main Street and on College Point Boulevard. The edges of the garden relate to the surrounding neighborhood, and a bicycle path serves as a connecting recreational component. 

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The organization of the Master Plan is based on American landscape traditions derived from formal and processional European styles, Romantic landscape traditions embodied in the work of Olmsted, and the landscape traditions of Asian gardens.  Areas of naturalistic landscape with native plantings are tied to the original ecosystems of this region. These traditions are all accommodated in an interlocking plan that teaches visitors about plant collections and the architecture of their arrangement.