Unisphere

The symbol of the fair, the US Steel Unisphere, is still standing.

January 2006 2006

Down past the now empty pools leading up to the Unisphere is the Rocket Thrower statue, yet another space-themed sculpture, depicting a giant throwing

Nick Carr: 45 Years Late to the Fair 2009

And the same image on one of the tablets near the Unisphere scroll down

The ULTIMATE guide to ELEKTRO the Moto-Man, essay by M. Sweeney Lawless Kevin Maher 2010

The Unisphere also presented political challenges.

Icon of a Fair, a Borough, the World Thomas J. Campanella 2010

To critics, the Unisphere symbolized the banal, corporate atmosphere of the event.

Icon of a Fair, a Borough, the World Thomas J. Campanella 2010

This, too, was easier said than done: U.N. membership was steadily rising in this period, and Burundi, Rwanda, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Algeria and Uganda all joined while the Unisphere was being fabricated.

Icon of a Fair, a Borough, the World Thomas J. Campanella 2010

On a flight from Cleveland in September 1960, Clarke sketched, on the back of an envelope, what would become the Unisphere.

Icon of a Fair, a Borough, the World Thomas J. Campanella 2010

The guidelines: Propose a piece of public art or a so-called social-practice-based (participatory) work to take space or to take place within the culturally diverse half-mile radius of the Unisphere, that durable symbol of the 1964 World's Fair.

Judgment Day in Queens 2010

But the people loved the Unisphere from the start.

Icon of a Fair, a Borough, the World Thomas J. Campanella 2010

Measuring in with a diameter of 120 feet, the Unisphere was designed in accordance with the theme of the World's Fair: Peace through understanding.

Nick Carr: 45 Years Late to the Fair 2009