26 Facts About Unisphere

Unisphere is a spherical stainless steel representation of the Earth in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in the New York City borough of Queens.

The theme of the World's Fair was "Peace Through Understanding", and the Unisphere represented the theme of global interdependence, being dedicated to "Man's Achievements on a Shrinking Globe in an Expanding Universe".

Around the Unisphere is a reflecting pool measuring 310 feet in diameter.

The Unisphere was made a New York City designated landmark in 1995 and, after another period of disrepair, it was restored in the early 2010s.

Idea for the Unisphere occurred in September 1960 as Clarke was doodling on an airplane from Ohio to New York.

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The Unisphere was conceptually designed in aluminum with metallic mesh continents.

The Unisphere would replace the Trylon and Perisphere from the 1939 World's Fair, which Moses said he "never understood".

Unisphere did give an award to M Legrain-Eiffel, whose grandfather Gustave Eiffel's company had designed and built the Eiffel Tower.

The Unisphere was dedicated in early March 1964, and the base of the Unisphere hosted a dance ball the same month, attended by four hundred people.

The Unisphere's popularity was increased by the presence of fountainheads around the globe's base, which cooled down fair visitors on hot days.

Parts of the park were repaired or expanded for the tournament, including the fountains of the Unisphere, which were reactivated in 1978 for the first time in ten years.

Grounds around the Unisphere were landscaped in 1992, but the renovation of the Unisphere itself was delayed due to a lack of money.

Preservationists objected when some of the trees around the Unisphere, dating to the 1964 World's Fair, were removed and replaced with trees that were easier to maintain.

The restoration of the Unisphere, which began in 1993, included numerous structural repairs and removal of grime accumulation on the steel.

Fountains at the Unisphere's base were shut off in 2001 due to citywide water restrictions; they were not reactivated until early 2003, seventeen months later.

Unisphere's fountains were rededicated on August 12,2010, after a $2 million restoration of the pumps, valves, and paintwork.

Landmasses of the Unisphere are made of metal sheets that are laid in contours.

Unisphere is centered in a 310-foot-diameter circular reflecting pool, with a floor of poured concrete surrounded by a bulkhead of granite and concrete.

The effect is meant to obscure the tripod supporting the Unisphere, making the globe appear as if it is floating in space.

Unisphere is built on a concrete foundation, which includes the piling ring that supported the Perisphere of the 1939 World's Fair.

The Perisphere, and subsequently the Unisphere, employed a foundation of 528 pressure-creosoted Douglas fir piles of 95 to 100 feet in length.

Ralph Caplan wrote for Industrial Design that Moses's defense of the Unisphere was motivated by animosity toward the older structure.

Walter McQuade wrote for The Nation that the Unisphere was a "bit of roadside inspirational decoration, a trite cartoon in iron" that portended badly for the 1964 World's Fair, while Bruno Zevi for Italian magazine L'Architettura cronache e storia called it a "silly idea" and petitioned US President John F Kennedy to prevent the Unisphere from being installed.

The New York Times, in 2014, said the Unisphere was the only relic of the 1964 World's Fair that "was untarnished by time and enhanced by memory".

The Unisphere became an unofficial symbol of Queens after the World's Fair.

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Unisphere has been used as a setting or backdrop for several films, music videos, and TV episodes, notably the American sitcom The King of Queens; the television show CSI: NY; the Marvel Cinematic Universe films Iron Man 2, Captain America: The First Avenger, and Spider-Man: Homecoming; and the movie Men in Black.