SOURCE: Bell System Promotional Film "A Ballad for the Fair"

Presented Courtesy Mitch Dakelman and Ray Dashner Collection

One of the larger construction jobs at the Fair was the creation of the Pool of Industry. Until the 1964/1965 World's Fair, the Flushing River flowed through the park. The majority of it was diverted through buried conduits beneath the Meadow as a part of the construction of the 1964/1965 Fair. The "burying" of the Flushing River created nine more acres of exhibit space. Four wells, located near Meadow Lake, provided six million gallons of subterranean water augmenting the natural flow and maintaining clean water in the lake and the above-ground section of the Flushing River that still ran through the Fairgrounds.

The basic shape of the pool is created from the oval pond that was the "Lagoon of Nations" for the 1939/1940 World's Fair.

 

SOURCE: NY World's Fair Progress Report No. 4

January 17, 1962

Preliminary work is completed and the Pool of Industry takes its final form. The remanents of the Flushing River can still be seen in this aerial view.

 

SOURCE: NY World's Fair Progress Report No. 5

May 17, 1962

A close examination of the construction photographs of the Kodak Pavilion reveals that wood planking covered the steel framework of the pavilion. This provided the underlayment for the poured concrete decking. It is amazing to see how much wood was used in the construction of a pavilion that appears to be made of free-flowing concrete!

Nearing completion - winter 1963-1964.

 

SOURCE: online auction

DESIGNERS

.....The Corporation has supplied a framework for the Fair ... the exhibit designers are supplying, above all else, variety -- from a Thai temple to a floating steel and concrete slab. Structures are being conceived as architecture, as stage sets and as corporate symbols.

.....The architect today has readily available material only hinted at in the Fair of 1939-1940. He has new methods of construction at his command. He has clients from all over the world, each intent upon telling his story in a dramatic way, not buried in an overall pattern of architectural monotony.

.....The architects and designers study the problems and prepare plans, renderings and models for presentation of clients. They ask and need the help of daring engineering, down-to-earth mechanical detailing and the planning of landscape architects. Their ideas eventually become working drawings, a sheet of glass shown as two thin lines on a blueprint.

.....Always in mind is the estimated cost of construction, in order to make as much structure as possible relatively maintenance free for two years. They must meet the Fair codes for safety and health. They must also always remember that the deathless works of art will go into a scrap heap after 1965. With luck they may go into the photographic records of the architectural historians of the future.

.....With drawings completed and contracts let, the designer's final task is day-by-day inspection of construction.

 

CONTRACTORS

.....Many of the organizations that have been directing New York's multibillion dollar building boom of recent years are at work at the Fair.

.....The contractor's job is complicated. He analyzes the plans, prepares the bills-of-materials and coordinates deliveries. He stakes out the site, prepares foundations and sees to the proper erection of the superstructure, which may have a complicated free-form roof or a simple canvas cover.

.....The contractor supplies the major equipment required by the building trades. More powerful bulldozers, cranes and machinery along with specialized tools have increased efficiency of construction.

.....From the architect's plans the contractor prepares a schedule for the building trades required at each stage of construction. The estimates are discussed with the local labor representatives at the Fair site and plans are made to assure completion on time.

 

SOURCE: NY World's Fair Progress Report No. 9 September 26, 1963