Walt Disney (left) and Henry Ford II, chairman of the board, Ford Motor Company, inspect a scale model of the Ford Pavilion. A major highlight of the entertainment and show will be an exciting automobile trip through a fantasy of the past, present and future.

Today, the Ford Motor Company is revealing exterior design and architectural styling features for its pavilion at the Fair. The company also announces that a unique and exciting automobile trip through a fantasy land of the past, present and future will be a distinctive and memorable feature of the pavilion.

All of the Ford Pavilion's show, exhibit and entertainment features, including the ride fantasy, are being created by Walt Disney and designed by W.E.D. Enterprises, Inc.

The Ford Pavilion, paralleling Grand Central Parkway diagonally across the parkway from the New York City Building, will occupy most of a seven-acre site.

Incorporating the very latest architectural styling and construction techniques, the Ford building has been designed and engineered by Welton Becket, internationally-known architect, and his staff at Welton Becket and Associates in Los Angeles.

The huge, ultramodern pavilion will feature a glass-enclosed rotunda-like structure, 235 feet in diameter, fifty-six feet high, and surrounded by

sixty-four glittering pylons 100 feet tall. Adjoining this main entrance to the Ford Pavilion will be a flared rectangular show and exhibit building more than 500 feet in length and standing as high as a seven-story building. It will house the major show and entertainment features being created for Ford by Walt Disney and his staff.

At night the rotunda portion of the pavilion will become a waterfall of light. Each of the eight-foot deep pylons will be illuminated with incandescent lights ranging from low to high density, creating the effect of motion.

Huge glass panels enclosing the pavilion will be held in place by steel columns, aluminum extrusions and newly-developed neoprene glazing gaskets, all engineered to resist extraordinary changes in weather and winds of hurricane force.

The central core in the pavilion, which will be completely air-conditioned, will contain rest rooms and a first aid station on the first floor level. The mezzanine level will include a reception lounge for Ford guests, as well as offices for operating personnel.

A two-ton section of a 100-foot high pylon was swung into place early this month over the Rotunda entrance of Ford Motor Company's Fair Pavilion completing structural steel erection on the massive building.

Participating in the ceremonies with Ford Motor Company representatives, Fair President Robert Moses hailed the topping of the Ford building as "an important milestone in the construction of the Fair. There is bound to be a great exhibit when Ford and Disney get together."

To mark the occasion, U.S. Steel's American Bridge Division workers went aloft with a six-foot fir tree, appropriately decorated with miniature automobiles and topped by a Fair flag. The tree was "planted" on the final steel section and flanked with flags of the United States and the United Nations, the latter symbolic of the international character of the Fair itself.

Robert Lamerson, Ford resident engineer assigned to the project, said that exceptional weather during the past few weeks enabled the American Bridge crew to complete this phase of work on the pavilion ahead of schedule. The building will contain 3,400 tons of structural and finishing steel.

The "topping out" ceremony on the Ford Pavilion was part of a tradition that has its origin in legend and superstition.

A two-ton top section of a 100-foot high pylon as it was swung into place over the Rotunda entrance of Ford Motor Company's Fair Pavilion to mark completion of structural steel erection on the massive building. Workers of U.S. Steel's American Bridge Division later went aloft to plant a six-foot fir tree, appropriately decorated with miniature automobiles, and a World's Fair flag. Shown is steel worker, Jay Feltham holding the traditional "topping out" tree.

Walt Disney and his staff at WED Enterprises, Inc., a Disney subsidiary, are creating and designing all of the exhibit and entertinament features for the Ford Pavilion.

Ford

Workmen constructing the Space City exhibit