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A Souvenir and
an Invitation
Source: The
World's Fair House Decorating Book - Souvenir Book of the
Formica Exhibit, 1964, Formica Corporation.
| This souvenir book of the World's Fair House is a treasury
of ideas for that most personal of arts: the art of beautifying
one's home. It grew out of a need to visualize new dimensions
in decoration made possible by man-made materials already famous
for their utility. Modern living demands beauty and grace in
everyday surroundings, but rejects the slavery of fussy care.
Today, thanks to miracles of industrial science coupled with
creative design, both aims may be served at once and in every
room. Here is American contemporary styling, a blend of native
arts and crafts, tradition and the present, color and durability.
Here are furnishings for family life as it is lived, at home
anywhere in America today. And yet for most people they are a
discovery in taste. A world's fair is a cultural milepost; and
at this one the Formica World's Fair House invites twentieth
century America to experience fresh new ideas in home decorating
which this book now explores in depth. |
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The photographs below
and on the following pages are found in The World's Fair House
Decorating Book, a souvenir of the Formica exhibit. They
were taken at the Gold Medallion House designed for the Formica
Corporation by Emil Schmidlin, A.I.A., and Ellis Leigh, and built
in Monmouth County, New Jersey by R.V.M. Lefferts of Oak Hill
Builders. Another, virtually identical model, was built in Flushing
Meadows; the major difference being a widened center hallway
with half-walls instead of full walls in order to facilitate
viewing. Some of the interior photos may have been taken at the
actual World's Fair House in Flushing Meadows, although it is
not clear which ones.
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Floorplan of the New Jersey World's
Fair House
Source: Good
Housekeeping Magazine, May 1964
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Entrance and Main
Hallway
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This is the main entrance
just inside the front door, taken from the living room. "Restful
Green" will be the leitmotif throughout the house.
-Photo SOURCE: Souvenir
Book, p. 8
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"Indoor gardening is easier when spills are no problem,
as in entry of World's Fair House. Skydomes are self-cleaning,
too, washed by the rains."
-SOURCE: Souvenir Book,
p. 93
Those of us who have owned homes
with skylights found that they were anything but self-cleaning,
although it would be natural to think that they would be. It
also seems curious that such a large amount of space would be
given over to a rarely used entryway in a house with such a small
footprint.
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