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University Daily Kansan Thursday, Sept. 20, 1962
Excavation Underway for 1964 N.Y. Fair
NEW YORK — (UPI) — Thousands of Oregon pine piles are being driven deep into the marshy earth of Flushing Meadow, an erstwhile garbage dump, to support a billion dollars worth of concrete, glass and steel which will constitute the 1964-65 New York World's Fair.
Some 600 workmen scramble like ants over the excavation mounds and along sweeping new strips of highway that will connect the site with thruways, air terminals, and piers that are expected to pour 70 million visitors into the fairgrounds. Less than 600 days remain before the April 22, 1964 opening and the deadline pressure is mounting.
ROBERT MOSES, autocratic czar of the biggest exhibition ever planned in the history of the world, is busy pressuring three construction firms that have fallen behind in highway building, which occupies 15 firms holding $120 million in contracts. Moses also is cajoling 68 foreign countries which plan pavilions to begin construction now "while conditions are at their most favorable."
"Every participant must keep up with the time schedule." Moses has ordained. "The calendar is all-important now."
Moses can promise exhibitors freedom from labor problems. Labor unions and construction firms involved in building the fair have agreed to a no-strike, no lockout, no-picketing policy.
Fair officials are delighted with eight big industrial exhibitors whose buildings already are rising, paced by the gigantic General Motors pavilion with its global futurama covering seven acres. The $5 million New York state building, designed by Philip Johnson, and the 120-foot high heliport which will contain the Top-of-the-Fair restaurant also are under Construction.
THIS EARLY start was made possible by the completion of the recent electric distribution system, 14 miles of water mains, gas mains, 22 miles of storm and sanitary sewers, and 50,000 miles of communications wiring and a complicated system of television conduits that reach almost every corner of the fair. Contracts will soon be let for the spectacular fountains whose 2,000 nozzles will keep 100 tons of water in the air.
"It's only the beginning," says Gen. William E. Potter, executive vice president of the fair corporation.
"This time next year we will have 10,000 construction men working here."
Farthest along is the 55,000-seat sport stadium, which is intended for the New York Mets baseball team. This permanent installation is more than half completed. Selection of U.S. athletes for the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo will be made here and in other city sporting facilities in conjunction with the fair. A large marina for patrons who will visit the fair by yacht is scheduled for construction in nearby Flushing Bay.
The fair corporation still is searching for sponsors for its Hall of Man, health exhibit, U.N. special agencies exhibits, law exhibit, and a spectacular portraying the age of the atom and space.
THE CORPORATION already has leased nearly $18 million worth of space. It has issued $40 million worth of promissory notes of which three fourths have been disposed of.
Advance sale of tickets, scheduled to begin next April 22, is expected to provide $2 million in pre-opening funds. Fair patrons who purchase their tickets before Feb. 29, 1964, will get a 10 per cent discount on the regular admission of $2 for adults and $1 for children.
RUSSIA. France, Italy and Australia have taken the largest international sites and are expected to build whopping modernistic pavilions. The United States, with $17 million belatedly voted by Congress, will enclose 150,000 square feet of exhibit space with a dramatic showcase designed by Charles Luckman Associates. The U.S. has chosen "Challenge for Greatness" as its theme.
Smaller nations with less grandiose budgets will attempt to match size
with picturesque architecture. The Republic of China is planning a red-pillared temple with golden roofs and ceremonial gate worthy of Peiping's forbidden city. Sudan will build an airy white mosque with hanging gardens and mosaic walls.
Belgium is providing a quaint Belgian village in miniature, which will separate the Vatican City exhibit from the Christian Science Pavilion, a creation of noted architect Edward D. Stone. In addition to Michaelangelo's celebrated sculpture, "Pieta," the Vatican Museum is sending rare early Christian sculpture and noted religious paintings. The rumor that France will lend the "Mona Lisa" still persists despite denials.
THIRTEEN STATES already have signed participation agreements and all 50 are expected to be represented. Hawaii is planning the most lavish exhibit, including a native village, and New Jersey will have a pavilion for each of its 21 counties. The New York City building, left over from the 1930-40 fair, will have a 2,000-seat theater housing an ice extravaganza headed by Dick Button and a relief map showing every one of the city's 880,000 buildings.
STARTS SUNDAY!
However, the fair will not attempt to compete with Broadway for theatrical entertainment and it will have no girlie shows. Instead it has worked closely with the new Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the
Metropolitan Museum and other art institutions, and Long Island's Jones Beach Marine Theater to provide fair-goers with a fete of cultural fare.
Silver and Salt Don't Agree
NEW YORK — (UPI) — The Cleanliness Bureau, trade agency of the soap and detergent industry, says salt has a corrosive effect on silver. Wash immediately any silver that has been in contact with salt.
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