More from 1939
It's time for some more photos from the 1939 New York World's Fair!
First up is this view (taken from the Helicline) showing the Carrier Corporation "igloo" - intended to inspire cool thoughts at a time when air conditioning was a pretty new concept.
The Aviation Building looked something like a large airplane hangar, and was supposed to evoke the idea of flight - although many visitors thought that it looked more like a blimp hangar. The interior looked much like airport terminals of the era, and had several aircraft suspended from the ceiling.
Here is the United States Steel building; its resemblance to a hard hat may be purely coincidental. At night the arched supports were outlined in blue and white neon. Inside were displays showing how steel was manufactured, along with examples of the metal's use in countless products.
This is the Glass Incorporated building, designed by the same folks who brought us the Empire State Building. The 107 foot tower is largely made of glass blocks, with blue glass "fins" and a spiral column that was outlined in neon. Inside there were glass blowers, a giant loom weaving fiberglass cloth, and even a three-room suite decorated in furniture and curtains made with glass fabrics.
4 comments:
The bottom pic - again, it's strikingly modern. Or should we say that we've seen strikingly little evolution in design since to be seeing it that way?
The top pic in the back - is that a ginormous stadium?
I love this Fair. The pictures look old but the look of the Fair is modern...a great contrast for me.
In the first image, is that a monorail in the right foreground or was this too soon for such a thing, I wonder? I also see what looks to be an observatory as well.
The Aviation building is beautiful. I love big stuff.
Picture #3 is the most interesting for me, however. The United States Steel "hard hat" looks an awful lot like our very own Civic Arena, which has been officially torn down as of March 31. It was the first sports venue in the US with a retractable roof and built of Pittsburgh-made steel. Such a sad time around here :**(
The Glass pavilion...I wonder if that spiral was a staircase.
beautiful photos, more please when you get some!
Didn't Uncle Orville invent air conditioning in the bathroom of the Carousel of Progress in the 1920's?
The Glass Inc. building looks really cool.
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