Giant road map from 1964 World's Fair
Link (Thanks, Marilyn Terrell!)One of the most popular attractions at the Pavilion’s Tent of Tomorrow was its enormous terrazzo pavement based on a Texaco road map of the state of New York. Designed by Philip Johnson Associates following ancient precedents in depicting the world as a pavement, the Pavilion’s floor celebrated a familiar icon of American pop culture-the road map. Conceived to be the largest geographic representation in the world, the pavement was also the most extensive terrazzo project ever undertaken at the time, costing approximately $1 million to complete. Rand, McNally & Company supplied the topographic information, while Texaco provided the location of each of its state gas stations. The enormous map is composed of 576 individual panels, each measuring 4’x4’, which span a total of 130’ by 166’. Each panel weighs approximately 400 pounds, creating an entire pavement weighing in at a staggering 114 tons.
To create the colossal map, each of the three-quarter inch grid sections from a Texaco map were magnified 64 times and projected onto 4’ by 4’ paper templates . A group of Yale University art students then meticulously traced the enlarged roadway network, topographic symbols, letters, numbers and Texaco station logos by hand. The templates were sent to Manhattan Tile and Terrazzo Co. (now Manhattan American Strip Co.) to duplicate the topographical markers in metal strips and colored plastic insets. These components were all hand cut and then carefully arranged in plywood pattern boxes. The boxes were sent to the Port Morris Tile and Marble shop, where the terrazzo mixture of Portland cement, marble chips and crushed glass was poured. Various pigments were added exactly reproducing paper map features such as land (white, green, and tan), roads (black and red), and rivers and lakes (blue). Finally, the pavement surface was ground smooth and polished.
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I think this is the same map featured in the They Might Be Giants video for "Don't Let's Start." I remember hearing they filmed it at the old World's Fairgrounds, and there are a series of shots of John Linnell rolling around on some kind of scooter with the map behind his head starting at :45
http://youtube.com/watch?v=VJQnZZ-Wmao
I believe it's the Queens Museum of Art, not the Queen's Museum of Art. The Queen is welcome to visit there if she likes.
Does it show who was at the Dupont Pavilion?
Or why was the bench still warm and who had been there?
Bet I'm one of the few posting here who was actually at the 1964 World's Fair. (*sigh*)
(I still have my "Meet me at the the smoke ring" button...)
If you are in the area, you should check it out. You can see the conservators as they work to put the map back together. Very cool project.
Just the other day we were talking about the videotelephones at the fair...seems like a long time ago.
I got to talk on a picture phone at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. The first time, the kid at the other end was at a world's fair. The second time, I was talking to somebody at Disneyland (if memory serves). They weren't very informative calls. The other kid's eyes were riveted on the monitor slightly off to the side, and mine probably were too, most of the time.
Charlie Summers,
Or not. Go get us some Belgian Waffles while I load my Kodak Instamatic.
A really spectacular story on the 64-65 Fair (with lots of images...)
http://www.fantasticsmag.com/2007/02/unfair_grounds.php
enjoy!!!
I'm delighted to see from the pic on the site that there really is a place called Fredonia - as in the Marx Brothers' Duck Soup - "Hail, hail Fredonia, land of the braaaaave and freeeeee!"
They even created a cool website for the exhibit. There's a way to look at each of the tiles close up in their present condition. Its sad to see how bad its gotten. I wish I had been old enough to go during the fair and see it when it was really nice.
http://www.thereallybigmap.com/
just shot an interactive panorama of the interior, good view of what's left of the map...
tent of tomorrow panorama
sam