Scott Hanko
Queens Zoo Aviary
The aviary at the Queens Zoo in Flushing is not just for the birds. It is also one of the great interior spaces of New York City -- even though it's really all outside. In the winter, thick snow offers an unexpected treat; it is trapped by the netting that covers the dome, forming a surreal, igloo-like space.
The structure of the Queens Aviary was built in 1964 as a space for special events, The Pavilion, for the 1964-65 World's Fair. Although the architects for the installation was the firm of Eggers & Higgins, the dome itself was one of Buckminster Fuller's geodesic domes and the framing was designed by a company he set up, Synergetics, of Raleigh, N.C. by TC Howard.
Born in 1895 in Massachusetts, Fuller had an erratic career as an engineer, salesman and inventor until late in life. In 1947 he developed the concept of the geodesic dome to enclose large spaces at minimum cost. The Ford Motor Company and then the United States Government bought large domes in the 50's, using them for radar stations and at international fairs (the 1959 "kitchen debate" between Vice President Richard M. Nixon and Premier Nikita Khrushchev was under a geodesic dome built for a trade fair in Moscow).
In 1965 The Pavilion was devoted to the life and work of Winston Churchill and included exhibits of his art work, a reproduction of his study and other memorabilia. T.C. Howard, president of Synergetics, worked on the original design and recalls that the 175-foot-wide dome took only about a week to erect.
"It was one of the largest single-layer structures of its time," he says, in distinction to domes or other buildings made with trusswork that forms a double layer.
Mr. Howard says that after the fair closed the dome was dismantled and stored. However, Robert Moses, the head of the World's Fair Corporation and of the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority, had long wanted to establish a park on the fair site and he committed the authority to build a zoo. In 1968, after $3.5 million of construction, he cut the ribbon to the 18-acre zoo in the shadow of the helicopter landing building, now the Terrace on the Park Restaurant.
The zoo was designed as an open-air institution for North American animals hardy enough to withstand the variations of New York's climate. In one corner the geodesic dome was reassembled and covered with wire netting, as much to keep out intruders as to keep in the zoo specimens.
Queens Zoo Flushing New York
Queens Zoo Aviary
The aviary at the Queens Zoo in Flushing is not just for the birds. It is also one of the great interior spaces of New York City -- even though it's really all outside. In the winter, thick snow offers an unexpected treat; it is trapped by the netting that covers the dome, forming a surreal, igloo-like space.
The structure of the Queens Aviary was built in 1964 as a space for special events, The Pavilion, for the 1964-65 World's Fair. Although the architects for the installation was the firm of Eggers & Higgins, the dome itself was one of Buckminster Fuller's geodesic domes and the framing was designed by a company he set up, Synergetics, of Raleigh, N.C. by TC Howard.
Born in 1895 in Massachusetts, Fuller had an erratic career as an engineer, salesman and inventor until late in life. In 1947 he developed the concept of the geodesic dome to enclose large spaces at minimum cost. The Ford Motor Company and then the United States Government bought large domes in the 50's, using them for radar stations and at international fairs (the 1959 "kitchen debate" between Vice President Richard M. Nixon and Premier Nikita Khrushchev was under a geodesic dome built for a trade fair in Moscow).
In 1965 The Pavilion was devoted to the life and work of Winston Churchill and included exhibits of his art work, a reproduction of his study and other memorabilia. T.C. Howard, president of Synergetics, worked on the original design and recalls that the 175-foot-wide dome took only about a week to erect.
"It was one of the largest single-layer structures of its time," he says, in distinction to domes or other buildings made with trusswork that forms a double layer.
Mr. Howard says that after the fair closed the dome was dismantled and stored. However, Robert Moses, the head of the World's Fair Corporation and of the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority, had long wanted to establish a park on the fair site and he committed the authority to build a zoo. In 1968, after $3.5 million of construction, he cut the ribbon to the 18-acre zoo in the shadow of the helicopter landing building, now the Terrace on the Park Restaurant.
The zoo was designed as an open-air institution for North American animals hardy enough to withstand the variations of New York's climate. In one corner the geodesic dome was reassembled and covered with wire netting, as much to keep out intruders as to keep in the zoo specimens.
Queens Zoo Flushing New York