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It's not easy to make something exciting out of leftovers. Especially unappetizing are some of the architectural remains from the New York 1964 World's Fair in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, Queens. The few buildings that were constructed on a permanent basis have been moldering for the past 40 years, as if waiting for Disney. Now at least the Hall of Science, designed by Wallace Harrison of Harrison & Abramovitz, has been turned into architectural haute cuisine with a spirited expansion by Polshek Partnership.
Although Wallace Harrison had famously designed the futuristic Trylon and Perisphere for the 1939 World's Fair on the same site, his 1964 structure received negligible attention. The problem may have been due to the lack of critical acclaim for the World's Fair in general: Under the leadership of the indomitable planner, Robert Moses (nicknamed "Fair Fuhrer"), the 1964 exposition lacked the innovative aura of its predecessor. Yet the Hall of Science--structurally and spatially--was unique, owing to its 80-foot-high undulating wall of tan poured-in-place concrete coffers. Moreover, the 5,400 coffers are filled with hand-faceted shards of cobalt blue glass held in a concrete matrix. The interior of the free-formed cellular concrete space of the Great Hall, as it is called, glows eerily, much like a cathedral designed by August Perret. This serpentine tower, now used for temporary video exhibitions, rises from a hexagonal base where permanent science exhibits are displayed within the articulated, muscular spaces of the exposed poured-in-place-concrete structure.
In its quest to bring the Hall of Science into the 21st century, New York City's Department of Design and Construction, working with Hall of Science director Alan Friedman, hired Polshek Partnership to expand its display, service, and administrative spaces for $55 million. Just a few years back, in 1996, Beyer Blinder Belle had already added a main entrance rotunda and an egg-shaped auditorium to the original structure.
The approach that Polshek's design partner Todd Schliemann adopted was to play up the opposing characteristics of the Great Hall and what Polshek dubbed its "Hall of Light." Whereas Harrison's vertical, undulating, opaque concrete wall looms sinuously over the immediate skyline, Polshek's 55,000-square-foot expansion features an angular wing shooting out horizontally some 55 feet to the north. While the walls of the Great Hall are...