The Unisphere stands at the center of the radial pathways in the northern half of Flushing Meadows Corona Park and was commissioned for the New York World's Fair of 1964-65. Designed by landscape architect Gilmore D. Clarke in aluminum with metallic mesh continents and further refined in stainless steel by industrial designers at Peter Muller-Munk Associates, the 350-ton, 120-foot-diameter globe was engineered, fabricated, and erected by American Bridge Company, a division of US Steel, as the fair's centerpiece and icon. The sphere shows the continents and major mountain ranges in relief, is encircled by three giant orbital rings representing the tracks of early satellites, and originally marked the world's capital cities with lights. It celebrated both the dawn of the space age and the fair's broader theme of "Peace Through Understanding," and later became a beloved symbol of Queens. Clarke, one of the most accomplished landscape architects of the 20th century, had been recruited in 1934 by Parks Commissioner Robert Moses to direct a WPA-funded rebuilding of New York City's park infrastructure, and with his partner Michael Rapuano designed major parks across the city's boroughs. Clarke and Rapuano also created the site plan for the New York World's Fair of 1939-40, transforming former ash heaps into a grand public landscape based on Bernini's axial plan for St. Peter's square in Rome. For the 1964-65 fair, Clarke recommended reusing the earlier fair's general outlines and the existing foundation and central position of the Trylon and Perisphere for a new central icon. After William Dorwin Teague's Astrasphere was rejected, Clarke sketched his concept for a massive armillary sphere on the back of an envelope during a flight from Ohio, and William S. Boice rendered it for the Clarke and Rapuano firm. Plans to make the Unisphere rotate were abandoned as impractical, so lights and fountain water jets created an illusion of movement instead. Its engineering required solving hundreds of simultaneous equations with the aid of computers used to design atomic submarines, and US Steel performed the work for free in exchange for promotional use of its name and logo. Weathering later destabilized some raised geographic elements, prompting conservation in 1994 as part of a 15-year, $80 million restoration of Flushing Meadows Corona Park that cleaned and reinforced the structure, re-landscaped the area, and doubled the fountain's spray jets from 48 to 96. The Unisphere was designated an official City landmark in 1995, underwent further renovation in 2010, received repairs after storm damage in 2010 and 2012, and on May 18th 2014, the 50th anniversary of the 1964 World's Fair, a ceremony honored Clarke's achievement. It remains a familiar feature on the city's skyline and a monument to the times and aspirations of the world's fair.
