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"... Someone told me the
other day that what is lacking in our plans is the big gap that
has to do with agriculture. And I said I think that this food
show is the nearest thing to agriculture -- basic ground-root
agriculture that we are going to get to and the thing that people
most understand. I don't know how many people coming to the Fair
and looking at the scientific exhibits are going to understand
them. I must admit that not having been brought up in science,
I don't understand any of them too well.
... I think everybody is going
to understand this food exhibit, because these are the things
that they deal with every day. They are things that everybody
has to know about, and I'm delighted that this group has come
in just as they have -- as a group under their own auspices.
Now we had a tough time at the
beginning of this Fair, in arriving at a symbol of the Fair,
and we had the usual arguments as to whether what we had selected
-- the Unisphere -- was a cliche' thing, was something that dated
back to the Middle Ages, that it was dated and didn't mean anything
any more. The alternatives offered were, none of them, nearly
as good. Well they've got used to that. That symbol has gone
around the world.
And then we had a great argument,
the biggest argument, I guess, that we did have -- as to whether
we should have a design committee that told everybody what to
do. A design committee that controlled the shape of buildings,
the architecture of buildings, the school of architecture, and
to a considerable extent the exhibits in the interior. Well we
decided not to do that. We had a committee of five members and
they recommended to us that the theme and symbol of the Fair
-- a building a mile around, two stories high, in the shape of
a doughnut, and all the industries, including the industries
represented here, were to buy or rent a wedge of that doughnut.
They were all going to be in the same building.
The exhibitors pointed out that
they didn't want that. They wanted to have their own architects.
They wanted to have their own ideas. They wanted to put up their
own buildings. Well, we were told that that would result in all
sorts of conflict of design and plan -- there would be no unified
plan. There would be no central theme, and we said -- well as
against that we'll have ingenuity and everybody will be on his
own and we'll have variety if we have nothing else. And that's
what we decided upon.
And on that high note we were
told that all five members of the design committee would resign.
Actually only one resigned and we went on and we've got along
on the basis of letting exhibitors pick their own location to
the extent that we were able to give them the space; determine
on architecture; determine on context; subject on to our right
to order certain setbacks and heights. And that we've done.
I think you're going to have an
excellent exhibit here. I like the architecture. I like what
I have heard about the interior. It isn't going to be like anything
else in the Fair, and in my book it shouldn't be like anything
else. Now, I remember at the time of the last Fair, I had a friend
who was in this particular kind of business and he was an old
Yale acquaintance of mine and he was down here to try to get
some of us to go to Pittsburgh to work on the Pittsburgh Plan.
That was Howard Heinz. That was the time we were getting ready
for the first World's Fair and we came down here to Flushing
Meadow -- I was Park Commissioner, a sort of landlord of the
premises -- and he said to me that the Heinz company was going
to have an exhibit and what did I think of having it in the shape
of a pickle?
Well I said, I think that's a
little extreme, bit I said, as far as I'm concerned, I don't
see any reason why you shouldn't have your exhibit in the shape
of a pickle if you want it. And that's the theory on which we've
been proceeding here.
I think that there's going to
be more variety and more of a stimulus of the clash of ideas
here in this Fair than there has been in any fair before. Now
I want to give to the top fellow of this picture, Mr. Jim Jones,
the symbol of the Fair. It has the Unisphere on one side which
you know is a globe -- with these orbits, satellites around it.
It doesn't move. We originally planned with the United States
Steel people that it would revolve, but it was too heavy. It
just was a mechanical matter -- it was an engineering matter
that couldn't be done. So we get the same effect by lighting.
And that is going to stay here.
That's going to be a main feature and central point of Flushing
Meadow Park when the Fair is over. And on the other side is the
coat of arms of the City of New York, which will be celebrating
it's 300th anniversary next year ..."
Remarks made by Robert
Moses on the occasion of the World of Food groundbreaking
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