Walking Tour: Remembering the Future with the New York World’s Fair

What do the Beatles, Michelangelo, Philip Johnson, Ken Kinsey, George Nelson, John F. Kennedy, Eero Saarinen, Andy Warhol, Walace Harrison, Jose de Rivera, Walt Disney, Goya, Robert Moses, Charles and Ray Eames, Lyndon Johnson, the “Space Race”, Touchtone, Picturephone, the Dead Sea Scrolls and Belgian Waffles all have in common? The 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair!

Pop art, high and popular culture, the “consumer society” and modern architecture all cross-pollinated at the Fair. By 1964/65, hierarchies, philosophies, and symbolism were being called into question both in the world of architecture and in the world at large, emblematic of this turbulent period in world history. The fair, like its predecessors, offered architects the opportunity to explore new concepts and technologies in designing structures that created memorable, visceral experiences.

Celebrate the 60th anniversary of the opening of the Fair (April 22, 1964), as we visit and analyze its extant, evocative, elegiac architecture.

Join us at 11:30am in the café at the Queens Museum, Flushing Meadows – Corona Park. There is considerable walking on flat ground.

AIANY Guide: John Kriskiewicz, Assoc. AIANY

The Museum is about a 20-minute walk through the park from the Mets/Willets Point #7 Subway and Long Island Railroad Stations. Free parking is available at the Queens Museum.

Tours will run rain or shine. Please arrive 15 minutes prior to tour start time. Registration is limited to 15; walk-ups are not guaranteed a spot on the tour.

Please Note: AIANY cannot be held liable and assumes no responsibility for any injury or loss incurred by participants in these programs.