| Underground World Home | |
|---|---|
 Underground World Home exhibit | |
 Interactive map of the Underground World Home area | |
| General information | |
| Status | Demolished |
| Location | Flushing Meadows Park,Queens, New York, U.S. |
| Coordinates | 40°44′45″N73°51′05″W / 40.74580°N 73.85136°W /40.74580; -73.85136 |
| Opened | 1964 |
| Closed | 1965 |
| Demolished | March 15, 1966 |
| Cost | Exhibit: $1 million[1] |
| Client | 1964 New York World's Fair |
| Owner | Girard B. Henderson |
| Height | |
| Architectural | Underground |
| Technical details | |
| Material | Concrete and steel |
| Floor count | 1 |
| Floor area | 6,000 sq ft (560 m2) |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect | Jay Swayze |
| Other designers | Interior designerMarilyn Motto[2][3] |
TheUnderground World Home was an exhibit at the1964 New York World's Fair of a partially underground house which doubled as abomb shelter. Designed by architectJay Swayze, who made a specialty of underground homes, it was situated on the campus of the expo besides theHall of Science and north of the expo'sheliport inFlushing Meadows–Corona Park inQueens.
The home/bomb shelter was designed by architect Jay Swayze.[4] Swayze, a proponent of underground living, constructed and lived in his own underground bunker-house inPlainview, Texas, which he namedAtomitat.[5][6]
Built during theCold War[7] only two years after theCuban Missile Crisis,[8] it was the promotion of the company "Underground World Homes", which was owned byAvon investor andmillionaireGirard B. Henderson, who remained convinced that tensions between theU.S. and theU.S.S.R. would escalate eventually escalate toWWIII. (In addition to the prototypical underground home/bomb shelter, there was companion chthonic exhibit sponsored by Henderson: "Why Live Underground?")[9] The brochure for the Underground World Home touted its comfort, luxury, interior design and safety.[4] However, the $1.00 for adults and 50¢ on top of the expo's fee entry, plus the expo's numerous, much more glamorous exhibits, deterred many potential tourists. A May 1964LIFE magazine cover story on the exposition did not so much as mention the Underground World Home.[4]
Exhibits were contractually required to be dismantled and removed after the fair. Swayze eventually wrote a book,Underground Gardens & Homes: The Best of Two Worlds, Above and Below, but the building's fate was not mentioned.[10][8] TheNew York Public Library held archives on the expo, however, and in 2017 it was found that the demolition of the home had been completed on March 15, 1966. Only its foundations, if anything, remain.[11]
The ten-room home featured backlit murals to create the illusion of outdoor space and precludeclaustrophobia. The murals were painted by Texas-based artist Mrs. Glenn Smith.[4][12] Swayze cited research to convince fairgoers that people did not look out their windows 80% of the time, and that and when peopledid look out their windows, half the time what they saw was undesirable. He stated that he could give people better views with selected murals. The home was touted aspeeping Tom proof, less expensive than normal homes, (sic), secure from intruders, and a way to save space above ground.[13]
The home was 6,000 sq ft (560 m2). The walls were 20 in (51 cm) of steel and concrete,[4] and the roof supported by 18 in (46 cm) steel beams rated for a load of two million pounds (910,000 kg) of soil (which provided the insulation). There were three bedrooms;[14] the ceilings were ofgypsum. There was a "snorkel-like system" forair conditioning[8]— an apparatus which purportedly enabled the home to be dusted monthly.[14]
Thefoyer was 143 sq ft (13.3 m2), the kitchen/dining room 299 sq ft (27.8 m2) , theliving room (with atelevision set and a wood-burningfireplace) 680 sq ft (63 m2), and three bedrooms of 336 sq ft (31.2 m2), 336 sq ft (31.2 m2), and 256 sq ft (23.8 m2), respectively, connected by a hallway 6 feet (1.8 m) wide . The model home also had a terrace area simulating outdoor space next to the living room of 384 sq ft (35.7 m2).[15]
In a 1964New York Times piecescience fiction authorIsaac Asimov speculated what the 2014 World's Fair would look like. He deemed the Underground World Home a "sign of the future" with controlled temperatures which allowed occupants to live free from the weather.[16] The home was not a draw, however, and was scarcely to appear in popular memory.[4] Priced at $80,000 (approximately four times the cost of an average home that year), none were commissioned.[4][8]
TheLP recordThe Best of theJohnny Mann Singers: Underground at the Fair played in background of the exhibit; it did not sell well. This was its only appearance inpop culture (save in the niche mythos ofurban exploration, and as one of the oddities ofarchitecture) until its interior was reproduced in the 2009CSI: NY episodeManhattanhenge as the anachronistic lair of a mad killer, the structure supposedly simply having had soil layered on top of it and been abandoned. The set was complex and impressive.[11]
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