William S. Boice no relation Space Age
Planning
After the 1964 fair was announced, Moses wished to make a symbol that represented the fair's theme of "Peace Through Understanding", which would also have some "significance or meaning for the average person". The symbol would also celebrate the beginning of the space age. Moses first asked designer Walter Dorwin Teague to make a "Theme Center". Teague designed the center as a 170-foot-tall (52 m) inverted cone surrounded by a spiral, rising from a reflecting pool. Moses declined the proposal, calling it a "cross between a part of a brake engine and a bed spring, or should I say between a Malayan Tapir and a window shutter". Another proposal was devised by Paul Rudolph on behalf of the Portland Cement Association. This plan called for a saucer measuring 300 feet (91 m) in diameter and tilted 18 degrees from the ground, with a restaurant, exhibits, educational and recreational facilities, and "planetary viewing stations". Moses also rejected Rudolph's proposal.The idea for the Unisphere occurred in September 1960 as Clarke was doodling on an airplane from Ohio to New York. Clarke had sketched a metal armillary on the rear of an envelope. By the time he got to his office, Clarke had refined his plan into a revolving globe with rings of latitude and longitude. Clarke asked another architect working under his office, William S. Boice, to sketch the structure. Since the method of the sculpture's revolution had not yet been determined, Boice drew fountains to conceal the base. The Unisphere was conceptually designed in aluminum with metallic mesh continents. The globe would be tilted 23.5 degrees and would measure 160 feet (49 m) across. Capital cities would be represented on the globe by three sizes of lights, with larger lights for capitals deemed more important. Clarke showed the plan to Moses, who approved of it.Moses announced plans for the Unisphere in February 1961. The Unisphere would be erected at the site of the Perisphere of the 1939 World's Fair which was dismantled after the Fair, Moses commented that he "never understood" the Perisphere and its Trylon. According to Moses, the Unisphere "illustrates, symbolizes and embodies man's achievements on a shrinking globe in an expanding universe". The structure was to be constructed by American Bridge Company, a division of U.S. Steel. Further refinements were made by another of Clarke's architects, Peter Martecchini, who decided to place three columns at the globe's pedestal after playing with a rubber ball belonging to one of his sons. Martecchini developed a working model for a moving platform, composed of three pegs, each topped by a pair of metal disks and a toothed disk with a bolt, supporting a plywood platform. A model of the proposed work was unveiled in 1962.Clarke's idea underwent a further refined industrial design in stainless steel by industrial designers at Peter Muller-Munk Associates. Some of the original design details were controversial. Several landmasses such as Cyprus and Crete had been left out of the original design, and the lights representing capital cities were criticized on the grounds that the process of selecting "important" capitals was subjective. U.S. Steel rejected the idea of a spinning globe due to high costs, though it did retain Martecchini's idea of a three-pointed pedestal. In addition, the globe was reduced from 150 to 120 feet (46 to 37 m) after Clarke talked with U.S. Steel's board chairman Roger Blough, who said the globe would only be as high as a ten-story brick building outside his office. The final design was similar to the original, but the fountains were arranged differently.
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