There is quite a lot of history behind the Queens Zoo Aviary and part of that is now in question.
The geodesic dome that houses the birds was built 50 years ago as a 2,100-seat World's Fair Pavilion, "transformed for the 1965 fair into the Churchill Center and then moved a half-mile west to serve as a birdhouse for the zoo, which opened in 1968," according to The New York Times.
The plaque outside the dome has the name of R. Buckminster Fuller, a designer and inventor who domes of this style are tied to. They are practical and easily identifiable, with their triangles and polygons shaped from tubular struts.
A little-known architect from Raleigh, N.C. might deserve to have his name outside the dome instead.
Thomas C. Howard, 82, was the president of Synergetics Inc. in Raleigh, which held the contract for the dome; Eggers & Higgins of New York designed the rest of the building.
The budget for the fair's pavilion was $1 million but all the bids for its construction came in at $1.75 or more and the fair itself as fast approaching, according to The New York Times.
"With opening day only a year away," William Whipple Jr., chief engineer of the fair, wrote in the June 1964 issue of Civil Engineering magazine, "all bids were rejected and an entirely new concept was sought that would fulfill the same requirements but cost not more than half as much. After a rapid examination of various unorthodox alternatives, it was decided to use as the roof a geodesic dome."
As the dome was repurposed over the years and architects altered it, the original names attached to it were lost.
Howard's granddaughter would like to see his name restored to the dome, as would others.
Jaime L. Snyder, Mr. Fuller's grandson and co-executor of theEstate of R. Buckminster Fuller in Santa Barbara, Calif., said, "The Synergetics Inc. story is important history which needs to be told," according to the New York Times.
Speaking of his famous grandfather, Mr. Snyder said: "I know he thought very highly of Mr. Howard's skills - once commenting to me that he was one of the persons who best understood his geodesic design principles. We simply have never been privy to any documentation about the World's Fair Pavilion, nor other Synergetics Inc. designs that would shed any light on this matter."
Read all the details of the domes history here.
