Sculpture "Unisphere"

The Unisfera sculpture is a giant steel globe located in the center of Flushing Meadows Park. This grandiose structure, dedicated to the beginning of the space age in the history of mankind, is the main attraction of the park. The creation of the sculpture was timed to the opening of the World Exhibition in New York in 1964-65. The main theme of the exhibition was devoted to the knowledge of the world through understanding, and the Unisfera became a symbol of the interconnection of everything on an interplanetary scale.

The author of the layout of the globe was landscape designer Gilmore Clark. He created a sculpture that is currently the largest in the world. The total height of the statue is 42 meters with a diameter of 36 meters. The weight of the structure is about 900 tons. The globe is set in a pool surrounded by fountains, which causes the feeling of the globe, as if floating on the ether.

In the days of the World Exhibition, the Unisfera was illuminated, creating a feeling of the rising Sun. Now only the lighting for the fountain works. Around the "Unisfera" placed rings, symbolizing the orbits of the first flights into space. Among them is the flight orbit of the first space conqueror - Yuri Gagarin, and the first American cosmonaut John Glenn. According to the author, the sculpture should have about ten orbits, but this idea was abandoned for aesthetic reasons.