World’s Fair Brought Out Port Authority’s Whimsical Side

[cpzilliacus]

N.Y. Times: World's Fair Brought Out Port Authority's Whimsical Side

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey designs, builds and maintains the engines of the regional economy: airports, marine terminals, rail lines, tunnels, bridges and, of course, life-size fiberglass dinosaurs.

Yes, dinosaurs.

At least that was its mission a half century ago when Robert Moses, the president of the New York World's Fair 1964-1965 Corporation, turned over the planning and development of the fair's entire 80-acre transportation area to the bistate agency, then known as the Port of New York Authority.

Moses was not one to relinquish control. But in the biography "The Power Broker"  (1974), Robert A. Caro said Moses cared little for the detailed work of organizing an event that would last only two summers. He was more focused on using the fair as a means to create a permanent Flushing Meadows-Corona Park.

Thus it fell to the authority to concoct pavilion designs in the zone set aside for corporate sponsors like automakers, airlines, oil companies and manufacturers.