|
Special Feature—City of Stars
Earth Model
The shiniest thing in the vicinity of Columbus Circle is a three-ringed, sheet-metal model of Earth that stands in front of the Trump International Hotel at the intersection of Central Park West, Central Park South, and Broadway. One can’t help but think of it as a knockoff of the Unisphere, built for the 1964 World’s Fair in Flushing Meadow, Queens—except that the Unisphere is 5 times greater in diameter and 125 times the volume of the Trump model. Not only that, the rings encircling the Unisphere serve to honor the three tipped orbits of John Glenn, who had been launched into space two years before the fair opened. The rings of Trump’s Earth, however, are angled every which way—evoking neither the orbits of anything in particular nor the pole-symmetric rings sometimes found in armillary spheres. It’s fun to look at regardless, provided you wear your shades. < Islamic Cultural Center of New York | The Starry Night > |
