The Great Texaco Road Map, New York

Buildings, like people, pass through time. That passage, regardless of its duration, describes the lives of buildings. This project examines the relatively short life of an extraordinary building that played host to over six million visitors, the New York State Pavilion. Conceived, built and in use as designed for only two years, the Pavilion was witness to one of the most popular events of the 1960s, the New York World’s Fair.

The University of Pennsylvania’s Architectural Conservation Laboratory (ACL) has promoted the preservation of the New York State Pavilion since 2003 through a series of research efforts. In 2006, with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, the ACL was able to implement this research by developing a model conservation program for the map pavement and an exhibit on the Pavilion and its famous map pavement at the Queens Museum in 2008.

Learn more about the project here.
Read the fact sheet here.