Hello everybody,
This is my first posting on a BFI forum, and I would like to open a discussion about Bucky's proposal for a dome over mid-Manhattan.
I'm currently working on an academic paper centered on that project, and I would like it to summarize information that I've found scattered through several sources. There are also some gaps to be filled and questions I have:
1) Are there any other drawings besides the (well-known and widely published) rendering of the dome over an aerial photo? Were plans and sections produced? Are they available for viewing?
2) Is it true that the dome would require the same amount of steel it took to build the Queen Mary? I came across this information once, but am now unable to trace the source.
3) Where can I find any technical specs that were (I suppose) produced, such as engineering reports? Bucky gave precise accounts of -- for example -- the amount of water runoff that could be collected from the dome surface. Such calculations were probably compiled and such a compilation would be a very useful source.
Thank you for your help,
Joao Bravo da Costa
I'm forwarding a relevant message that appeared today on the geodesic listserv suny buffalo.
Dick
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Ms Verge,
Sorry for not replying sooner; I have had houseguests for the last
several days.
I don't think a model was ever built. I believe a drawing of a dome
was superimposed on to a photograph of NYC. However, I have collected
some info about dome-covered cities; please see
http://buckminster.info/Ideas/08-IcosDomeCityDowntownCover.htm
http://buckminster.info/Ideas/08-IcosDomeCityCrater.htm
http://buckminster.info/Index/D/Domes-Cities.htm
A mile-or-so-in-diameter dome would HAVE to use double-layer tensegrity
technology. The Fuller Archives does have a model of such a dome; see
http://insight-prod.stanford.edu/content/fuller/large/model_0032.jpg
Here's some tensegrity refs:
http://buckminster.info/Index/D/Domes-Tensegrity.htm
I hope this helps,
--------------------------------------------
Joe S Moore
joe_s_moore@hotmail.com
http://buckminster.info
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----- Original Message -----
From: Verge, Beatrice
To: joe_s_moore@hotmail.com
Sent: Friday, January 05, 2007 12:40 PM
Subject: From Quebec
Dear Mr. Moore,
I work for the Musee de la civilisation, a State Museum in Quebec
City. In January 2008, we will inaugurate a big exhibition on Cities.
That is why we are interested in Buckminster Fuller 's models
especially the Fuller's Proposed Mile Diameter Dome-Enclosed City that I saw on your Buckminster Fuller Virtual Institute.
Can you tell me where we can find this model? Is it at Standford
University?
Thank you for helping me in this research.
Beatrice Verge
Musee de la civilisation
Hi Joao
The Stanford Archives have all the information you could ever need or want about anything
Bucky. Write them. The information you need to do this is at:
http://collections.stanford.edu/bucky/bin/page?forward=home
I am in the process of putting online Yunn Chii Wong's PhD Thesis on Bucky. I don't think
it's available any more at MIT, at least not without a password. I will let you know if I get it
uploaded in case anyone is interested. It is a large file, 185 Megs. I DO know it talks
about the Manhattan dome project and other large dome ideas. I will ask BFI if they can
make it available since they might have the megabytes and I don't!
In Wong's report there is a wealth of information about almost everything Buckminster
and his geodesic structuring. I hope it will be available again soon. It should be accessible
someday if for no other reason than it is comprehensive in content.
Dick