When the United States sought a design for Expo 67, aka the 1967 World's Fair in Montreal, is looked to Buckminster Fuller to provide one of his domes. The resulting dome had a diameter of 249 feet and a height of 203 feet. Besides the steel latticework, each cell was enclosed by a acrylic cells. The latticework conists of a double dome structure giving the building its buzzy appearance. Opened in 1967, the exhibit ran from April through October after which the US donated the structure to Montreal.
In 1968, Montreal renamed the dome The Biosphere and operated it as an aviary and arboretum. In 1976, a welding crew caught the acrylic cells on fire, burning the entire structure but leaving the steel ironwork. The building was abandoned until 1990 when it reopened as museum about the local ecology and environment.
We took the subway to the Biosphere and took the short walk over, enjoying the sphere from different perspectives. Several of the floors were under renovation, so they and the outdoor gardens were off limits. But the displays were aesthetic, interactive, and, in some cases, delightfully Lynchesque, including a simply strange video of a whale being dissected with the cameras focused on the dissectors and ominous music swelling in the background.
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