Editing Unisphere (section)

== Impact ==

=== Reception ===
When it was proposed, the Unisphere received negative reviews. ''[[The Village Voice]]'' quoted people who called it "probably one of the most uninspired designs we have ever seen",<ref name="vv19630314" /> while ''[[Newsday]]'' opined that the globe was "deathly dull" and "looks like an ad for [[Western Union]]".<ref>{{Cite news|date=May 24, 1961|title=Moses and His Critics|pages=49|work=Newsday|via=newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/82221672/moses-and-his-critics/|access-date=July 26, 2021|archive-date=July 26, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210726170226/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/82221672/moses-and-his-critics/|url-status=live}}</ref> ''[[Architecture: the AIA journal|Oculus]]'' magazine criticized the design as "a heavy, literal version of the ancient [[armillary sphere]], with decoration by [[Rand McNally]]".<ref>{{cite magazine|date=Mar 1961|title=The Big Steel Ball|url=https://usmodernist.org/AIANY/AIANY-1961-03.pdf|journal=Oculus|volume=32|pages=1|number=6|access-date=July 26, 2021|archive-date=August 21, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210821085537/https://usmodernist.org/AIANY/AIANY-1961-03.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> Ralph Caplan wrote for ''Industrial Design'' that Moses's defense of the Unisphere was motivated by animosity toward the older structure.<ref name="Stern (1995) p. 1033" /><ref>{{cite magazine|last=Caplan|first=Ralph|date=Mar 1961|title=Fair is (So Far) Foul|journal=Industrial Design|volume=8|pages=27}}</ref> ''Progressive Architecture'' described it as "like the set for the 'spectacular' finale of a 1930s Warner Brothers musical".<ref name="PA 1961-03" /><ref name="Stern (1995) p. 1033" /> Walter McQuade wrote for ''[[The Nation]]'' that the Unisphere was a "bit of roadside inspirational decoration, a trite cartoon in iron" that portended badly for the 1964 World's Fair, while [[Bruno Zevi]] for Italian magazine ''L'Architettura cronache e storia'' called it a "silly idea" and petitioned U.S. President [[John F. Kennedy]] to prevent the Unisphere from being installed.<ref name="Stern (1995) p. 1033" />

Only one positive criticism emerged when the globe was announced when the [[National Arts Club]] called it "one of the outstanding achievements in structural sculpture of this decade."<ref name="Stern (1995) p. 1033" /> Remarking on the initial negative reception of the Unisphere in 2010, ''[[The Wall Street Journal]]'' said that the Unisphere was perceived as a symbol of the "banal, corporate atmosphere" of the 1964 World's Fair.<ref name="p750198061" /> Despite the largely negative criticism of the Unisphere from architectural critics, it was positively received by the visitors.<ref name="p750198061" /><ref name="Stern (1995) p. 1033" /> After the fair, the Unisphere remained a tourist attraction into the 21st century.<ref name="CBS New York 2013">{{cite web|date=October 8, 2013|title=Famous Movie And Television Locations Around The U.S.|url=https://newyork.cbslocal.com/top-lists/famous-movie-and-television-locations-around-the-u-s/|access-date=March 30, 2021|website=CBS New York|archive-date=June 19, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210619083035/https://newyork.cbslocal.com/top-lists/famous-movie-and-television-locations-around-the-u-s/|url-status=live}}</ref> ''[[The New York Times]]'', in 2014, said the Unisphere was the only relic of the 1964 World's Fair that "was untarnished by time and enhanced by memory".<ref name="nyt20140418" />

=== Symbolism and media ===
According to ''[[Smithsonian (magazine)|Smithsonian]]'' magazine, "The Unisphere became the space age logo of the fair, a steel Earth at the Ptolemaic hub of a Googie-style Jetsons universe", despite the overall limited success of the 1964 World's Fair.<ref name="Rogers 2017" /> The Unisphere became an unofficial symbol of Queens after the World's Fair.<ref name="n82219504" /> In 1990, the office of the Queens [[borough president]] depicted the Unisphere in its insignia, and advertisements for [[Continental Airlines]] and [[Bloomingdale's]] also depicted the globe.<ref name="n82217977" /> By the mid-1990s, it was being shown in numerous commercials and as a part of several montages of New York City. One person interviewed by ''The New York Times'', who depicted the Unisphere on her products, said that the Unisphere had become popular because "People have run out of symbols of New York".<ref>{{Cite news|last=Sexton|first=Adam|date=May 12, 1996|title=THING;A Global Image That Says New York And More|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url-access=limited|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/05/12/archives/thinga-global-image-that-says-new-york-and-more.html|access-date=July 26, 2021|issn=0362-4331|archive-date=July 26, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210726161007/https://www.nytimes.com/1996/05/12/archives/thinga-global-image-that-says-new-york-and-more.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

The Unisphere has been used as a setting or backdrop for several films and TV episodes, notably the American sitcom ''[[The King of Queens]]''; the television show ''[[CSI: NY]]''; the [[Marvel Cinematic Universe]] films ''[[Iron Man 2]]'', ''[[Captain America: The First Avenger]]'', and ''[[Spider-Man: Homecoming]]''; and the movie [[Men in Black (1997 film)|''Men in Black'']].<ref name="CBS New York 2013" /><ref>{{cite web|title=Movies Filmed at Unisphere|url=https://moviemaps.org/locations/3b2|access-date=March 30, 2021|website=MovieMaps|archive-date=April 17, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210417121856/https://moviemaps.org/locations/3b2|url-status=live}}</ref> The Unisphere has been shown frequently in music videos, in particular those from the [[East Coast hip hop|New York hip-hop]] scene, such as A Tribe Called Quest's "[[Award Tour]]" and Craig Mack's "[[Flava in Ya Ear]]".<ref name=":0">{{Cite magazine |last=Gaskins |first=Nettrice |title=Deconstructing the Unisphere: Hip-Hop on a Shrinking Globe in an Expanding Universe |date=2014 |url=https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.5555/2811094.2811110 |magazine=Meet Me at the Fair: A World's Fair Reader |pages=155–163 |publisher=ETC Press}}</ref>

=== Climbs ===
Several people have climbed the Unisphere throughout its history. In 1976, George Willig and Jerry Hewitt scaled the structure for a short documentary made by [[New York University]] student Paul Hornstein, who had wanted "to prove that we can do a full-scale, high-quality movie production on our own".<ref>{{Cite news|last=Herbert|first=Robert|date=October 19, 1976|title=Climbing Their Way to Film Careers|pages=353|work=New York Daily News|via=newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/82216466/climbing-their-way-to-film-careers/|access-date=July 26, 2021|archive-date=July 26, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210726161008/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/82216466/climbing-their-way-to-film-careers/|url-status=live}}</ref> A member of the climate activist group [[Extinction Rebellion]] also climbed the Unisphere in September 2019 to hang a banner protesting the [[2019 Amazon rainforest wildfires]].<ref>{{cite news|last1=Kim|first1=Elizabeth|date=September 9, 2019|title=Man Climbs World's Fair Unisphere To Draw Attention To Climate Change|publisher=Gothamist|url=https://gothamist.com/news/man-climbs-worlds-fair-unisphere-draw-attention-climate-change|access-date=June 22, 2021|archive-date=September 10, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190910000520/https://gothamist.com/news/man-climbs-worlds-fair-unisphere-draw-attention-climate-change|url-status=live}}</ref> At least two climbers have died after slipping from the Unisphere: a 23-year-old who fell from the side of the structure in 1976,<ref>{{Cite news|date=June 6, 1976|title=Metropolitan Briefs|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url-access=subscription|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1976/06/06/archives/metropolitan-briefs-man-plunges-from-unisphere-school-bus-driver.html|access-date=July 26, 2021|issn=0362-4331|archive-date=July 26, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210726015226/https://www.nytimes.com/1976/06/06/archives/metropolitan-briefs-man-plunges-from-unisphere-school-bus-driver.html|url-status=live}}</ref> and a man who fell into the globe in 1990.<ref>{{cite news|id={{ProQuest|278232914}} |title=Man Dies in Unisphere Fall |date=June 4, 1990 |page=21|first=Peg|last=Tyre|work=Newsday}}</ref>