The design unveiled in the spring of 1967–and begrudgingly approved by the City Planning Commission later that year–for an expanded Hall of Science, featuring a live nuclear reactor, was the culmination of planning that began even before the 1964-65 World’s Fair. The trustees planned to expand the Hall into three buildings that would encompass more than 20 acres of Flushing Meadows.
This January 1966 memo from John O’Neill, the Fair’s Director of Engineering, lays out the thinking to that point. All suitable science exhibits from the Fair would be gathered within the post-Fair Hall of Science while plans and fundraising for expansion were underway.
Read more about the history of the Hall of Science in the NYSCI Archives.