A Designer Wants to Build a Companion to the Montreal Biosphere From the 1967 World’s Fair

Next year marks the 50^th anniversary of Expo 67 in Montreal, the World’s Fair that included an R. Buckminster Fuller geodesic dome at the U.S. Pavilion located in the Parc Jean-Drapeau on St. Helen’s Island. Donated by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1968, the structure is still standing. A 1976 fire left the site dormant for many years, but it was reborn as a museum dedicated to the environment and is currently called the Biosphere.

Now New York–based designer Dror Benshetrit of Studio Dror wants to pay homage to the legacy of the structure and help reinvigorate year-round usage of the site with a proposed project that is a riff on the original. After touring the site with the Buckminster Fuller Institute, the designer said in a project description that he came up with the idea to build a second larger aluminum dome planted with a “vegetated sound buffer” that would serve as a 21^st-century event space for concerts, festivals, and other activities.

Located in an open space in the park, the obviously Fuller-influenced design would provide “a companion to the American architect’s lonesome structure,” Benshetrit said, adding: “Interacting like the sun and the moon, our concept engages in a poetic dance with Fuller’s design, realizing the park’s potential in a contemporary context.”

Learn more about the proposal below: