Part of an exhibition called: Best of Friends: Buckminster Fuller + Isamu Noguchi
Wish I could go.
Hey, I haven’t been to that museum in a while and I’ve been itching to go. Want me to go and send bunches of pics?
Please! I’d be ever so greatful.
Heck, yeah!
When I was a student at Southern Illinois University, Buckminster Fuller was the head of the Design Department and there were lots of students who had come to the university to study design simply because he was the head of the department.
Bucky had his faults - he was widely criticized at the time because his grand vision of using the geodesic dome for low cost housing was, in part, stifled because he insisted on getting royalties for the usage. Many students also commented that he had an inherent mean streak and didn’t suffer lightly those he considered fools (meaning, those who did not worship the ground he walked on).
That said, Bucky was a genius in design and I was not aware that he had helped design a car - although I am not surprised. He was constantly working with students on some pretty amazing projects. My roommate back then was a design major and even the homework and projects that they worked on were light years ahead of the times.
I would love to see pictures of the exhibit, but you would probably have to pay the Fuller estate for the rights to do so.
This page features information on the Dymaxions, and includes a photo of each of the three vehicles that were built.
Consider it done. Any certain angles or anything you know of that’s there that you definitely want pictures of?
Also, I assume you’d want to see the other vehicular exhibits there, no?
Next week I’ll go. Let me know if there are certain exhibits (check their website) that you want extra focus on, otherwise you’ll get a pleasant potpourri (with a focus on the new exhibit).
Bucky’s Dymaxion house, the black Tucker (close up on the hood ornament [which is on the front], so I can see if it’s a keyed model or not, if you can), any steam powered cars (especially if they’ve got a Doble), and any other oddball makes/models you can spot. Otherwise, feel free to indulge yourself. It’s been 30 years since I’ve been there, so I’m a little hazy on what they have.
Today might be the day…after the football game, of course. If not, tomorrow, but other plans might be brewing. Worst case scenario, I’ll go during the day this coming week.
Okay, slight change of plans. The date is next Monday for the visit to the museum. This week is mildly hectic.
I have gone. Pictures are uploading and then the battery on the camera died. After recharging, a slew of pictures are coming.
Tap…tap…tap…tap…
Oh shush.
Anyways, here we go. Here’s your first picture, the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile.
Here’s a car that broke some sort of speed record. It’s very long.
Here are presidential limousines. I didn’t have the battery power and time to take a picture of the plaque by each identifying them, but one is Kennedy’s.
Here’s a random roadster that kinda looked cool.
The original Ford GT40. 'Tis pretty.
On the way to the exhibit in question, I stopped at the civil rights display where they had the Rosa Parks bus. Here is the seat that in which Rosa sat. Here is another reminder of history, a “Colored only” drinking fountain.
Here is a medley of nifty looking cars that some of you car folks might find interesting. Why were these cars targeted instead of others? Usually it was just niftiness, but it was mostly accuracy by volume. I hope there’s something here that interests you, Tuckerfan.
Here’s a very mildly panoramic shot of now-defunct auto insignias.
Okay, enough foreplay.
Here are pictures of the Dymaxion car. It’s kind of slug-shaped, but interesting looking. Volkswagen liked it and incorporated a bunch of it into the VW Bus. For the record, the color of the car is dark green.
Here is the Dymaxion house. The floor in the “living room” area is original floor and we weren’t allowed on that. I thought I took more pictures of the house, but it was essentially a round living area that had all sorts of modular units in it. The house is recycled from old military airplanes. The best way to describe the house, I feel, is like a big umbrella. The house has a very small footprint and through a series of wires spanning from the hub, you can raise or lower the house. You can raise it 15 feet up and park you car under it. Nobody can get into it if it’s propped 15 feet up in the air (although I suppose they could run a car into the stem and topple the entire thing, but I didn’t ask because I didn’t want to interrupt the guided tour). The house, as far as maintenance is required, needs a tightening and buffing of the outside metal. When it was first designed, it cost the same as a Lincoln Continental. Now, if it were built with the same metals, it, ironically, would cost the same as a Lincoln Continental. Here 's the museum’s website for the house. Here are the museum’s online exhibits, which will probably explain more and have better pitures than I could take.
Holy crap. Some of those are blurry. Next time I offer to take pictures, tell me no.
Wow. Very cool! I wish I could have gone! 
The car itself doesn’t seem too big. I wondered what it was like inside.
Nah, they’re just a bit dark. Thanks a bunch. I didn’t realize that they had one of Chrysler’s Turbine Cars there.
You can see a bit on the inside of the Dymaxion car here. You can download QuickTime movies of the car (and people talking about the car) here.
At least two of those cars were used as Hot Wheels models, I think.
They have TONS of stuff there. Next door to the museum is the Automobile Hall of Fame, which could be of interest t you as well.
Also, it was kinda dark in that room. I had the flash on, but it didn’t help, oddly enough.