At Montreal's Expo 67, the glittering bubble designed by Buckminster Fuller made the U.S. Pavilion the highestand most strikingbuilding at the fair. For Osaka's Expo 70, the U.S. has come up with a switch: a ground-hugging shallow dome that will be the lowest pavilion at the fairso low, in fact, that part of it will be underground.
Designed by a team of young New Yorkers who won the commission over much better known contestants, the present pavilion is a comedown of sorts from the spectacular cluster of airborne spheres originally proposed but ruled out by a congressional budget slash. But the design...