Montreal Biosphere

The building originally formed an enclosed structure of steel and acrylic cells, 76 metres in diameter and 62 metres high. The dome is a Class 1, Frequency 16, Icosahedron. A complex system of shades was used to control the internal temperature. Visitors had access to four large theme platforms divided into seven levels. The building included a 37-metre-long escalator, the longest ever built at the time. In the afternoon of the 20 May 1976, during structural renovations,a fire burned away the building's transparent acrylic bubble, but the steel truss structure remained.The site remained closed until 1990. Richard Buckminster “Bucky” Fuller was an American engineer, systems theorist, author, designer, inventor, futurist and second president of Mensa International, the high IQ society. Fuller published more than 30 books, inventing and popularizing terms such as "Spaceship Earth", ephemeralization, and synergetics. He also developed numerous inventions, mainly architectural designs, the best known of which is the geodesic dome. Carbon molecules known as fullerenes were later named by scientists for their resemblance to geodesic spheres.