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what of the future?

It was not simply the lack of adequate space and facilities for its expanded operations which troubled the Academy. It was concern for the future - a future which would certainly see an even greater demand for expansion of service to member scientists, as scientific research and effort continued to accelerate in pace. Everyone is well aware that science is destined to achieve an ever more decisive role in men's lives. Nuclear energy, automation, space travel, radical new advances in medicine, and other achievements only dimly foreseeable today, are certain to have enormous impact on business, industry, education - indeed, on the very future of the nation. It was imperative that ways be found to break through the semi-isolation which surrounds the scientist, to bridge gaps between research workers in a host of disciplines, and to maximize communication both between the scientific community and our nation's educators, businessmen, and government leaders. It was clear that the world of tomorrow required a commitment to meet these challenges - a more adequate forum utilizing all the mass communications media to bring science to the citizen, more suitable facilities for international conferences and meetings, the most modern electronic devices for information storage and retrieval, and most of all, a center where scientific and learned organizations and groups could "live" together and benefit from the proximity of all the others.

Out of these needs was born the concept of World Science Center. The vast project was undertaken after seventeen years of consideration, because there is an urgent need for such a center, and because the Academy - with its worldwide membership and activities - was the logical organization to realize this great goal. Architects were called in, and soon the first blueprints of World Science Center were ready. They envisaged a 30-story tower that would serve not only the Academy but scientific groups and 
institutions from all over the world, and an adjoining auditorium building. This adjoining structure, itself the equivalent in height of a 13-story building, will be able to accommodate audiences totalling 6500, and will also provide such facilities as dining rooms, banquet hall, restaurant and library.

Responses to the announcement of plans for World Science Center were enthusiastic, from members and non-members alike, and from all sectors - scientists, officials of local, state and Federal government, educators, industrialists, businessmen. Representative of this enthusiasm was the statement of a Nobel Laureate in physics, who said that "The World Science Center is an ingenious concept that merits broadly based support."

Prompted by such responses, the Academy moved forward to realize the plan, by purchasing a suitably located site in mid-Manhattan, opposite Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. Here, it was decided, the future would take shape.