Virtual World's Fair in the works

From the Daily News:

Forty-four years after the World's Fair closed in Queens, its vast landscape of space-age pavilions will return in a virtual reality to let visitors relive the expo's historic run in 1964 and 1965.

Researcher Lori Walters wants to re-create every detail - from major exhibits down to benches, phone booths and trash cans - as part of an interactive, three-dimensional Web project tentatively titled, "Come Back to the Fair."

Walters said she embarked on the online exploit - expected to go live by the end of this year - to offer "a user who wasn't there an idea of the vastness of it or the proximity" between attractions.

"Unless you yourself went to the fair, you lose the understanding," said Walters, 43, a simulation expert at the University of Central Florida in Orlando.

A 1964 replica of Shea Stadium - home to the Mets until its demolition earlier this year - will be on the map, too, Walters said.

Fair enthusiasts who download the free layout - available soon at www.comebacktothefair.org - will be able to enter some pavilions to see interior exhibits and watch original footage.

Fans of the 1939 World's Fair, also held in the park, began crafting a virtual layout in January at www.pmphoto.to.