An iconic part of Miami's history is now at its new permanent location.
The Pan Am Globe was officially unveiled at the Miami Worldcenter during a ribbon-cutting event that was attended by Miami Mayor Francis Suarez and City Commissioner Christine King.
The globe, the giant, vividly colorful sphere depicting the world and its countries circa 1934 that for 55 years famously greeted visitors at the old Miami Museum of Science, has been hidden away since the science museum closed its South Miami Avenue building in 2015 before moving downtown.
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The long-anticipated move represents a change of environment for the 6,500-pound, painted steel globe, originally made at the dawn of international air travel in the 1930s by Rand McNally for Pan American World Airways and its Dinner Key seaplane terminal in Coconut Grove, today Miami City Hall.
The globe will sit outdoors at the intersection of two new pedestrian paseos that traverse Miami Worldcenter — a project so extensive at 27 acres that its developers pitch it as a city-within-a-city, or Miami’s answer to Manhattan’s Rockefeller Center and Hudson Yards.
Though much of Worldcenter is still under construction, the developers say that by next year the landscaped paseos will be lined with shops, cafes and new commissioned public art, a la Miami Design District, so the globe in its new setting will be appreciated by thousands of people every week.
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The world looked much different in 1934. The Nazi Party controlled Germany. The State of Israel didn’t yet exist. Much of Asia and Africa was carved up by European powers. The borders of the U.S.S.R, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, included what’s now the country of Ukraine.
Natella and Kevin O’Bryant live in the Miami Worldcenter and to them, the art installation will be a painful reminder of current events.
“I have relatives in Ukraine, and I don’t know if they’re dead or alive,” said Natella O’Bryant, who is from Ukraine.
Russia invaded Ukraine earlier this year, in part, to reconquer its former soviet boundaries.
“It is painful," Natella said. "At this point, there is war in Ukraine, and this is the map that Russia and Putin want to see on the globe."
NBC 6 shared the couple’s concerns with the Miami Worldcenter.
A spokesperson sent a statement, writing in part: “The Pan-Am globe is an iconic piece of Miami history which dates back to the 1930s when it was originally displayed at the airline’s terminal at Dinner Key. After calling the former Miami Science Museum home for more than 50 years, the future of the globe was at risk. Presented with the opportunity to preserve the globe and make it available for public viewing, Miami Worldcenter worked with HistoryMiami and Frost Science to conserve and pay tribute to this historical artifact.”
