The new rotunda under construction. Click for larger view.   Soon after, with the over-all supervision of Hans U. Gerson, the buildings were reconstructed in permanent, light-weight, poured-in-place concrete, and steel I-beams were hoisted into place for the dome of the rotunda. All the decorations and sculpture, including the weeping ladies and the panel from the face of the rotunda (representing Art being attacked by materialists whom the idealists were attempting to hold back), were constructed anew. Column capitals, urns and all figures were pre-cast so that the poured concrete would match them exactly. The maidens and their garlands, in circular boxes by the rotunda, had been wantonly vandalized and most of the headless figures had to be made whole again. In the course of reconstruction, the rotunda was reproduced in its entirety; the colonnade was an exact copy of the original but without the north and south end pylons; and the main building was constructed as before, although lacking the earlier ornamentation. The new steel reinforced dome takes shape above the rotunda. Click for larger view.         By 1966, when 20,000 people visited the unfinished Palace during a public "walk-through," the new structure was close to completion. It had been solidly rebuilt by the best engineers available, the "staff" work being cast, stratified in the casting like stone, and proof against peeling off. Nevertheless, at the end of the restoration of the Palace, its gallery was still a hollow shell. Though there had been many suggestions for its use, no practical plan had been established. And then, at last, the right solution presented itself.     © 1998, The Exploratorium