The first set of photos are from World's Fair's, which have ALWAYS, the world over, for the vast majority of the structures, are built to ONLY last during the time of the fair!
In Chicago, a few buildings were saved and put to good use as museums of different kinds.
In NYC, fewer buildings were saved from the '38 World's Fair; however, one building was then turned into a public ice and rollerskating rinks.
So glad you made this point. Even North Korea can carefully manufacture the appearance of a perfect society for Western tourists who bother to visit. World’s Fairs, Olympic Villages, Communist utopia Cities, it’s all the same concept. If it’s temporary and the forces of the state command and fund its construction with the ideal of looking good, it will look good. If it doesn’t look good in a capitalist regime, the private actor loses business. If it doesn’t look good in a centralized regime, the [chosen scapegoat] gets to experience the wonders of social justice.
I beleive I read that POTUS Trump is promising to bring back the World’s Fair. My comments to the attached twitter link had more to do with the art and buildings still standing today and the one working parent family with a nice house, cars, and college education for their children.
What happened to that?
In San Diego, Balboa Park preserves the setting and various buildings from its Pan American expo in the early 1900s. They were indeed built to be temporary and have had to be fixed over the years.