The home/bomb shelter was designed by architect Jay Swayze. Swayze, a proponent of underground living, constructed and lived in his own underground bunker-house in Plainview, Texas, which he named Atomitat.
Built during the  Cold War only two years after the  Cuban Missile Crisis, it was the promotion of the company "Underground World Homes", which was owned by Avon investor and millionaire Girard B. Henderson, who remained convinced that tensions between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. would escalate eventually escalate to WWIII. (In addition to the prototypical underground home/bomb shelter, there was companion chthonic exhibit sponsored by Henderson: "Why Live Underground?")  The brochure for the Underground World Home touted its comfort, luxury, interior design and safety.  However, the $1.00 for adults and 50¢ on top of the expos fee entry, plus the expos numerous, much more glamorous exhibits, deterred many potential tourists. A May 1964 LIFE magazine cover story on the exposition did not so much as mention the Underground World Home.
Exhibits were contractually required to be dismantled and removed after the fair.  Swayze eventually wrote a book, Underground Gardens & Homes: The Best of Two Worlds, Above and Below, but the building's fate was not mentioned.  The New York Public Library held archives on the expo, however, and in 2017 it was found that the demolition of the home had been completed on 15 March 1966. Only its foundations, if anything, remain.