Why was the space needle built?
History of the Space Needle In 1959, an unlikely artist inspired by the Stuttgart Tower in Germany was sketching his vision of a dominant central structure for the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair on a placemat in a coffee house. The artist was Edward E. Carlson, then president of Western International Hotels. His space-age image was to be the focus of the futuristic World’s Fair in Seattle, whose theme would be Century 21. Carlson penciled the shape that would become the internationally known symbol for Seattle, the Space Needle. However, Carlson and his supporters soon found moving the symbol from the placemat to the drawing board to the construction phase was not an easy process. The first obstacle was the structure’s design. Carlson’s initial sketch underwent many transformations. One drawing resembled a tethered balloon and another was a balloon-shaped top house on a central column anchored by cables. Architect John Graham, fresh from his success in designing the world’s first shopping m
Well it was built for the world fair of 1962. Many remodels have been done to the space needle including the add-on for the banquet hall in 1982. This remarkable structure is the highlight of downtown Seattle and can be seen for miles. Specs/Facts: ::The space needle stands at 605 feet tall in the Seattle Center. ::The lot the space needle was built on, costed $175,000. Imagine what that’d be worth today in downtown Seattle! ::When the space needle was built, it was the tallest building West of the Mississippi, today the Columbia tower in Seattle stands taller than the space needle ::Over one million people ride the elevators every year up to the space needle.
