Sunsphere

Everybody knows what the Sunsphere looks like, but it certainly has an interesting history behind it. The Sunsphere was built in 1982 as part of the World’s Fair that came to Knoxville that year. The theme of the World’s Fair that year was “Energy Turns the World” with over eleven million people visiting during the event. The Sunsphere has since became the prominent symbol of Knoxville. It stands three hundred and forty-one feet high. It was designed by the the Knoxville-based architectural firm Community Tectonics. The windows are each layered in a 24-karat gold dust that gives it the gold color. It costs around one thousand dollars for each panel at the time. During the World’s Fair, it cost two dollars to go to the top. I found a couple of interesting points while researching about it. For example, early May 12, 1982, someone shot out one of the sphere’s windows and no one was ever arrested for it. Another interesting point was that on May 15, 2000 nuclear weapons protesters climbed the Sunsphere and hung a banner that stated “Stop the Bombs”. They stayed up in the Sunsphere for three days until surrendering to the police. Also, it was famously part of a plot in a 1996 Simpsons episode where the Sunsphere stored wigs since the Worlds Fair. Being underused since 1982, then-Mayor Bill Haslam proposed to renovate and reopened the Sunsphere in 2007. Now, it has an observation desk and bar located within. It is a great place to get some awesome views of Knoxville.