The Sunsphere, built in 1981 for the 1982 World’s Fair, has become a beacon in the Knoxville, Tennessee skyline. With the theme “Energy Turns the World,” the Knoxville International Energy Exposition took the idea of energy quite literally when designing the World’s Fair Park Sunsphere. However, since then, the Sunsphere has evolved into much more for the City of Knoxville: It has become a rallying point, the city icon, and a true representation of the community’s unwavering belief in Knoxville.
1982 World’s Fair
With the Energy Crisis Recession currently at play, the world was in a state of economic downturn. The Iranian Revolution upset oil distribution and doubled the cost of oil across the world. With this utter reliance on fuel, the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE) felt it necessary to call attention to the current energy dependency. This led to the naming of the Knoxville International Energy Exposition: Energy Turns the World. The City of Knoxville, when they received the commission to host the World’s Fair, aimed to out-compete every other World’s Fair before and make a bold statement with their fair’s centerpiece.
What better way to represent the energy of the world than to pay homage to the world’s primary energy source: the sun. This led to a bid between architects and engineers on who could best design for “A Monument to the Sun: Source of All Energy.” In the end, Community Tectonics with Stan Lindsey and Associates had the honor of taking on this monument, but the challenge did not stop there.
Designing A Monument to the Sun
Taking inspiration from other World’s Fair structures – such as the 1889 Eiffel Tower, the 1962 Space Needle, and the 1968 Hemisfair Tower – Community Tectonics aspired to recreate the sun as a piece of architecture. There were a few lavish and unrealistic initial schemes before landing on the idea of a gold ball floating in the sky. Not only did this prove to be, at the time, unheard of physically, but something so spherical had yet to be constructed digitally. Yet, Community Tectonics used an early stage of CAD to prove the Sunsphere could be designed.
Constructing The Sun
To make the structure truly seem like the sun, it needed to be elevated above the surrounding buildings. This proved difficult when the site was chosen at one of the lowest elevations in downtown Knoxville. This altered the design to be equivalent to about 25 stories in height. According to the code, this required the building to be supported by concrete as it would be above the 7-story limit. However, the engineers knew they wanted to utilize steel due to its efficient and economical nature at the time. To get around this, Community Tectonics was able to argue that the building was only five stories…elevated 198 feet in the air.
Not only was the height of the building proving to be a complication, but so was the diameter of the sphere itself. The initial design planned for the sphere to be 86.5’ in diameter to mimic the 865,000-mile diameter of the sun. However, with the layout of the site, the sphere was already set to be supported on 6 double steel truss columns. With weight and wind calculations and budget constraints, the diameter was cut to 74’.
From Blue to Green: When the Sky Changed Color
With the structure figured out, Community Tectonics had very specific intentions for the coloring. As the Sunsphere represents the sun in the sky, the window paneling would be gold and the structure would be blue. The glass was one of the last caveats to the project, as it took a long time to determine a manufacturer that would accommodate the design. Finally, a company in New Jersey was found to produce a couple hundred panels tinted with 24-karat gold.
After the Fair
Despite the challenging design, the 1982 World’s Fair Sunsphere was a hit. Averaging 60,000 visitors during the 6 months, the Sunsphere was gaining major attraction as the first spherical building in the United States. The final design consisted of 5 stories: A fair observation desk, 2 floors for the restaurant, a VIP lounge, and a mountain observation deck. With the rate of ticket sales during the World’s Fair, it was predicted the Sunsphere would break even after 5 years, having cost the city 4 million dollars in construction.
After the fair, traction for the Sunsphere almost immediately halted. The restaurant, initially owned by Hardee’s, was shut down in 1984 – less than 3 years after the fair – due to minimal sales. After this, the land was quickly acquired by the City of Knoxville, and the Sunsphere shut down all operations until 2007. Around this time, the city opened the sunsphere to the public again and is still providing tours up to the fourth-floor observation deck for $10 a person.
Trajectory of the Sun: Revival of the Sunsphere
Even though the Sunsphere tragically took a turn for the worst, Knoxvillians have still fostered a great sense of pride in their Sunsphere. The park itself is still used regularly throughout the year for festivals, events, and concerts and is a commonplace to walk around for students at the University of Tennessee and the citizens of downtown Knoxville. Having initially been a representation of the sun, it has also become a symbol of Knoxville’s vibrancy, dedication, and passion.
McCarty Holsaple McCarty (MHM), a prominent architecture firm in the Knoxville area since 1957, has paired with Visit Knoxville and the City of Knoxville in hopes of reviving this cultural symbol of Knoxville. As MHM’s founded Bruce McCarty had a role in the initial design development of the Sunsphere, MHM has felt it important to their culture to reclaim this project for the community. The first phase of the Sunsphere’s revitalization was to return the structure to its original color. Having, for some reason, been painted green, it has now been restored to its original Pantone 194052 TXC Classic Blue. The second phase is to revamp the visitor center on the ground floor. With this renovation, the hope is that the Sunsphere can be returned to its original glory and all 5 stories can be occupiable again.
Since its initial conception, the Sunsphere has undergone a lot of complications and turmoil. However, the citizens of Knoxville have stuck with it since day one, embracing the globe as a true part of Knoxville’s history. Despite all of this….because of all of this…it is with hope that the community of Knoxville strives to bring back this beacon of hope to its full purpose and glory.
Citations:
Knoxville Sunsphere. Available at: http://www.sunsphere.info/ (Accessed: 14 April 2024).
Sunsphere (2019) Sunsphere, SAH ARCHIPEDIA. Available
at:https://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/TN-01-093-0078 (Accessed: 14 April 2024).
Sunsphere (no date) Community Tectonics Architects. Available at: https://communitytectonics.com/project/sunsphere/ (Accessed: 14 April 2024).
The Sunsphere. Visit Knoxville. Available at: https://www.visitknoxville.com/listing/the-sunsphere/567/ (Accessed: 14 April 2024).
Tntrivia. Available at: http://www.tntrivia.com/misc/sunspherehistory.pdf (Accessed: 14 April 2024).
Wilusz, R. (2022) Don’t take Knoxville’s Sunsphere for granted – here’s what it could have looked like, Knoxville News Sentinel. Available at: https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/2022/05/11/sunsphere-knoxville-worlds-fair-nearly-silver/9586793002/ (Accessed: 14 April 2024).
