![]() (While novel, it wasn’t the world’s first rotating restaurant. When the Space Needle opened at the Seattle World’s Fair in 1962, it featured a rotating restaurant on the 500-foot level, just below the Observation Deck, that operated on a turntable powered first by a 1-horsepower and, later, a 1.5-horsepower motor. More on the world’s first rotating glass floor The group also added direct viewing lines to the outside for everyone who steps off the elevator, a state-of-the art ADA lift that (finally) makes the outdoor deck fully accessible, an indoor café and the newly unveiled inclined glass “Skyrisers” that will make a trip to the top of the Space Needle super selfie-worthy. Seattle-based design firm Olson Kundig, the project architect, maintained the landmark features of the building while significantly opening up the Observation Deck view with 48 floor-to-ceiling glass windows that are each 7 feet wide and 11 feet high. “And we figured, while we’re up there, let’s update the experience and expand the view.” A few months after the Seattle fair closed, The Jetsons premiered on TV, and an animator later said George Jetson's apartment house in the sky had been directly inspired by the Space Needle.“We needed to update some of the aging mechanical and electrical systems in this 56-year-old building originally designed to look like a flying saucer on a stick,” Olson said. He says he's disappointed that hasn't happened.īerger wasn't the only one who thought we'd all be living in Space Needles by now. This is, you know, the thing of the future, and you'll be able to fly to your friend's house," Berger says. "I actually thought we're all going to be living in these things. You still have hope."Īnd yes, a rotating restaurant may be the very definition of kitsch - but that's not how he saw it as a kid. You still kind of believe in that future. "There was one architecture critic for The Washington Post who said, 'You know, it's almost kitsch, but not quite,' " Berger says. ![]() The new color is the original color, dubbed "galaxy gold."įor him, the real charm of the Space Needle is the way it embodies what he considers Seattle's "futuristic utopianism." Jeff Wright (center), whose family owns the Space Needle, starts the repainting of the iconic structure on Tuesday with his 15-year-old daughter, Mauren, and Space Needle board member Stuart Rolfe. The needle is being repainted for its birthday - it'll be galaxy gold for six months. He walked on the saucer's roof Tuesday, more than 500 feet up, ceremonially brushing on the old color. The flying saucer at the top used to be orange, though that's not the color's official name. And we shut it down."Īnother thing people tend to forget is that the Space Needle wasn't always white. It could heat a small town, the amount of gas that went through it. "It was a huge deal, but unfortunately it wasn't very environmentally sensitive. "You could see it from probably 50 miles away," Wright says. Jeff Wright, whose family now owns the Space Needle, recalls the giant gas flame that used to shoot out the top. Conceived as a rotating restaurant and tourist attraction, it was born a little garish. Of course, the Needle was never architecturally pure. Victor was proud of how it looked, and his son says he thought the owners ruined the Needle's lines with an extra observation deck in the 1980s. But his son says he also deserves credit for the Needle. Victor Steinbrueck later became known for saving Seattle's iconic Pike Place Market from urban renewal. Victor Steinbrueck did the original drawing in August 1960. Preliminary design of the Seattle Space Needle for the 1962 Seattle World's Fair Exhibition.
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