Seattle's Space Needle is far and away the city's most recognizable landmark, and definitely the worst building in the city to step on if you were a barefoot giant. Since my office is located on the Northwest side of the city, I work literally in the shadow of the famed needle, and get a great view of it when I'm in my boss's office...not that I'm ever in there or anything. I also get a big kick out of watching all the tourists taking pictures of the building as I walk to my train station. There weren't many tourists to dodge when I walked to my bus stop in Milwaukee, probably because most people don't photograph cheese and beer, at least not before consuming most of it.
It wasn't until he came to help us move into town that I was told that the 4-year-old version of my father-in-law, Randy, was actually at the Seattle World's Fair of 1962 when the Space Needle was "unveiled". He was one of the 20,000 people per day that took the elevator to the top of the needle and enjoyed the view from what was then the tallest building west of the Mississippi River. The Space Needle, along with the monorail that was built to transport tourists from the World's Fair grounds to the heart of downtown Seattle, were such popular attractions in 1962 that it was one of only a few World's Fairs to actually turn a profit. We now get the priviledge of escorting all our visiting friends and family to the Seattle Center for the requisite picture with the Needle as the background. The International Fountain from not too many posts ago, is also part of the Seattle Center complex that was once the grounds for the 1962 World's Fair.
The design for the Space Needle was a hybrid of the ideas conjoured up by a businessman and an architect. One wanted the building to look like a giant hot air balloon tethered to the ground, and the other wanted to stick to the World's Fair theme of 21st Century innovations by creating a giant flying saucer. The ultimate design was meant to cater to both ideas. It took so long to find and purchase a suitable piece of land for the tower, that the entire thing had to be built in less than a year in order to complete it before the fair started. The Flying Saucer at the top is an observation deck and restraunt. The restraunt does a complete rotation every 43 minutes, providing a complete panoramic view of the area during one dinner setting...or four complete panoramic views if you happen to be a European tourist.
Not to cast a negative shadow on the Great Needle, but there are a few things that I was surprised to find out as I made the transition from tourist to local. The Space Needle is about a kilometer away from the rest of Seattle's downtown (see the picture of the Seattle skyline above). This is why the monorail had to be installed for the World's Fair, the planners wanted to make sure that Fair visitors would spend their money in Seattle's shopping district, and none of them would have been willing to make the trip from the grounds to downtown unless there was a super cool way to get there. Also, it's been a while since the building has been the tallest anything. It's only 184 meters tall, which ranks it as the 9th tallest in the Seattle skyline, compared to the Columbia Center, Seattle's tallest building, which is 1.5 times the height of the needle at 285 meters. The tallest building in the U.S. is the 442 meter Sears Tower (I still refuse to call it the Willis Tower), and that's nearly 2.5 Space Needles tall. I remember watching an episode of Conan O'Brian once where he had an argument about which is better, the Space Needle or Toronto's CN Tower...it's clearly the CN Tower, which is 553 meters tall. You'd have to stack 4 and a half Space Needles to get to the height of the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa. Please refer to the handy height chart to the left, which for some reason includes Las Vegas's Stratosphere in the comparison.
It may not be the tallest building out there, but it is still dear to my emerald heart. It's nice to be welcomed to work each day by the Space Needle, and it's a lot of fun to see it from the freeway as you come into the city. Thanks to Zoe, I still struggle to say Space "Needle" instead of Space "Noodle". We have big plans to watch the Space Noodle firework show this coming New Year's Eve from my office. Surely this will not be the last posting with needle pictures. Come to my city and see the giant noodle!
Seattle's Space Needle is far and away the city's most recognizable landmark, and definitely the worst building in the city to step on if you were a barefoot giant. Since my office is located on the Northwest side of the city, I work literally in the shadow of the famed needle, and get a great view of it when I'm in my boss's office...not that I'm ever in there or anything. I also get a big kick out of watching all the tourists taking pictures of the building as I walk to my train station. There weren't many tourists to dodge when I walked to my bus stop in Milwaukee, probably because most people don't photograph cheese and beer, at least not before consuming most of it.
It wasn't until he came to help us move into town that I was told that the 4-year-old version of my father-in-law, Randy, was actually at the Seattle World's Fair of 1962 when the Space Needle was "unveiled". He was one of the 20,000 people per day that took the elevator to the top of the needle and enjoyed the view from what was then the tallest building west of the Mississippi River. The Space Needle, along with the monorail that was built to transport tourists from the World's Fair grounds to the heart of downtown Seattle, were such popular attractions in 1962 that it was one of only a few World's Fairs to actually turn a profit. We now get the priviledge of escorting all our visiting friends and family to the Seattle Center for the requisite picture with the Needle as the background. The International Fountain from not too many posts ago, is also part of the Seattle Center complex that was once the grounds for the 1962 World's Fair. 
Not to cast a negative shadow on the Great Needle, but there are a few things that I was surprised to find out as I made the transition from tourist to local. The Space Needle is about a kilometer away from the rest of Seattle's downtown (see the picture of the Seattle skyline above). This is why the monorail had to be installed for the World's Fair, the planners wanted to make sure that Fair visitors would spend their money in Seattle's shopping district, and none of them would have been willing to make the trip from the grounds to downtown unless there was a super cool way to get there. Also, it's been a while since the building has been the tallest anything. It's only 184 meters tall, which ranks it as the 9th tallest in the Seattle skyline, compared to the Columbia Center, Seattle's tallest building, which is 1.5 times the height of the needle at 285 meters. The tallest building in the U.S. is the 442 meter Sears Tower (I still refuse to call it the Willis Tower), and that's nearly 2.5 Space Needles tall. I remember watching an episode of Conan O'Brian once where he had an argument about which is better, the Space Needle or Toronto's CN Tower...it's clearly the CN Tower, which is 553 meters tall. You'd have to stack 4 and a half Space Needles to get to the height of the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa. Please refer to the handy height chart to the left, which for some reason includes Las Vegas's Stratosphere in the comparison.
It may not be the tallest building out there, but it is still dear to my emerald heart. It's nice to be welcomed to work each day by the Space Needle, and it's a lot of fun to see it from the freeway as you come into the city. Thanks to Zoe, I still struggle to say Space "Needle" instead of Space "Noodle". We have big plans to watch the Space Noodle firework show this coming New Year's Eve from my office. Surely this will not be the last posting with needle pictures. Come to my city and see the giant noodle!
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