THE BALLOON MAN

Where were you in '62? Likely not in Auburn 


The origin myth for one of the world’s most famous city landmarks involves a place mat and a doodle.


 

The News Tribune’s June 21, 1958, issue featured Bert Smyser’s sketch, which shows his plan for a space-age tower prior to Space Needle plans. (NEWS TRIBUNE ARCHIVES)
PETER CALLAGHAN; STAFF WRITER 
from: Tacoma News Tribune
03/25/12
The origin myth for one of the world’s most famous city landmarks involves a place mat and a doodle. 


During a 1959 visit to Stuttgart, Germany, and while dining at the top of the city’s television tower, hotel-chain executive Eddie Carlson decided the World’s Fair he and others were planning for Seattle needed a signature structure.


The doodle – just two vertical lines with a circle at the top – was titled “Restaurant in the Sky.”


The architects took over, and the Space Needle was born. Ever since, no representation of Seattle seems complete without that image. Oh, and some guys tossing salmon, of course.

Knute Berger, author of “Space Needle – The Spirit of Seattle,” to be released next month, said Carlson indeed had his “aha” moment in Stuttgart (though he’s not sure if the medium was a place mat or a napkin). But Berger discovered that the idea of a tower and even a restaurant had been in the air for a while. 


The first to tie it to the upcoming World’s Fair was perhaps a creative eccentric in Tacoma who went public a year before Tacoma native Carlson hit Stuttgart.


Bert Smyser thought it could be the signature structure that would make the world long remember the great World’s Fair in … Auburn.


Yes, that Auburn.


It isn’t as nutty as it sounds today. There already were questions whether the regrade area of Seattle was suitable for the fair. Many folks thought a site halfway between Seattle and Tacoma was better.


Read more here: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2012/03/25/2081358/where-were-you-in-62-likely-not.html#storylink=cpy