The Knoxville Sunsphere!

The Sunsphere was built for the 1982 World's Fair. It was meant to be a source of civic pride, but hasn't quite turned out that way.

It's been opened and closed as an observation deck back and forth ever since then, and for now it seems to be open for the near future. Here's an idea of what you can see from up there:
seemidtn.com/gallery/index.php?album=knoxville%2Fviews-fr...

Soon after taking this photo, I got on the elevator to go to the top. Joining me on the elevator was a local in his young 20's. He told me he had lived in Knoxville his whole life and he hadn't been up there since he was a little kid, and he just felt like it on this day. I had been up once before in 1994.

Knoxville Sunsphere View: Old City Hall

This is actually a complex of several buildings that started in 1848 as the Tennessee School for the Deaf. Then it became the City Hall in 1924 until the City-County building was built in 1980. In 2009 it became the Lincoln Memorial University School of Law

The Sunsphere was built for the 1982 Knoxville World's Fair. Not too long ago, it reopened as an observation deck. The views are a little blurred in places and off-color due to the windows that we look through, but still it makes for a great vantage point of the city. Ony my website is a gallery of other landmarks you can see from the Susnphere. If that interests you, check it out here:

seemidtn.com/gallery/index.php?album=knoxville/views-from...

Sunsphere View: Baker Federal Courthouse cupola

The building originally started as the headquarters for Whittle Communications. Then when that company went out of business they had a large vacant property downtown.

In 1998, the building was renovated and added onto to become the Howard H. Baker Jr. Federal Courthouse. The cupola with a large copper dome seen here was one of those additions added in 1998.

The Sunsphere was built for the 1982 Knoxville World's Fair. Not too long ago, it reopened as an observation deck. The views are a little blurred in places and off-color due to the windows that we look through, but still it makes for a great vantage point of the city.

New Sunsphere Gallery

New to the website is a gallery of other landmarks you can see from the Susnphere as well as the round markers at the top. If that interests you, check it out here:

seemidtn.com/gallery/index.php?album=knoxville/views-from...

The Sunsphere!

The monument to clean energy from the 1982 World's Fair in Knoxville. It looks like a microphone, or Reunion Tower in Dallas, and Bart Simpson found wigs at the top. I think I was able to ride to the top in 1994. I hear it reopened again a year or two ago, so you can get views of the city from here.

The locals, from what I hear, roll their eyes at the thought of the place. Some think it's ugly, while others think the city could have done something better for the World's Fair. Sometimes, drunk UT students try to fire a gun at it in an attempt to bust out a window. Then all the wigs might fall out.