The Space Needle is the recognized symbol of Seattle. The tower stands 605 feet (184 meters) tall and boasts fabulous views of Puget Sound, Mount Rainier, the Cascade and Olympic mountain ranges and, of course, the beautiful city of Seattle.

In 1959, an unlikely artist inspired by the Stuttgart Tower in Germany was sketching his vision of a dominant central structure for the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair on a placemat in a coffee house.

The artist was Edward E. Carlson, then president of Western International Hotels. His space-age image was to be the focus of the futuristic World’s Fair in Seattle, whose theme would be Century 21. Carlson penciled the shape that would become the internationally known symbol for Seattle, the Space Needle.

However, Carlson and his supporters soon found moving the symbol from the placemat to the drawing board to the construction phase was not an easy process. The first obstacle was the structure’s design. Carlson’s initial sketch underwent many transformations. One drawing resembled a tethered balloon and another was a balloon-shaped top house on a central column anchored by cables. Architect John Graham, fresh from his success in designing the world’s first shopping mall (Seattle’s Northgate), turned the balloon design into a flying saucer. A dozen architects on Graham’s team worked on sketches and ideas before a final compromise was reached just a year and a half before the fair was to open.

The next hurdles were location and financing. Since the Space Needle was to be privately financed, it had to be situated on land, which could be acquired for public use but built within the fairgrounds. Early investigations indicated such a plot of land did not exist. However, just before the search was abandoned, a suitable 120-foot-by-120-foot piece of land was found and sold to investors for $75,000 in 1961, just 13 months before the World’s Fair opening.

Construction, managed by the Howard S. Wright Construction Company, progressed quickly. An underground foundation was poured into a hole 30 feet deep and 120 feet across. It took 467 concrete trucks an entire day to fill the hole, the largest continuous concrete pour ever attempted in the West. Once completed, the foundation weighed as much as the Space Needle itself, establishing the center of gravity just above the ground.

The five-level top house dome was completed with special attention paid to the revolving restaurant level and Observation Deck. The top house was balanced so perfectly that the restaurant rotated with just a one horsepower electric motor. In keeping with the Century 21 theme, the final coats of paint were dubbed “Astronaut White” for the legs, “Orbital Olive” for the core, “Re-entry Red” for the halo and “Galaxy Gold” for the sunburst and pagoda roof. The 605-foot tall Space Needle was completed in December 1961 and officially opened a mere four months later on the first day of the World’s Fair, April 21, 1962.

The Space Needle’s elevators were the last pieces to arrive before the opening, the last one just one day before the fair opened. New, computerized elevators were installed in 1993. The elevators travel 10 mph, 14 feet per second, 800 feet per minute, or as fast as a raindrop falls to earth. In fact, a snowflake falls at 3 mph, so in a descending elevator during a snowstorm it appears to be snowing up.

Storms occasionally force closure of the Space Needle, as they did for the Columbus Day storm of 1962 and the “Inauguration Day” storm of 1993 when winds reached 90 miles per hour. The Needle is built to withstand a wind velocity of 200 miles per hour.

The Space Needle was built for just $4.5 million, and has had its share of milestones, including numerous weddings and a jump by six parachutists. During the World’s Fair, nearly 20,000 people a day traveled to the top. The Space Needle hosted over 2.3 million visitors during the Fair and is still, nearly 40 years later, Seattle’s number one tourist destination.

In 2000, the Space Needle completed a $20 million revitalization. The yearlong project included construction of the Pavilion Level, SpaceBase retail store, SkyCity restaurant, Observation Deck redesign, exterior lighting additions, Legacy Light installation, exterior painting and more.

The Structure
? Top of the Space Needle: Aircraft Warning Beacon 605 feet, 184 meters (from sea level, 730.25 feet)
? Observation Deck 520 feet
? Revolving SkyCity Restaurant 500 feet
? SkyLine Banquet Facility 100 feet
? Pavilion: Entrance and SpaceBase Retail Shop Ground level
? Bottom of foundation 30 feet below ground
? The Space Needle was built on a 120-foot x120-foot lot formerly owned by the city of Seattle. It was sold to investors for $75,000 in 1961, just a year and a half before the opening of the World’s Fair.
? The Space Needle was built for a mere $4.5 million dollars. The completion of a new pavilion level, redesigned restaurant and observation deck totaled $21 million dollars and was completed in June 2000.
? There are 848 steps from the bottom of the basement to the top of the Observation Deck.
? There are 822 steps from the bottom of the basement to the SkyCity Restaurant.
? The foundation for the Space Needle filled a hole 30 feet deep and 120 feet across. It took 467 concrete trucks less than 12 hours to fill the space, the largest continuous concrete pour ever attempted in the West at that time.
? When the Space Needle was built in 1962, it was the tallest building west of the Mississippi River.
? The Space Needle sways approximately 1 inch for every 10 mph of wind.
? The Space Needle was designed to withstand 200-mph winds. When winds around the Needle reach high speeds, 35 mph or higher, the elevators are designed to reduce their traveling speed to 5 mph for safety reasons. Occasionally, the Space Needle has had to close because the winds have become high enough to warrant safety considerations. Some of the high winds at the Needle have been clocked at 90 mph at the O Deck level.
? On a hot day the Needle expands about 1 inch.
? The foundation weighs 5,850 tons while the Needle structure weighs 3,700 tons, a total of 9,550 tons.
? The Space Needle is fastened to its foundation with 74 bolts, each 32 feet long and 4 inches in diameter.
? The center of gravity for the Space Needle is 5 feet above the ground.
? The Space Needle had the second revolving restaurant in the world. The first one was in the Ala Moana shopping mall in Hawaii (now closed). There are now hundreds of turntables throughout the world.
? The restaurant turntable revolves on a track and wheel system that weighs roughly 125 tons,
borrowed from railroad technology. All it takes to make the turntable revolve is a 1? horsepower motor (originally it was a 1 hp motor).
? The entire Space Needle saucer does not rotate, only a 14-foot ring next to the windows rotates on the SkyCity restaurant level.
? The Needle has been painted four times since 1962; the last time was in 1999 and required close to 2,000 gallons of paint. Wasser High Tech Coatings, Inc. provided the paint for the last project. They created a new color from the original white and varied it slightly to get the present color. This new color has been given the name Space Needle White and can be bought directly at Wasser.
? There are 25 lightning rods (24 actual rods plus the tower) on the roof of the Needle to withstand lightning strikes.
? Diameter of the halo is 138 feet.
? Diameter of the SkyCity Restaurant is 94.5 feet.
? In keeping with the Century 21 theme of the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair, the final coats of paint were dubbed “Astronaut White” for the legs, “Orbital Olive” for the core, “Re-entry Red” for the halo and “Galaxy Gold” for the sunburst and pagoda roof.
? The 100 foot, or SkyLine Level was built in 1982.
? On April 21, 1999, the Space Needle’s 37th Birthday, the City’s Landmarks Preservation Board named it an official City of Seattle Landmark. In its Report on Designation, the Landmarks Preservation Board wrote, “The Space Needle marks a point in history of the City of Seattle and represents American aspirations towards technological prowess. [It] embodies in its form and construction the era’s belief in commerce, technology and progress.”

The Elevators
? The last elevator arrived the day before the fair opened.
? Two of the Space Needle elevators are high speed and can travel at a rate of 10 mph, or 800 feet per minute. Actual travel time from the ground level to the top-house is 43 seconds. Under high wind conditions these high-speed passenger elevators are slowed to 5 mph. The third elevator, primarily used for freight but occasionally used to carry passengers, only travels at 5 mph, or 400 feet per minute.
? The elevators are hoisted up and down the shaft by six cables, any one of which can hold the weight of the elevator and counterweight. There is a separate governor cable that is used to regulate the speed and safety of the car. Two electrical cables attach to each car and supply the power and controls for the elevators.
? The three elevators were replaced in 1993 at a cost of $1.5 million dollars each.
? The weight of each elevator is 14,000 pounds and the counterweight for each elevator weighs roughly 15,800 pounds.

The New Pavilion
?The new Pavilion height is 40 feet from ground to roof.
? The new Pavilion has 634 windows on its walls, and 356 panes on the roof. It covers roughly 23,000 square feet (s.f.) of area. The roof is about 55% glass.
? The square footage of the entire pavilion is 15,529: the first floor is 9,070 s.f., the second level is 2,882 s.f. plus the ramp area of 3,577 s.f.
? The interior ramp will hold 511 people (This number is calculated based on the City of Seattle building code; it requires 7 square feet for each person in order to safely occupy it.
? The capacity for the Pavilion is 1,167 people.
? The height of the second floor is 18 feet above the first floor.