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TOWER OF THE AMERICAS
Origin: San Antonio, USA.
Created by Odainsaker.
Built for the 1968 World's Fair held in San Antonio, Texas, this observation tower remains the most easily recognized and defining modern landmark of the city's skyline. Coinciding with the 250th anniversary of the founding of San Antonio, whose geographic and historical position makes the city a cultural linchpin between the United States and Latin America, the 1968 San Antonio World's Fair would renamed itself as "HemisFair '68" and proclaim its theme as the "Confluence of Cultures in the Americas." Following the success of Seattle's Space Needle at the 1962 Century 21 Exposition, the even taller Tower of the Americas would be the crowning highlight of a vast array of convention exhibit halls, tourist hotels, theaters, and arenas, all tied together with an iconic monorail. For a city made up primarily of preserved historic landmarks and whose last great buildng boom occurred in the late 1920s, this would be the most significant construction of large downtown buildings in decades, clearing large tracts of deteriorating neighborhoods for urban renewal. The new modern style popular for institutions at the time would be a stark Brutalism, contrasting wildly with the city's older collection of Spanish Gothic and Spanish Colonial Revival structures.
Regionally prominent architect O'Neil Ford would craft a handsome modern tower reaching 750 ft. (229m.) to antenna tip and which would remain the tallest observation tower in the United States for almost three decades until the building of Las Vegas's Stratosphere Tower in 1996. The 550 ft. (168m.) mark would mount a tophouse revolving restaurant once billed as the "Eyes Over Texas," while the higher outdoor observation deck at the 560 ft. (171m.) level and an indoor observation deck at the 579 ft. (176m.) level would offer further dramatic aerial views of the historic downtown area and the urban sprawl beyond. The current building has over the years been heavily renovated, with its base expanded to incorporate another flashy ring of expanded gift shops, restaurants, and theaters, but this BAT uses the older and more subdued configuration.
In retrospect, "Confluence of Cultures in the Americas" seems a hopelessly idyllic and blissfully nostalgic theme in the turbulent era of Civil Rights struggles, Latin American revolutions, and the mushrooming Vietnam War. Embattled President Lyndon B. Johnson would preside over high security opening ceremonies a mere two days after the shocking assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. The backers of HemisFair '68 lost millions of invested dollars as the number of visitors to the celebratory international fair failed to meet the grand expectations. However, San Antonio did gain both a world-class convention center complex with which to expand its now dominant tourist industry and a new glittery landmark that changed the city's skyline and image. Today, the grounds of the fair and its surviving buildings have been landscaped and beautified into the fountain-filled "HemisFair Park." Along with the famous Alamo shrine and the scenic Paseo del Rio "River Walk," the Tower of the Americas stands as a near must-see requirement for any San Antonio visitor's itinerary.
Despite the historic American superlatives, this tower is really rather modest by the world standards of today and definitely small by BAT custom content standards of lofty supertalls. It is best used much like the real tower by being surrounded by low-rise convention and sports facilities in a public park near the central business district but isolated
away from any crowding skyscrapers that might obstruct either its views or the broadcast signals from its transmitter.
For boththosewho like seeing the big Zoom 5 rendersas well asthose of us who like showi
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