World's Fair Park | |
---|---|
Type | Public park |
Location | Knoxville, Tennessee, United States |
Coordinates | 35°57′41″N83°55′26″W / 35.9614°N 83.9239°W |
Created | May 1, 1982 |
Owned by | City of Knoxville |
Operated by | Knoxville Public Building Authority |
Open | 6:00 a.m. to 12:00 a.m. |
Public transit access | KAT 10, 11, 17, 42, 81, 82 |
Website | http://worldsfairpark.org/ |
World's Fair Park is a public park in downtown Knoxville, Tennessee. The park sits on the former fairgrounds of the 1982 World's Fair hosted in Knoxville. Today, the park is home to the Sunsphere and the Tennessee Amphitheater, the two remaining structures from the exposition.
The park features a festival and performance lawn, a small lake with a fountain, and the Sunsphere. [1] The 5-acre (2.0 ha) performance lawn is used for cultural and community events. [2] Knoxville's Public Building Authority manages the park, except for the Sunsphere. [1] The Knoxville Museum of Art, the Knoxville Convention Center, and the L&N STEM Academy, at the former Louisville and Nashville station, surround the park. To the west of the park borders a building known as the Candy Factory, which formerly housed the South, Littlefield & Steere Company and its factory. During the fair, the Candy Factory building was used by administration. Recently, the building was renovated into office, gallery, and rehearsal space, and later into condominiums. [3]
The Knoxville District K&A Line, operated by the Norfolk Southern Railway, starts at northernmost part of the park and ends in Maryville in nearby Blount County. As of 2019, the tracks are being considered by urban developers and city councilmembers for a conversion into a light rail line. [4]
Before the fair, the site was used as a railroad yard. The land was converted into park space for the 1982 World's Fair. [1] After the fair closed in October 1982, the site was cleaned up; the city had to demolish pavilions, remove graffiti, and remove homeless individuals from the remaining abandoned buildings. Throughout the rest of the 1980s and into the early 1990s, the Sunsphere and U.S. Pavilion were left without tenants. [5] In 1991, the U.S. Pavilion was demolished by implosion due to structural damage caused by neglect. [6] In 2007, the Sunsphere began to see occupancy. Today, it currently houses offices and a public observation deck. [7]
In 2018, the Knoxville City Council approved a $2.5-million renovation of the Sunsphere and Amphitheater, updating the Sunsphere's elevators, replacing HVAC units, repairing windows, and repainting the exterior of both structures. [7] In 2019, the park's performance lawn closed for a $3 million renovation, and reopened later in July of the same year. [2] In 2019, the Knoxville Marathon's finish line was relocated to the park, due to renovations at Neyland Stadium, the location of the original finish line. [8]
Knoxville is a city in and the county seat of Knox County, Tennessee, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, Knoxville's population was 190,740, making it the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Division and the state's third-most-populous city after Nashville and Memphis. It is the principal city of the Knoxville metropolitan area, which had a population of 879,773 in 2020.
The 1982 World's Fair, officially known as the Knoxville International Energy Exposition (KIEE) and simply as Energy Expo '82 and Expo '82, was an international exposition held in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States. Focused on energy and electricity generation, with the theme Energy Turns the World, it was officially registered as a "World's Fair" by the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE).
The Sunsphere located in World’s Fair Park in downtown Knoxville, Tennessee, is a 266-foot (81 m) high hexagonal steel truss structure, topped with a 75 ft (23 m) gold-colored glass sphere that served as the symbol of the 1982 World's Fair.
The Tennessee Theatre is a movie palace in downtown Knoxville, Tennessee. The theater was built in 1928 in the 1908 Burwell Building, considered Knoxville's first skyscraper. The theater and Burwell Building were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982, and the theater was extensively restored in the early 2000s. The Tennessee Theatre currently focuses on hosting performing arts events and classic films, and is home to the Knoxville Opera and the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra. The theater is managed by AC Entertainment.
Neyland Stadium is a sports stadium in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States. It serves primarily as the home of the Tennessee Volunteers football team, but is also used to host large conventions and has been a site for several National Football League (NFL) exhibition games. The stadium's official capacity is 101,915. Constructed in 1921 as Shields–Watkins Field, the stadium has undergone 16 expansion projects, at one point reaching a capacity of 104,079 before being slightly reduced by alterations in the following decade. Neyland Stadium is the sixth largest stadium in the United States, the eighth largest stadium in the world, and the second largest stadium in the Southeastern Conference. The stadium is named for Robert Neyland, who served three stints as head football coach at the University of Tennessee between 1926 and 1952.
James Arthur Haslam II is an American businessman and philanthropist, best known as the founder of Pilot Corporation, which operates a chain of convenience stores and travel centers throughout the United States and Canada, and is one of the largest privately owned companies in the United States. Haslam is also a donor for the University of Tennessee, having provided tens of millions of dollars to the school over several decades. Haslam's son Jimmy is the current owner of the National Football League's Cleveland Browns and Major League Soccer's Columbus Crew, and his other son Bill is a former Governor of Tennessee.
The Covenant Health Knoxville Marathon is an annual marathon foot-race run in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA, established in 2005. A prize fund of $10,000 is distributed between the top finishers in the marathon and half marathon.
Farragut High School, located at 11237 Kingston Pike, serves as a high school in Farragut, a suburb of Knoxville, Tennessee. Knox County Schools, the unified Knox County, Tennessee school district, operates the school.
The Savage House and Garden is a historic home and garden at 3237 Garden Drive in the Fountain City community of Knoxville, Tennessee, United States. Built around 1917 and designed in the Bungalow/Craftsman style, the house and its garden are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Channon Gail Christian, aged 21, and Hugh Christopher Newsom Jr., aged 23, were from Knoxville, Tennessee, United States. They were kidnapped on the evening of January 6, 2007, when Christian's vehicle was carjacked. The couple were taken to a rental house. Both of them were raped, tortured, and murdered. Four males and one female were arrested, charged, and convicted in the case. In 2007, a grand jury indicted Letalvis Darnell Cobbins, Lemaricus Devall Davidson, George Geovonni Thomas, and Vanessa Lynn Coleman on counts of kidnapping, robbery, rape, and murder. Also in 2007, Eric DeWayne Boyd was indicted by a federal grand jury of being an accessory to a carjacking, resulting in serious bodily injury to another person and misprision of a felony. In 2018, Boyd was indicted on state-level charges of kidnapping, robbery, rape, and murder.
Chilhowee Park is a public park, fairgrounds and exhibition venue in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States, located off Magnolia Avenue in East Knoxville. Developed in the late 19th century, the park is home to the Tennessee Valley Fair and hosts several dozen expositions annually. The park covers 81 acres (33 ha), and includes a 57,100-square-foot (5,300 m2) exposition center, a 1910-era bandstand, a 4,500-seat amphitheater, and a 3-acre (1.2 ha) lake, Lake Ottosee. The park is also home to The Muse Knoxville, a children's science museum formerly known as the East Tennessee Discovery Center.
State Route 158 (SR 158) is a major east–west state highway in the city of Knoxville in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It runs 4.63 miles (7.45 km) from Kingston Pike (US 11/US 70) along the Tennessee River to Interstate 40. The western portion of the highway is a surface street known as Neyland Drive and the eastern part is a controlled-access highway called James White Parkway. The entire highway serves as a bypass of downtown Knoxville and as a direct connector to the University of Tennessee (UT) campus and athletic facilities. Serving as the primary means of access to facilities such as Neyland Stadium and Thompson–Boling Arena, the route experiences congestion on game days, with a contraflow lane reversal implemented to mitigate this. It also serves as a spur into downtown and provides access to a number of local landmarks and historic sites, including the Blount Mansion and James White's Fort.
Bruce McCarty, FAIA was an American architect, founder and senior designer at McCarty Holsaple McCarty Architects of Knoxville, Tennessee. During a career that spanned more than a half-century, he designed some of the city's iconic landmarks, and was the city's most dedicated champion of Modern architecture. Buildings designed or co-designed by McCarty include the Lawson McGhee Library, Knoxville City County Building, University of Tennessee Humanities Complex, Clarence Brown Theatre, and University of Tennessee Art and Architecture Building. McCarty was also the Master Architect for the 1982 World's Fair.
East Knoxville is the section of Knoxville, Tennessee, USA, that lies east of the city's downtown area. It is concentrated along Magnolia Avenue (US-70/US-11), Martin Luther King, Jr., Boulevard, Dandridge Avenue, and adjacent streets, and includes the neighborhoods of Holston Hills, Parkridge, Chilhowee Park, Morningside, Five Points, and Burlington. East Knoxville is home to Zoo Knoxville, the Knoxville Botanical Garden and Arboretum, and Chilhowee Park.
Downtown Knoxville is the downtown area of Knoxville, Tennessee, United States. It contains the city's central business district and primary city and county municipal offices. It is also home to several retail establishments, residential buildings, the city's convention center, and World's Fair Park. The downtown area contains the oldest parts of Knoxville, and is home to the city's oldest buildings.
Gay Street is a street in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States, that traverses the heart of the city's downtown area. Since its development in the 1790s, Gay Street has served as the city's principal financial and commercial thoroughfare, and has played a primary role in the city's historical and cultural development. The street contains Knoxville's largest office buildings and oldest commercial structures. Several buildings on Gay Street have been listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The L&N Station is a former rail passenger station in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States, located in the downtown area at the northern end of the World's Fair Park. Built in 1905 by the Louisville and Nashville Railroad and designed by its chief engineer, Richard Montfort, the station was renovated for use in the 1982 World's Fair, and is currently home to Knox County's STEM-based magnet high school, the L&N STEM Academy. In 1982, the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places for its architecture and role in Knoxville's transportation history.
The Tennessee Amphitheater, also known as the World's Fair Park Amphitheater, is an open-air amphitheater located in the 1982 World's Fair Park in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Volunteer Landing is a public park and riverwalk along the Tennessee River in Knoxville, Tennessee. It is below the Gay Street Bridge.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link){{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)