# World Expo's 1851-2005: What remains?



## taboe (Jan 30, 2007)

There have been 64 World exhibitions between 1851-2005. There is some discussion as to which were 'official' expos. Generally speaking, a world expo is or was official as long as there were enough countries participating and the expo was recognised by enough other countries...
The first one was in London (Crystal Palace). Other famous expos include:
Paris 1889 (Eiffeltower), NY 1939, Brussels 1958 (Atomium), Montreal 1967, etc

Organizing countries by number of expos:

*22 times: USA* (4 x NY, 3 x San Fransisco, 2 x Philadelphia, 2 x Seattle, 2 x Chicago, Buffalo, New Orleans, Atlanta, St Louis, Hampton Roas, San Diego, San Antonio, Knoxville, Spokane)
*9 times: Belgium* (3 x Brussels, 3 x Antwerp, 2 x Liege, Ghent)
*8 times: France* (8 x Paris)
*5 times: UK* (3 x London, Wembley, Glasgow)
*4 times: Japan* (Nagoya, Osaka, Okinawa, Nukuba); *Spain* (2 x Sevilla, 2 x Barcelona)
*3 times: Italy *(Milan, Turin, Genua);* Ireland* (3 x Dublin); *Australia* (2 x Melbourne, Brisbane)
*2 times: Canada* (Vancouver, Montreal)
*1 time: Austria* (Vienna); *Portugal* (Lisbon); *Germany* (Hannover); *Brazil* (Rio); *The Netherlands* (Amsterdam)

*My question is:* what remains of these expos today? Most of the buildings were usually temporarily, but luckily there are still some reminders. Pictures of torn down buildings are also welcome.

I'll start off with the most famous remainder of Expo '58 in Brussels, The atomium (photo by Hans Vanderborgt):










I'll post more pics later :cheers:


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## Podzol (Mar 5, 2008)

Here some of the monuments built in paris for the severals universal expositions (all in the beginning of the 20th century : 1844, 1855, 1867, 1878, 1889, 1900 ... which explains why all this realisations are pretty old now ...). 
From the second one stays only the Théatre des Champs-Elysées, nothing special about it but still in use. 

The exposition of 1900 a lot of famous sights in Paris now ... the Tour Eiffel for sure (no picture héhé), 
the bridge Alexandre III : 



the Petit and Grand Palais (on the photo)





and two railroad station inaugurated at the same time : Gare d'Orsay (wellknown nowaday as the musée d'Orsay) and Gare de Lyon : 





At the same time was opened the first parisian metro line (Porte de Vincennes - Porte Maillot).


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## Dinivan (Apr 9, 2007)

For Barcelona, the most famous remaining building is the Catalan National Art Museu (MNAC), it's easily one of my favourite buildings in Barcelona


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## Cobucci (Jun 30, 2005)

When it happened in Rio?


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## taboe (Jan 30, 2007)

^^ in 1922/23, it was the only one ever in South America


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## mhays (Sep 12, 2002)

Seattle has had two world's fairs. 

--The 1907(?) Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition site is now the University of Washington, a very nice campus with a lot of historic revival architecture. A few buildings might remain from the fair. 

--The 1962 site is now called the Seattle Center. The Space Needle, the center house, the former US Pavilion (now the Pacific Science Center), the mostly-rebuild KeyArena, an old stadium, and various theaters and pavilions remain. It's a 74-acre car-free campus of museums, spectator sports, performing arts, amusements (those are being deleted), and grass. We hold some of our biggest festivals there. It's had hundreds of millions in construction and rehabs in the past dozen years or so, and seems to be in for hundreds of million more according to a current planning process.


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## njjeppson (Oct 18, 2007)

Dallas hosted the Texas Centennial in 1936 and the Greater Texas and Pan American Exposition in 1937. 

Most of the buildings have survived and are significant examples of Art Deco architecture (now a National Historic Landmark). Over the past several years they have uncovered the original murals and restored or reconstructed buildings back to the 1936 appearance. 

http://www.dallascityhall.com/FairPark/architectural_guide.html









http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hall_of_State









http://pete-menefee.smugmug.com/photos/129616812-M.jpg


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## Wuppeltje (Jan 23, 2008)

Dinivan said:


> For Barcelona, the most famous remaining building is the Catalan National Art Museu (MNAC), it's easily one of my favourite buildings in Barcelona


In the architectural world the Barcelona Pavilion from Ludwig Mies van der Rohe is more famous. Although it is rebuild, it's design dates back to the same time as the National Art Museum of Catalonia.


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## Minato ku (Aug 9, 2005)

How I can't see it ?
One of world's most famous monument was build for the 1889 World Expo.


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## Dinivan (Apr 9, 2007)

Wuppeltje said:


> In the architectural world the Barcelona Pavilion from Ludwig Mies van der Rohe is more famous. Although it is rebuild, it's design dates back to the same time as the National Art Museum of Catalonia.


:doh: how could I forget about it? The pavilion is amazing, looks as if someone had built it yesterday, but the design is actually 80 years old. Mies was a true visionary


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## gincan (Feb 1, 2006)

Dinivan said:


> :doh: how could I forget about it? The pavilion is amazing, looks as if someone had built it yesterday, but the design is actually 80 years old. Mies was a true visionary


It's easy to miss because of its unfavorable location. The fair building right next to it totaly dwarfs the pavilion and take away the attention it deserves. I think they should have rebuilt it somewhere else (maybe on the slope above the stadium), the building is unique in architecture history as it was a never seen before and IMO unmatched in the 20th century.


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## Jim856796 (Jun 1, 2006)

Some of the structures i know remaining from the Hemisfair 1968 are:

Tower of the Americas
Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Centre
Institute of Texan Cultures
US Courthouse Building

The HemisFair Arena was also a remaining structure from the Hemis fair, but it passed away in 1995 for an expansion of the Convention Centre.


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## TalB (Jun 8, 2005)

Flushing Meadows-Corona Pk has remnants from the 1964 World's Fair as well as some from the 1939 World's Fair.


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## tayser (Sep 11, 2002)

The Royal Exhibition Building.








Was built as the "Palace of Industry" at Melbourne's expo.

It also held the opening of the first parliament of the newly formed Commonwealth of Australia:










mural depicting the federation of the colonies into states:










Australia's first world heritage listed building.


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## Aceventura (May 6, 2007)

Great Thread!

1981 Knoxville, Tn
The Sunsphere









and the giant working rubik's cube










1984 New Orleans, La
Not much remains besides many hotels built at the time. On the neutral ground (median) on Loyola Ave. there is a large decoration that remains. 
The Riverwalk mall, aquarium, and casino replaced most of the grounds where the Fair was held.

In 1884 they had The World's Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition held on what is now Audubon Park. There is a big piece of iron ore from Alabama sitting out which looks like a metorite, that is the only physical piece left behind.


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## TalB (Jun 8, 2005)

For any other World's Fair remnants in Flushing Meadows-Corona Pk, go here, b/c Forgotten NY recently did a whole page on this.


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## wholagun (Nov 15, 2003)

I'm surprised that Germany only had it once, considering Germany is one of the world's forest technological/engineering contributors.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

Interest in these events has been going down lately, as there are other forms of entertainment catching people's attention. However, the upcoming event in Shanghai in 2010 seems to be creating quite a buzz as China embraces and prepares for yet another large international event.


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## Kuvvaci (Jan 1, 2005)

wonderful thread.. please keep it alive. I have nebver know expos gave so much to the cities. woooow...


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## TEKKEN (Dec 22, 2007)

Crystal Palace for the EXPO 1851 in London but it is destroyed through a fire in 1936




























EXPO 1900 in Paris,the first metro line in the city


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## taboe (Jan 30, 2007)

Some old pictures of the World Fair of 1930 in *Antwerp* (all gone now):

The arch:










the Brazilian pavillion:










The Congo palace:



















The Dutch pavillion:










The Italian pavillion:










The British pavillion:










The pavillion of the French colonies:










The pavillion of the city of Antwerp:










'Old Belgium', a replica of a typical old town in cardboard:










Overview:











And for the fans: a slide-show of the world expo in *Ghent* in 1913:
click





wholagun said:


> I'm surprised that Germany only had it once, considering Germany is one of the world's forest technological/engineering contributors.


Germany was not very popular in those days. After the French-German war in 1870, it became the German Empire, which had a troubled relationship with the rest of Europe (which resulted in WOI eventually). In the '30s their economy collapsed and then there was WOII, and then the commies came. There was never really an oportunity for a World Fair, I guess.


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## Wuppeltje (Jan 23, 2008)

The World Fair list is kind of strange. First of all the organisation that made the official list is a French organisation established in 1928. Not long after WW1. There was a lot of hate between France and Germany between the wars. Between 1923 - 1925 the Ruhr Area was occupied by French and Belgium troops because Germany couldn't pay the World War I reparations anymore. 

There are far more world's fairs than later recognised by this organisation. I can understand that they made a selection, but it would be strange if it is not political influenced.


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## taboe (Jan 30, 2007)

^^ The first world fair that was recognized by the BIE was in Brussels in 1935. Indeed there were a lot before that. The list on Wikipedia is also completely wrong. The list I rely on, as it was issued by the organisation of the 1988 Brisbane world fair: http://www.foundationexpo88.org/www.foundationexpo88.org%20t-shirt%20transfers.pdf (see page 4)

But then again, any event that claims to be a world fair probably has something to say for itself...


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## dhuwman (Oct 6, 2005)

we have this in Seattle from expo 62


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## Jim856796 (Jun 1, 2006)

What if the Perisphere and trylon from the 1939 World's Fair have never been destroyed to make weapons for World War II?


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## Spoolmak (Aug 4, 2007)

Expo '86 Vancouver BC


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## canucker16 (Jan 13, 2008)

^to add on, our first skytrain line is called the "Expo Line" and was created in time for expo '86 (in Vancouver) and was opened by Charles and Diana









newer version of the trains

and we're getting another line in time for the olympics (although it's being called the Canada Line and not the Olympic Line)

Science World i think was opened for the fair as well:









it's a really neat place for kids. and there's a huge IMAX theatre in the silver sphere.

the Plaza of Nations is also a well known building complex that was built for Expo


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