Bubbleator from the 1962 World's Fair in Seattle (Des Moines, Washington)

 architecture - Do not use this category, sculpture

The Bubbleator, a plexiglass sphere that worked as an elevator between floors of the fair's Washington State Coliseum (now KeyArena), has been flourishing as a greenhouse built into a Des Moines residence since 1987.

After the fair, the Bubbleator was moved to the Center House, but was removed during a remodel.

Current owner Gene Achziger, a P-I layout editor, located the structure, stored in pieces, in a warehouse in 1984. At that time, it was owned by Children's Hospital. The hospital was unable to come up with a life for the dome, so it was sold to Achziger for $1,000.

The pieces sat around for two more years while Achziger was building a house to accommodate it in the front yard. Then the fun began. Only the top two-thirds of the Bubbleator remained. There was no floor, no motor. "There were no directions. It had to be put together piece by piece," Achziger says. Sometimes that meant a team of four to six people hoisting a 3/8-inch-thick wedge of plexiglass overhead and walking around the aluminum frame to see where it fit.

Today, the Bubbleator that used to carry 100 to 150 people at a time, houses orchids, citrus and banana trees, and aphids, says the owner.

seattlepi.nwsource.com/lifestyle/66575_fairwhere16.shtm...