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The Great Northern Railroad Depot Clocktower in 1973, exactly one year before the Expo opened.

Site of Expo '74 under construction, May 1973.

Expo '74 was an environmentally themed world's fair in Spokane, Washington, United States that ran from 4 May to 3 November 1974.

Expo '74, in proclaiming itself the first exposition on an environmental theme, distanced itself from the more techno-centric world's fairs of the 1960s. This environmental theme was displayed in events such as a symposium at Expo '74, on United Nations World Environment Day (June 5), of 1,200 people including many national representatives, and another, on ECAFE (United Nations Economic Council for Asia and the Far East) Day (June 14) on the importance (or otherwise) of the environment to countries in that region.^[1]

Spokane was the smallest city to host a (Bureau of International Expositions recognized) world's fair until Knoxville, Tennessee held the 1982 World's Fair eight years later. After considering other slogans, such as “How Man Can Live, Work and Play in Harmony With His Environment”, Expo '74 Settled on “Celebrating Tomorrow's Fresh New Environment.”^[2] The heart of the fair park grounds was located on Canada Island, Havermale Island, and the adjacent south bank of the Spokane River in the center of the city. With the exception of two pavilions, all of the major buildings were modular structures assembled on the site. The fair had 5.2 million visitors and was considered a success, nearly breaking even, revitalizing the blighted urban core, and pumping an estimated $150 million into the local economy and surrounding region.

Among the many attractions, architectural critics were intrigued^{[citation needed]} by the Australian Pavilion with its 36 screen revolving audio visual platform and model of the newly completed Sydney Opera House. (The artistic director for the project was film director Jonathan Dawson). In fact Australia was one of only a handful of countries with an official presence at the fair. The others were Canada, West Germany, Iran, Japan, Republic of China (Taiwan), Republic of Korea, USA and the USSR.^[1]

Several countries exhibits seemed designed to demonstrate their nation's lack of environmental care:

while other world's fairs had introduced the telephone, the escalator, and the Belgian waffle, Spokane's Expo '74 would be associated forever with the “institutionalized mea culpa.”

—Calvin Trillin, New Yorker^[2]

An environmental theme was never used before in any World's Fair up until that time (it was repeated during Expo 2005). This was the first fair in several years that didn't focus on space age, science fiction, futuristic themes, or utopian ideas of living with various consumer products in the future. World's Fairs were started at the beginning of The Industrial Revolution to showcase and demonstrate new products to the public. This theme idea was unique and would contribute to what would become the basis for future themes for other World's Fairs as consumer goods would be appearing in various trade shows on a more frequent basis (such as the Consumer Electronics Show). Kodak, General Motors, and Ford had pavilions at this fair but they were very scaled down in size and presence than the exhibits constructed for the New York Worlds Fair ten years earlier. For the first time since the companies creation, General Electric didn't have a pavilion at this fair but sponsored the musical group Up with People that performed during the Summertime at the fair. Pacific Northwest Bell had a pavilion that eliminated the use of air conditioning using louvered panels on the roof. They demonstrated the use of tty equipment and discussed the use of 911 for emergency services. This would be the last time that a Baby Bell would exhibit at a worlds fair before the breakup of the Bell System ten years later. One piece of technology did makes its debut to the United States, the Imax movie theater. The original theater built in the United States Pavilion had a movie screen that was 300 x 215 ft and completely covered the front wall of the theater. It was the largest indoor movie screen at the time and had bigger dimension than a typical drive in move screen. With the movie "To Fly" being shown, it appeared to many as if they were in motion while flying over places such as The Grand Canyon.

After the event closed, the exposition site became the city's 100 acre (400,000 m²) Riverfront Park, containing the former U.S. Pavilion and a clock tower (part of a Great Northern rail depot that was demolished for Expo '74), which prominently featured the park's logo.

Several structures built for the fair are still standing. The United States Pavilion still houses an IMAX theater built after the fair (The original one built for the fair beneath the pavilion was abandoned), as well as a winter ice rink that is put to other varied uses in the warm months. The "Sky Ride" chairlift from Expo '74 still stands as well, but not in its original place. It has since been moved to Adventureland theme park in Altoona, Iowa. The Washington State Pavilion still stands and is used as the Spokane Convention Center and the Opera House. The Carousel remains a popular attraction. It originated in Natatorium Park, which closed in 1967, and was restored for the World's Fair.^[3]

The original covering of the US pavilion was a thick vinyl sheeting that was not designed to last. It was allowed to remain until it began to deteriorate, become unsightly and was thought a safety hazard. When the city opted to remove the covering, chunks of the thick vinyl could be purchased as keep-sakes. The tent design itself with its heavy cables was not intended to stay up, however the people of Spokane voiced the opinion that it should remain as a unique architectural statement, and a monument to the 1974 exposition.

Entertainment and famous visitors[link]

Dance: Cheremosh Ukrainian Dance Company

Notes[link]

1. ^ ^{a b} Bowers, Dawn (1974). Expo '74 World's Fair Spokane: Official Commemorative of the Spokane World Exposition 1974. Expo '74 Corporation. 
2. ^ ^{a b} William T. Youngs (Wednesday, April 21, 2010). "Expo '74 and Earth Day". The Pacific Northwest Inlander. Spokane, WA, USA: The Pacific NW Inlander. http://www.inlander.com/spokane/article-14940-expo-74-and-earth-day.html. Retrieved 26 May 2011. 
3. ^ Spokane's Natatorium Park - Home Page

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Expo '74

• Spokane Expo '74
• A Virtual Visit to Expo '74
• Spokane Night Scenes, Riverfront Park
• Riverfront Park: Still an attraction 30 years after fair
• [1] Up with People history. General Electric sponsoring the group for Expo 74.

Look up expo in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Expo may refer to:

• Expo (exhibition), short for "exposition", and also known as World's Fair
• A trade fair, an exhibition where companies in an industry showcase and demonstrate their latest products

• Computer expo, a trade fair focused on computers and electronics

• Singapore Expo, convention and exhibition venue
• Expo MRT Station, part of the Singapore MRT Changi Airport Extension
• Expo (magazine), an anti-fascist magazine
• Expo (album), a 2005 album by Robert Schneider/Marbles
• Expo (Stockhausen) (1970), a composition for three players by Karlheinz Stockhausen
• Expo Channel, a home shopping channel in Australia
• Montreal Expos, a baseball team located in Montreal from 1969 to 2004
• Windows Live Expo, a social classifieds web site
• Expo Dry Erase Products, Sanford Corp's brand of dry erase markers
• Expo Design Center, a chain of high end home furnishing and decor stores owned by The Home Depot
• LG eXpo, a mobile phone

See also[link]

• Exposition (disambiguation)
• Exhibition (disambiguation)

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Pamela Z
Pamela Z speaking at Third Coast International Audio Festival 2005
Background information
Birth name	Pamela Brooks
Born	1956
Origin	Colorado, United States
Website	PamelaZ.com

Pamela Z (born Pamela Brooks, 1956, Buffalo, New York) is an American composer, performer, and audio artist who works primarily with her voice and live electronic processing.

Music career[link]

Raised in the Denver area, the African American Z received her bachelor's degree in music from the University of Colorado at Boulder, where she studied classical voice. After performing throughout Colorado as a rock musician under the name Pam Brooks, in 1984 she moved to San Francisco, where her experiments with live digital delay vocal processing began leading her down a different artistic path, and she changed her name to Pamela Z.

In performance today, she typically processes her live voice through MAX MSP software on a MacBook Pro, combining operatic bel canto and experimental extended vocal techniques with percussion objects, spoken word, and sampled sounds. Z has performed in such festivals as Bang on a Can at Lincoln Center in New York, the Interlink Festival in Japan, Other Minds in San Francisco, and La Biennale di Venezia in Venice, Italy.

Z has been commissioned from such sources as the Bang on a Can Allstars, Ethel, The California EAR Unit, the Robin Cox Ensemble, the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, and Orchestra of St. Luke's. Many of her signature pieces are collected on the 2004 Starkland release, A Delay is Better. In 2008 her work "Declaratives In First Person" was included on the compilation album Crosstalk: American Speech Music (Bridge Records) produced by Mendi + Keith Obadike. She is a member of the electroacoustic ensemble sensorChip and the interdisciplinary performance ensemble The Qube Chix, both based in San Francisco. Z has received numerous awards, including: the Guggenheim Fellowship; the CalArts Alpert Award in the Arts; the Creative Capital Fund; the ASCAP Music Award; and the NEA and Japan/US Friendship Commission Fellowship.

Other work[link]

Z is also known for her narration work in independent film and television. Her voice appears in several documentaries including Sam Green's The Weather Underground (2002), Hrabba Gunnarsdottir's Alive in Limbo, and the PBS station KQED's weekly arts TV program Spark.

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Pamela Z

• official Pamela Z website
• From A to Z compilation CD
• Crosstalk: American Speech Music compilation CD
• surround sound recording of Live/Work, commissioned by Starkland
• A Delay Is Better CD from Starkland