Human Interaction With Environment Worksheet (Page 2 of 3) in pdf

unit seven Worksheet

Name ______________________________________

Lesson 6

theme human interaction with

Date

______________________________________

environment

Analyzing text: Read the excerpts titled Marking Territory, Using What’s There, and Making

Way to note the positive and negative impacts of the selection and construction of the Century 21

fairgrounds site on humans and the environment. Consider all stakeholders in this decision.

marking territory Not all civic seas were smooth, however. Legal and public relations wrangles

with Seattle attorney Alfred Schweppe slowed momentum, as the need to calm tempests with the Nile

Shriners, the Seattle Archdiocese, and the Seattle Public Schools.

The site contained some buildings that could not be torn down because of their ownership or prove-

nance, or because they might be useful. These included the huge National Guard Armory, High School

Memorial Stadium, Civic Auditorium, Ice Arena and VGW Hall. A small apartment house and an insur-

ance agency, both recently constructed, were eventually repurposed for world’s fair staff office space.

The newly built Nile Shrine Temple and the Catholic Sacred Heart Parish sat within the fair site, and

that caused problems. When Archbishop Thomas A. Connolly of the Seattle Archdiocese got wind of

the plan to acquire the parish land through condemnation, he summoned Carlson to his residence and

reminded him that a number of high-ranking government officials were both practicing Catholics and

(thus far) supporters of the fair.

Similarly, Harold Shefelman was summoned to a meeting of all the Nile Shriners’ past potentates.

Carlson went along to offer moral support and later remembered the group as “a pretty stony-faced

bunch.” The battle to escape the fair’s eminent domain take, Carlson recalled, “united these two

groups (the Shriners and the Catholic Church) for the first time in history. The fairgrounds footprint was

modified to exclude the parish buildings, and the Shriners kept their property, but agreed to lease their

brand new building to the exposition company during the fair.”

using What’s there Initial plans called for the demotion of Memorial Stadium. The school

district beat that down, but the Warren Avenue School lay in the very middle of the site and would

have to go. The National Guard Armory required modifications, especially so that the entrances

could accommodate crowds. Almost all of the 27 existing restroom facilities were designed for men,

so many needed to be converted for women. The uneven wooden armory floor, previously used to

accommodate National Guard drill practiced, required resurfacing. Attempts were also made to

improve the bulking building’s dodge acoustics.

The Ice Arena received improvements, including converting some of the its restrooms into dressing

rooms for use by visiting performers, adding an insulation cover over the ice surface to increase

spectator seating for stage shows, improving the heating and ventilation systems, and adding a

portable stage platform.

The Civic Auditorium was altered most. The Design Standards Advisory Board recommended that

a new concert hall and opera house be constructed with the shell of the old Civic Auditorium. This

saved millions of dollars.

Century 21 Exposition 1962 Seattle World’s Fair 50th Anniversary Curriculum

Human Interaction With Environment Worksheet Page 2