Coke Tower - The Soda Messiah Will Be With Us Shortly

They really knew how to do things right in '64. This alien cathedral was apparently re-purposed for the glorification of Earth's sugar water deity, Coke. Man oh man, is it cool.

Yes, it's made of prefabricated concrete forms, which is kind of lame. See those crucifix shapes that reoccur all over it? I see those on other buildings while driving around in my horseless carriage. The disappointment of off-the-shelf design elements doesn't bug me really, because the shapes are used as the design motif (ooh, fancy word) for the whole thing. Looks like those pointy bits round the edge spray water into the air. At least I hope it's water and not Coca-Cola.

So what could Coke possibly exhibit in their pavillion? Rather than try to make up some silliness about coke's history or illusory health benefits, they just talked about how great the world is. A cop out? Maybe, but you could also call it sensible. There was a Hong Kong Street scene, a diorama of the Taj Mahal, a Bavarian ski lodge, Angkor Wat, a scene in Rio de Janeiro and the world's largest electronic carillon, which was moved to Stone Mountain Park, in Georgia after the fair was demolished. I guess these attractions make more sense than showing visitors how sugar is added to water and poured into bottles, occasionally inhabited by accidental rats.

In Descending order of coolness, here's another, more realistic rendering of the Coke tower. The spire in the middle isn't nearly so tall as the other rendering would have you believe.

And then there's the actual photo. I guess it still fires the imagination, right? Right? The tower was 120 feet tall, which is, for instance way taller than me, but that first painting makes it look a thousand feet high. Wasn't that where Sarumon trapped Gandalf after they had their little slap-fight? "...and you can just stay up there and think about what you said about Coca-Cola, and no sneaky talking to moths while you're up there. Are you listening to me? You just wait till your mother gets home."