More than 30 years after a Wall Street Journal reporter referred to Knoxville as a "scruffy little city," Visit Knoxville President Kim Bumpas says they want to get the ball rolling to make the Sunsphere reflect what Knoxville is today.
Visit Knoxville is preparing to team up with the city and the Public Building Authority to renovate the observation deck of the Sunsphere. The illuminated visitor kiosks were last updated in 2004 and local visitor Casey Kahm says it shows.
"We bring our kids up here quite a lot," said Kahm. "It really needs some updating. I think that we would get a lot more people up here."
Currently, some of the stations circling the observation deck don't display any information. Others featuring dated looking pictures and absolutely no interactive technology.
Bumpas says that's where the project will likely start, by updating the images and text teaching visitors about Knoxville and the history of the 1982 Worlds Fair. She'd also likely to see the renovation incorporate new technology and create an electronic visitor log.
She hopes to get talks underway by mid-December and says she hopes to see some changes by February of next year.
