World's Fair - Aftermath

Aftermath

The majority of the structures are temporary, and are dismantled at the end of the expo. Towers from several of these fairs are notable exceptions. By far the most famous of these is the Eiffel Tower, built for the Exposition Universelle (1889), which is now the most recognized symbol of its host city Paris. Some critics of the time wanted the tower dismantled after the fair's conclusion.

Other major structures that were held over from these fairs:

• The Crystal Palace, from the first World's Fair in London in 1851, chosen because it could be recycled to recoup losses, was such a success that it was moved and intended to be permanent, only to be destroyed by a fire (of its contents) in 1936.
• The 1876 Centennial Exposition's main building is still in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, and serving as the new home for the Please Touch Museum
• The World Heritage-listed Royal Exhibition Building in Melbourne, constructed for the Melbourne International Exhibition (1880).
• The Museum of Science and Industry (Chicago), originally the Beaux-Arts Building for the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago, remains one of the most famous buildings of Chicago architecture today.
• The New York State pavilion at the 1901 Pan-American Exposition remains today as the home of the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society, and is set in grounds originally laid out by Frederick Law Olmstead. Across the man made lake on the Scajaquada Creek is the Albright–Knox Art Gallery, originally intended as the Beaux Arts Exhibition Hall, but not completed in time for the exhibition.
• The St. Louis Art Museum in Forest Park was originally the Palace of the Fine Arts and Brookings Hall at Washington University, are remnants of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition also known as the 1904 St. Louis Worlds Fair. The aviary in Forest Park gave root to the St. Louis Zoo.
• The landscaping (by the Olmsted brothers) from the 1909 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition in Seattle still forms much of the University of Washington campus. The only major building left from the AYPE, Architecture Hall, is used by the UW architecture school.
• The famous Plaza de España in Sevilla, Spain, used as the Spanish pavilion using the Ibero-American Exposition of 1929. Most of the Expo pavilions have survived, and have been adapted for other uses, with many of them becoming consulates-general for the respective countries that built them.
• The famous German pavilion designed by Mies van der Rohe for the 1929 Barcelona expo was destroyed, but later recreated on the original site
• In Brussels, the Atomium still stands at the site of the 1958 exposition. It is a 165-billion-times enlarged Iron-crystal shaped building.
• The Space Needle in Seattle was the symbol of the 1962 World's Fair, and the US pavilion from that fair became the Pacific Science Center. The Seattle Center Monorail still operates daily.
• The Unisphere in Queens New York still remains from the 1964 World's Fair
• In Vancouver, many Expo 86 projects were designed as legacy projects, of note are the Skytrain, Science World and Canada Place.
• The main buildings of Expo '98, in Lisbon, were completely integrated in the city itself and many of the art exhibition pieces still remain.
• San Francisco Palace of Fine Arts and the Japanese Tea Garden (San Francisco, California).

Other outstanding exceptions:

• The remains of Expo '29 in Seville where the 'Plaza de España' forms part of a large park and forecourt, and many of the pavilions have become offices for Consulate-Generals.
• An elevated railway with trains running at short intervals was built for the Milan 1906 expo. It linked the fair to the city centre. It was dismantled in the 1920s.
• The aquarium of Milan Expo of (1906) was built for the fair and after 100 years is still open and was recently renovated.
• The ICOH (International Commission on Occupational Health), was settled in Milan during the Expo '06 and had the first congress in the Expo pavilions. In June 2006 the ICOH celebrated the first century of life in Milan.
• The pavilions of Expo '92 in Seville had been reconverted into a technological square and a theme park.
• The M. H. de Young Museum in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park was a survivor of the 1894 California Midwinter International Exposition until it was replaced with a larger building.
• The rebuilt Palace of Fine Arts is all that remains from the 1915 San Francisco Panama-Pacific International Exposition. This can be seen on the fair grounds near the Golden Gate Bridge.
• San Antonio kept the Tower of the Americas, the Institute of Texan Cultures and the Convention Center from HemisFair '68.
• Among the structures still standing from Expo 67 in Montreal are Moshe Safdie's Habitat 67, Buckminster Fuller's American pavilion, and the French pavilion (now the Montreal Casino).
• The Sunsphere remains as a figure in the Knoxville skyline, left from the 1982 World's Fair.
• The Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago is housed in one of the last remaining buildings of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, which had been the Palace of Fine Arts. The intent or hope was to make all Columbian structures permanent, but most of the structures burned, possibly the result of arson during the Pullman Strike. Another survivor is the Norway pavilion, a small house located at a museum in Wisconsin. However, the foundation of the world's first Ferris wheel, which operated at the Exposition, was unearthed on the Chicago Midway during a construction project by the University of Chicago, whose campus now surrounds the Midway. Finally, a third remaining building is the Maine State Building, now housed at the Poland Springs Resort, in Poland Springs, Maine.
• The Skyneedle, the symbol tower of Brisbane's World Expo '88, as well as the Nepal Peace Pagoda of the Nepalese representation, now at the transformed World Expo '88 site South Bank Parklands, and the Japan Pond and Garden from the Japanese representation, now at the Brisbane Mount Cooth-tha Botanic Gardens remain from Expo '88 in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
• A particular case is the EUR quarter in Rome, built for a World's Fair planned for 1942, was never used for its intended purpose, because of World War II, and today hosts various offices, governmental or private, and some museums.
• The "American Theatre" on the Brussels Expo in 1958 was until June 2012 frequently used as a television studio by the VRT.
• The home of Satsuki & Mei Kusakabe, built for the 2005 Expo in Aichi, remains operating at its original site in Morikoro Park and is a popular tourist attraction.

Some World's Fair sites became (or reverted to) parks incorporating some of the expo elements, such as:

• Audubon Park, New Orleans: Site of New Orleans's World Cotton Centennial in 1884
• Jackson Park, Chicago and the Chicago Midway: Site of the 1893 Columbian Exposition
• Nashville: Tennessee Centennial Expo
• Forest Park, Saint Louis: Home of the Saint Louis Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904
• San Diego: Panama-California Exposition (1915) & California Pacific International Exposition (1935)
• Seattle: Century 21 Exposition
• Flushing Meadows Park, Queens, New York City: Site of both the 1939/1940 and 1964/1965 New York World's Fairs
• Montreal: Expo 67
• San Antonio: HemisFair '68
• Expo Commemoration Park, Osaka: Expo '70
• Spokane: Expo '74
• World's Fair Park, Knoxville: 1982 World's Fair
• Vancouver: Expo 86
• Brisbane: Expo '88: now represented with the South Bank Parklands
• Seville: Expo '92
• Daejeon (Taejŏn): Expo '93
• Lisbon: Expo '98 which was divided in several structures, namely Pavilhão Atlântico, Casino Lisboa, Oceanário and Pavilhão da Ciência.

Some pavilions have been moved overseas intact:

• The Argentinian Pavilion from the 1889 Paris was relocated to Buenos Aires, Argentina until its demolition in 1932.
• The Chilean Pavilion from 1889 Paris is now in Santiago, Chile and following significant refurbishment in 1992 functions as the Museo Artequin
• The Peruvian Pavilion from 1900 Paris is now in Lima, as home to the Military Academy of History.
• The Japanese Tower of the 1900 World's Fair in Paris was relocated to Laken (Brussels) on request of King Leopold II of Belgium.
• The Belgium Pavilion from the 1939 New York World's Fair was relocated to Virginia Union University in Richmond, Virginia.
• The USSR Pavilion from Expo 67 is now in Moscow.
• The Sanyo Pavilion from Expo '70 is the Asian Centre at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.
• The Portugal Pavilion from Expo 2000 is now in Coimbra, Portugal.

The Brussels Expo '58 relocated many pavilions within Belgium: the pavilion of Jacques Chocolats moved to the town of Diest to house the new town swimming pool. Another pavilion was relocated to Willebroek and has been used as dance hall Carré ever since. One smaller pavilion still stands on the impressive boulevard towards the Atomium: the restaurant "Salon 58" in the pavilion of Comptoir Tuilier.

Many exhibitions and rides created by Walt Disney and his WED Enterprises company for the 1964 New York World's Fair (which was held over into 1965) were moved to Disneyland after the closing of the Fair. Many of the rides, including "it's a small world", "Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln", and "Carousel of Progress" (since moved to the Walt Disney World Resort and updated), are still in operation.

Disney had contributed so many exhibits to the New York fair in part because the corporation had originally envisioned a "permanent World's Fair" at the Flushing site. That concept instead came to fruition with the Disney theme park Epcot, an extension of the Walt Disney World Resort, near Orlando, Florida. Epcot has many of the characteristics of a typical universal exposition: national pavilions, as well as exhibits concerning technology and/or the future, along with more typical amusement park rides. Meanwhile, several of the 1964 attractions, relocated to Disneyland, have been duplicated at the Walt Disney World Resort.

Occasionally other bits and pieces of the Fairs remain. In the New York subway system, signs directing people to Flushing Meadows, Queens remain from the 1964–65 event. In the Montreal subway at least one tile artwork of its theme, "Man and His World", remains. Also, a seemingly endless supply of souvenir items from Fair visits can be found, and in the United States, at least, can often be bought at garage or estate sales. Many of these events also produced postage stamps and commemorative coins. The 1904 Olympic Games, officially known as the Games of the III Olympiad, were held in conjunction with the 1904 St. Louis Fair, although no particular tie-in seems to have been made. (The 1900 Paris Exposition was also loosely tied to the Olympic Games.)