Editing Century 21 Exposition (section)

===World of Century 21===
The Washington State Coliseum, financed by the state of Washington, was one of Thiry's own architectural contributions to the fairgrounds. His original conception had been staging the entire fair under a single giant air-conditioned tent-like structure, "a city of its own", but there were neither the budgets nor the tight agreements on concept to realize that vision. In the end, he got exactly enough of a budget to design and build a {{convert|160000|sqft|adj=on}} building suitable to hold a variety of exhibition spaces and equally suitable for later conversion to a sports arena and convention facility.<ref name=Thiry-oral />

[[File:Pavilion of Electric Power at Century 21 Exposition, 1962.jpg|thumb|Pavilion of Electric Power]]
During the festival, the building hosted several exhibits. Nearly half of its surface area was occupied by the state's own circular exhibit "Century 21—The Threshold and the Threat", also known as the "World of Tomorrow" exhibit, billed as a "21-minute tour of the future". The building also housed exhibits by France, [[Pan American World Airways]] (Pan Am), [[General Motors]] (GM), the [[American Library Association]] (ALA), and [[RCA]], as well as a Washington state tourist center.<ref name=Threshold>''Official Guide Book'', pp. 26–34.</ref>

In "The Threshold and the Threat", visitors rode a "[[Bubbleator]]" into the "world of tomorrow". Music "from another world" and a shifting pattern of lights accompanied them on a 40-second upward journey to a starry space bathed in golden light. Then they were faced briefly with an image of a desperate family in a [[fallout shelter]], which vanished and was replaced by a series of images reflecting the sweep of history, starting with the [[Acropolis]] and ending with an image of [[Marilyn Monroe]].<ref name=Threshold />

Next, visitors were beckoned into a cluster of cubes containing a model of a "city of the future" (which a few landmarks clearly indicated as Seattle) and its suburban and rural surroundings, seen first by day and later by night. The next cluster of cubes zoomed in on a vision of a high-tech, future home in a sylvan setting (and a commuter [[gyrocopter]]); a series of projections contrasted this "best of the future" to "the worst of the present" (over-uniform suburbs, a dreary urban housing project).<ref name=Threshold />
[[File:General Motors exhibit at Century 21 Exposition, 1962.jpg|thumb|GM's Firebird III]]
The exhibit continued with a vision of future transportation (centered on a [[monorail]] and high-speed "air cars" on an electrically controlled highway). There was also an "[[office of the future]]", a climate-controlled "farm factory", an automated offshore [[kelp]] and [[plankton]] harvesting farm, a vision of the schools of the future with "electronic storehouses of knowledge", and a vision of the many recreations that technology would free humans to pursue.<ref name=Threshold />

Finally, the tour ended with a symbolic sculptural tree and the reappearance of the family in the fallout shelter and the sound of a ticking clock, a brief silence, an extract from [[s:John F. Kennedy's Inaugural Address|President Kennedy's Inaugural Address]], followed by a further "symphony of music and color".<ref name=Threshold />

Under the same roof, the ALA exhibited a "library of the future" (centered on a [[Univac]] computer). GM exhibited its vision for highways and vehicles of the future (the latter including the [[General Motors Firebird#Firebird III|Firebird III]]). Pan Am exhibited a giant globe that emphasized the notion that we had come to be able to think of distances between major world cities in hours and minutes rather than in terms of chancy voyages over great distances. RCA (which produced "The Threshold and the Threat") exhibited television, radio, and stereo technology, as well as its involvement in space. The French government had an exhibit with its own take on technological progress. Finally, a Washington state tourist center provided information for fair-goers wishing to tour the state.<ref>''Official Guide Book'', pp. 35–40.</ref>