Urso Chappell’s ExpoMuseum Blog: September 2010

14 September 2010

The World's Fair Podcast, Episode 17: Who Will Host Expo 2020?



Episode 17 of the World's Fair Podcast is now up. Who will host Expo 2020? Urso and John talk about the various cities that might be bidding in 2011 or 2012 for the right to host the next large world's fair after Milan's Expo 2020.

ExpoBids.com - with links to various news stories

Expo2020USA.com

Expo2020.us

LAExpo2020.org

2020WorldsFair.com

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12 September 2010

Artist Rendering of Expo 2020 at Moffett Field

Here is an artist rendering released today showing how Moffett Field would look as a world's fair in 2020.

Proposed World Expo 2010 at Moffett Field

...and a link to today's San Jose Mercury article:
http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_16044443

I have to say I'm really excited about the possibilities here. I like the ferry connection that would presumably link to San Francisco and Oakland... and wonder how the site could be linked up to the Caltrain Station across Highway 101. A temporary gondola ride over the freeway would be an interesting solution.

11 September 2010

Moffett Field

It looks like Moffett Field is the proposed location for a Silicon Valley World's Fair in 2020.

It's a great choice if it is available. This site consists of at least 800 acres of federally-owned land. It's already home to NASA, a gigantic awe-inspiring hangar (that they've talked about turning into an air and space museum in the past), some university buildings, and it's right next to the Highway 101 corridor that runs between San Francisco and San José.

There's talk that it could become a new University of California campus after the exposition. That wouldn't be unprecedented. The University of Washington started out its life as the site of the 1909 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition.

With all of the creativity and dynamism that is San Francisco and Silicon Valley, I think it would be an amazing event!

With Govenor Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Bay Area Council supporting it, it sounds like it would have the support of government officials (Democrats as well as Republicans) as well as local business. The only other factor is the general population. There will always be folks against any big plan, but I think the vast majority in the Bay Area will support it.

There's word that there will be a major announcement within the week. Let's hope we can find some money soon to support the bid.

08 September 2010

Schwarzenegger calling for the San Francisco Bay Area to host a world's fair in 2020

California's governor is in Shanghai calling for the San Francisco Bay Area to host Expo 2020, the next BIE-sanctioned world's fair after Milan's Expo 2015:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/09/08/BA7F1FA33H.DTL

This is fantastic news. This would mean we'd have both Democrats and Republicans supporting the effort.

I think we might just have at least two or three credible bids by United States cities for a world's fair in 2020.

04 September 2010