Knoxville Buys ‘White Elephant’ World Fair Pavilion for $950,000

The U.S. Pavilion, a wedge-shaped “white elephant” left over from the 1982 World’s Fair, was auctioned to the city Tuesday for $950,000--less than a tenth of the $12.4 million it cost the federal government to build the facility.

The auction ended the General Services Administration’s responsibility for the structure, which was built to demonstrate solar efficiency during the energy-theme fair. The six-story steel-and-glass facility, with solar panels on one side and a huge movie screen inside, turned out to be energy inefficient and now leaks.

Knoxville Mayor Kyle Testerman shouted out the city’s offer against one competitor, businessman Rufus H. Smith Jr., who opened bidding at $750,000 and went no higher.

“It’s a strange property. I was delighted to see two (bidders),” GSA auctioneer Howard DeVane said after the public sale.

“The building in my opinion is a liability and has no good, sound economic value,” Testerman told reporters after he handed over a $100,000 check as a down payment. “It’s just a nice piece of land.”

The pavilion may be razed and its 3 1/2 acres fitted into the fair site’s overall development, he said.

The city’s plans to develop the 72-acre fair site are not firm. The Tennessee Amphitheater, where the sale was held, has been used for arts and music festivals and other festivities, and joggers and others use walks along a reflecting pool on the site.

The 266-foot, blue-and-gold Sunsphere, the fair’s ball-shaped centerpiece that once housed a restaurant, was vacant until recently, when a local art museum opened several offices inside.