Gary Curtis
Seattle World's Fair: Space Needle
Born March 12, 1937 in Portland, Gary Noble Curtis attended Benson Polytechnic HS and graduated from Walla Walla University in 1959.
He worked briefly with a small engineering firm in Los Angeles before taking a job in Pasadena, California with John K. Minasian, a consulting structural engineer specializing in tall structures such as television towers.
For the Seattle World's Fair, Gary worked as the Minasian firm's project lead on the foundation and top house for the Seattle Space Needle, and on other aspects of the Needle design.
References:
"Thursday at the Needle," by Knute Berger
*Century 21 World's Fair -- Structural Engineering
"Gary and Needle," Gary Curtis interview 2020
"Seattle Now & Then: Quickly engineering the Space Needle, 1961"
*Space Needle coming right up!
4/15/21"Space Needle turns 60: built (at warp speed) to last" by Clay Eals
4/21/22 "Space Needle engineer shares blueprints 60 years later" KING5
After 13 years with Minasian, Gary established an independent consulting practice, working on geodesic domes, towers, forensic engineering, and design for residential and commercial structures. In 1998, he went on with partners to establish the firm Gossamer Space Frames in Huntington Beach, developing patents for aluminum joints.
In addition to the Space Needle, Gary's notable projects include the Queensway Bridge and the Roller Coaster Bridge, a 450-foot long pedestrian bridge suspended from "roller coaster" structural frame, considered an icon of Long Beach, California. He also investigated the structural integrity of the South Pole Dome, after its sitting for 20 years on 10,000 feet of slow-moving ice.
In 2003 Gary relocated to Guemes Island.
Posted May 2012, updated 2019, 2021, 2022
