Tower of the Americas HemisFair
— the silhouette a world's fair leaves behind.
Not only on a wall.
Tower of the Americas HemisFair, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
Each tile ships in a kraft box, tied with cream ribbon, with a handwritten note from the studio if you'd like to add one.
Three or five different vistas, hung together — a chapter of places you've been, or want to go.
“Built as the theme structure for the 1968 HemisFair, designed by O'Neil Ford, the tower rises 750 feet above the southeast corner of downtown San Antonio. The shaft is a single concrete column; the disk on top holds an observation deck and a slowly rotating restaurant. From the deck the River Walk threads back into the city, the missions trail south, and the Hill Country breaks the western horizon. HemisFair Park around the base was redrawn in the 2010s into a working civic park. The tower keeps the skyline it gave the city. from the studio
The place, in three passes.
The Tower of the Americas was built as the theme structure for HemisFair '68, the world's fair held in San Antonio from April to October 1968 to mark the 250th anniversary of the city's founding. The tower was designed by Texas architect O'Neil Ford of San Antonio. It stands 750 feet tall, with an observation deck and a rotating restaurant in the disk-shaped house at the top. For thirty years after construction it was the tallest observation tower in the United States, until the Stratosphere in Las Vegas opened in 1996. The tower sits on the southeast edge of downtown, a short walk from the Alamo and the River Walk.
The observation deck is open daily, typically ten to ten, with tickets around fifteen to seventeen dollars for adults and lower rates for children and seniors. Two elevators reach the top in about forty-three seconds. The Chart House restaurant occupies the rotating ring of the disk and completes a full revolution about every hour. The 4D theater on the lower level runs short Texas history films included with the deck ticket. HemisFair Park around the tower, redesigned in stages from the early 2010s, is free and open. Yanaguana Garden, the children's play area at the north end of the park, is open daily and has no admission fee.
On a clear day the deck reads about thirty miles out. The Edwards Plateau breaks the western horizon; the missions trail runs south along the San Antonio River; the airport flight path passes to the north. Spring brings high cumulus and afternoon thunderheads; the deck closes briefly during lightning. Fall and winter mornings are the clearest, with the city sometimes sitting under a thin layer of ground fog while the disk is in sun. Sunset from the west-facing side is the busiest hour of the day. The disk holds its temperature against a Texas afternoon better than the open deck, which catches the prevailing southeasterly breeze off the Gulf.
