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No Myopia When It Comes to Stupak Visions
January 11, 2010
Some roadside wonders wouldn’t exist without visionaries who insist on building them.
We were reminded of that when we learned that Stratosphere Tower in Las Vegas will unveil, in April, an attraction named “SkyJump.” Tourists who plunk down $100 will don a special cable-tethered suit, leap off of the observation deck of the tower, and fall 85 stories before touching down softly on a second-floor landing platform.
And that isn’t even the visionary part.
An article about SkyJump in the Las Vegas Journal Review mentions the late Bob Stupak, the man who built the tower. We last spoke with him in 2006, and he told us he wanted to redesign the tower’s casino to recreate war-torn Bahgdad “with explosions.” But the Journal Review story describes another, even better, Stupak idea:
“In 1996, Stupak proposed a ‘King Kong’ ride where people would scale the tower walls inside of a 70-foot gorilla. The gorilla would have carried 48 thrill-seekers about 670 feet above the street. As the beast descended, projections of airplanes would appear to attack him, at one point sending him into a 30-foot free fall.”
Sadly, Bob died before either of these visions could be realized. SkyJump sounds as if it will be great, but it won’t be quite the same as watching a 70-foot-tall gorilla scaling the tower.
But Bob Stupak was not alone in his genius. There are other, new heroes to carry the torch of vision — such as Guillermo Socarras, a developer in South Florida. He has a big dream. The Miami Herald reports that Guillermo wants to pay off the $39 million in debt currently owed by the Jungle Island attraction, then buy the island and then fill it with a 3,200-foot-tall skyscraper named Miapolis, the largest in the world. This “city within a city” would have the usual condos, offices, and rotating restaurants, but it would also have its own amusement park, wind turbines, a “dancing fountains extravaganza,” and an observatory.
Miapolis sounds as if it will obliterate everything in its footprint, which could be bad. But we’d welcome this new Visionary Champion — as long as it sets aside space for Jungle Island’s alligators and bicycle-riding parrots.
And a King Kong.
Sections: Attraction News, Coming Soon 1 Comment »
January 13th, 2010 at 9:38 am
“Miapolis” will be “The Statue of Liberty” for Floridians. It will be “more” than a tourist attraction. It will be “more” than a recreational destination. It will be “more” than tax income for Miami. It will be “more” than “a high-rise condominium”. It will make Miami “more” famous than all the buildings in the world, including New York!