I've been thinking that in order to make downtown Evansville a place that people will remember and want to visit, the city needs to build a skyline view monument. Obviously, the problems up front are 1. Cost 2. height restrictions 3. building something like this that will make enough people want to come to Evansville to see it... Well I think I've come up with an idea that will satisfy all those questions.
I seen on the news the other day that Evansville is in a good place to be a sustainability center of Indiana and the Midwest. With this is mind, I think it would makes sense for downtown to go after sustainability companies like SIREN http://www.sirensolar.org/index.htm and create a center big enough to hold an area for tourists to come and see all the new products and iniatives from these companies, and an area large enough for green companies to produce products.
I was doing some research and I see that a windmill only costs $2 million http://www.oregon.gov/ENERGY/RENEW/Wind/FAQ_Wind.shtml which is pretty reasonable given that the LST platform was around that price as well. However, I would like to see a "wind monument" where the monument is a windmill but it’s slightly bigger so that tourists can go up in it like the Space Needle with an observation deck and maybe even a restaurant. The skyline view of the monument would give Evansville a green image.
Luckily, Evansville has great wind potential http://www.sirensolar.org/images/SolarPotential.jpg and the monument could generate enough electricity to power 330 homes which is why I believe that the city would have a good chance to bring in a private contractor to build this project since the electricity and tourist revenue would offset the costs easily. Next to the monument would be Wind Plaza where the city could put other green companies. Knoxville, TN has the sunsphere, Evansville needs a wind monument!
Here’s how I would pay for it: Private funding
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