World's Largest Rubik's Cube
Knoxville, Tennessee
The World's Largest Rubik's Cube stood at the entrance to the Hungarian Pavilion at the 1982 Knoxville World's Fair, which was best known for its iconic Sunsphere. The Cube, ten feet high and 1,200 pounds, constantly changed its color patterns thanks to a complex set of hidden motors. When the Fair closed no one in Knoxville knew what to do with the Cube, and it eventually wound up rusting beneath a freeway overpass. This dereliction of civic duty was exposed by Knoxville's newspaper, and the embarrassed city then had the Cube restored, repaired, and moved indoors for the Fair's 25th anniversary in 2007.
The Cube's custom mechanics remain a maintenance nightmare. It often breaks down, and languishes, motionless, until civic embarrassment fuels another repair effort.