NEWPORT - Developers of the Millennium Monument unveiled a taller design Monday for their unique dual tower, which is planned to help ring in the year 2000.
''There's no monument like this in the world today,'' said construction company owner Wayne Carlisle, who is developing the tower with moving company head David Hosea through their DW Productions Co. ''It's got its own class, its own style.''
Instead of resembling the Eiffel Tower, as originally planned, the new monument will consist of two parallel concrete sides rising about 1,000 feet from the ground and tied together by steel in the middle.
In its fifth design change, the dual tower also will occupy less space than originally planned - just under one-third of a city block, instead of an entire block.
''The initial concept called for a bigger tower, but it didn't fit the scale of the community,'' said Friedl K.M. Bohm, chairman of NBBJ, the Columbus, Ohio, architectural firm that is designing the monument and a member of the developers' self-described ''Dream Team'' of architects, contractors and engineers.
The dual tower will rise 1,149 feet - including the needle at the top - from a site across from The Syndicate restaurant.
It will be built on the lot diagonally, facing the Campbell County Courthouse, so that it allows views of the Ohio River.
''What we tried to do was make it tall and elegant,'' Mr. Carlisle said.
The Millennium Monument will feature an observation deck at the 1,000-foot level, several restaurants and specialty shops, a museum with traveling exhibits, and corporate offices. Facing Monmouth Street will be a smaller tower containing an 83-bell
carillon that developers have touted as the world's largest.
Gone are the free-fall and gyro rides of the earlier designs. Instead, visitors would be able to take a glassed-in elevator ride to the observation deck at the top of the monument.
Other changes include reducing the six large clock faces to two clocks about 65 feet in diameter (one on each side of the monument), more landscaping, and development of a plaza area - where developers envision concerts and weddings revolving around the carillon, as well as other events.
Also new: a ground-level pavilion marked by six 45-foot-tall stained-glass windows depicting ''Man's Greatest Achievements,'' such as the Pyramids and the Eiffel Tower, Mr. Hosea said.
''We might do a little contest with Northern Kentucky kids to explore man's greatest achievements,'' he said.
The pavilion will house 1,999 non-ringing bronze bells. Mr. Carlisle said about 40 individuals and businesses have verbally committed to spend $20,000 apiece to get their names or corporate logos placed on one of the bells.
Near the base of the tower, the Millennium Freedom Bell, described by developers as the world's largest free-swinging bell, would be cast on Christmas Eve 1998. The 66,000-pound bell would ring for the first time on Dec. 31, 1999.
Mr. Carlisle said at Monday's Newport City Commission meeting that the new design would boost the monument's cost by million to $10 million, but was done to keep the structure in sync with the surrounding community and to create something unique.
He said developers have about 25 percent of the financing in place for their $90 million to $100 million monument, which they plan for the city block bounded by Fourth, Fifth, York and Monmouth streets.
Developers also are applying for a new Kentucky tourism incentive that would allow them to recoup up to 25 percent of the project's cost for up to 10 years in a sales tax rebate.
With the completion of what developers described as the final tower design, they said the financing and marketing of the project would begin in earnest.
Groundbreaking is set for early November, with excavation to begin in mid-January, Mr. Carlisle said.
Admission to the attraction is expected to average $9.50 to $10. While the tower is a for-profit venture, Mr. Carlisle said, he plans to donate a nickel of each admission to each of three causes: the Cincinnati Zoo, the National Organization of Christians and Jews, and a craftsman's trust fund ''for young people who might want to take up a trade instead of going on to college.''
Mr. Carlisle also said developers have talked to ''taxis and bus people about how to move people around'' the attraction. He said plans call for the monument's 1.5 million annual visitors to use parking planned for the $40 million aquarium that will be built about two blocks away, as well as existing parking in the surrounding areas.
''It looks pretty exciting,'' Newport Mayor Tom Guidugli said of the project. ''It's great for our children and our community.''
