Hutchinson ? Visitors to the 90th annual Kansas State Fair that begins this week will see several improvements, including a permanent Sky Ride and the first tall “landmark” towers.

“Hopefully this sets the tone for what our fair patrons can expect from us,” said fair General Manager Bill Ogg. “We’re building credibility that we can be trusted to handle the city and county and state contributions the way they were intended.”

The $36 million master plan will even include green grass.

Fair organizers have also changed some of the events that kick off the 10-day affair that runs from Friday through Sept. 15.

Instead of a Main Street parade Friday, a grand opening at Gottschalk Park will feature fair dignitaries arriving aboard the new Sky Ride, a ski-lift-type conveyance on the fair’s east side.

“The parade wasn’t accomplishing what we wanted it to do be a Pied Piper to bring people onto the fairgrounds,” Ogg said. “We’ll try something new this year.”

The traditional ribbon-cutting ceremony also may involve a 300-pound alligator, the star of the free “Kachunga and the Alligator” show at Gottschalk Park, Ogg said.

The most visible changes to the fairgrounds include a new Sunflower North building identical to the Sunflower building built several years ago.

The Meadowlark Building was transformed from a utilitarian and aging steel structure to an air-conditioned copy of the Sunflower buildings.

The three buildings will provide about 84,000 square feet of air-conditioned space for fairgoers and vendors, as well as for events at other times of the year.

Two new towers will serve as guideposts for fair visitors, with more planned in future years.

“The towers at the fair will give fairgoers a sense of direction and a sense of place ‘Meet me at the tower at the Sunflower Building’ that may be lacking now,” said Kelly McMurphy, an architect with Landmark Architects and Engineers of Hutchinson.

The new Sunflower North Building will take in exhibitors and vendors previously housed in the fair’s two-story Commercial Building just east of Ye Old Mill.

The red brick Commercial Building this year will be home for a hands-on science exhibit called Wild Science that has been a major attraction at other fairs, said Lori Mulch, special-events coordinator for the fair.

Next year, the building will become a centerpiece food court, with walk-up food vendors and a sit-down restaurant on the second level.

Several of the small food-sale shops will be moved to create an open green area where fair patrons can relax and take in the fair’s atmosphere.

“We will open a lot of that up around the Old Mill,” Ogg said, noting that the green area will become a focal point in future fairs when the master plan establishes an east-west main corridor through the fairgrounds.

And this will be the last year the Commercial Building will be known by that name. After its $1.5 million makeover, it will be known as Cottonwood Court, with seating for 440 people downstairs and 330 upstairs.