Your Ed Emshwiller cover painting for the day.

January 1962 issue, edited by Cele Goldsmith. Also features stories by J. G Ballard, Miriam Allen deFord and others. "The Mars Snooper" is journalism by the concept artist Frank Tinsley about a proposed type of atomic-energy-fueled rocket; probably happily, it didn't get too much further into reality than an Estes model rocket kit. http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?56381

I haven't read Bova's story, to know at all what his towers might've been inspired by (though Simon Rodia was another son of Italy), but the resemblance to a Watts Tower of the tallest segment in the painting is pretty obviously intentional...

The Estes model kit:

Did you ever fire off model rockets? I was just a little late for Centuri rockets, though had some Estes models. Lost one by putting a too-powerful engine in it, though watching it going up about 3000 feet was arguably worth it (it was one of the lightest, most basic models).