May 16, 2013
Let’s be blunt: In New York City, there are a lot of tall buildings. So much so, that the idea of a scenic view involves nothing more than gazing out your office window at the wall of buildings across the street, or down at the scurrying crowds of people below. Some people take a trip to the top of the Empire State Building for a panoramic vista, but honestly, who does that besides tourists?
While most New Yorkers rarely admit it, sometimes all we want is to flee the city and surround ourselves with nature. And, what better way to appreciate the natural landscape than from a tall observation tower. Today, we bring you five truly unconventional observation towers that, unlike the skyscrapers of Manhattan, provide unobstructed views of the surrounding scenery. Click through to see them all!
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May 2, 2013
On the Mur River in Austria, terrain: loenhart & mayr designed this wild observation tower that looks like something out of a sci-fi movie. Taking cues from the shape of DNA, two staircases rise high above the surrounding tree tops in a twisting double helix, meeting at a pinnacle platform. While the essential and omnipresent molecule has an organic tubular shape, the Mur observation tower is a jagged, zig-zagging metallic marvel that lets you see for miles and miles. Click through to see more!
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December 20, 2012
St. Louis has the Arch, Seattle has the Space Needle, and now Phoenix will have its very own dazzling icon to join its skyline. BIG has been commissioned to build a 420-foot observation tower smack in the middle of the city center. The enormous structure, which resembles a a sleek, white orb, will offer visitors views of the city below, the surrounding mountain ranges, and breathtaking sunsets. Decked out with a spiraling system of open-air platforms, this observation tower is a one-of-a-kind attraction waiting to be climbed by millions. Read more!
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January 30, 2012
Can you see it?
It seems that a rising trend in architecture is actually an older trend in magic: making large things disappear. Sou Fujimoto’s plans for a tower in Taiwan takes a stab at such a feat, using porous walls that allow views of the city to penetrate through the superstructure as if it were a curtain of mesh. Now, international practice GDS Architects are setting out to build what will allegedly be the world’s first invisible tower, an observation ‘anti tower’ that will be the first design proposal for a landmark that earns its keep by essentially refusing to be a landmark. More after the break.
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