In fact, they could see much more than they ever had before. Because we could study it in model form, we realized that we were widening the lens in the pupil of the visitor’s eye. It became the most significant material we used on the project. And in every instance of removing, we added glass. We even peeled up the floor and looked at what it was like if that was taken away as well.
#SEATTLE SPACE NEEDLE WINDOWS#
We took strip windows and made them floor to ceiling openings.
![seattle space needle seattle space needle](https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uVlxRwO17zo/WPxS8k_vWhI/AAAAAAABhes/FIUptAp-mwo4ZePbciGYzhHO4KP4UCHTgCLcB/s1600/Space%2BNeedle%2BSeattle%2BMunicipal%2BArchives.jpg)
So we started to hit the delete button, and we took off the security cages, pony walls, actual walls. What happened over the past 60 years is that many things had been added: walls, strip windows, security cages. And that, in our minds, was still the primary goal. So based on our research about what the original architects wanted to do, they wanted to provide these pure, unadulterated, expansive views of the city. We built a 3D model of the existing conditions and because it's on the computer, you can hit the delete button. The results? The world’s first rotating glass floor, a multilevel visitor experience, and more views of the tower (and from the tower) than ever before.ĪM: More than anything else, more than any particular piece of architecture, we wanted to change the experience. So when his firm was eventually hired to renovate the landmark tower’s outdated observation deck, a $100 million project that was recently revealed to the public, maintaining its design intent-and sweeping vistas-was key: “The truth of the matter is that everyone here thinks that the Space Needle is theirs, and so there is a responsibility to the people that live here to take really good care of the icon of the city,” Maskin says. “Its cultural identity really is intrinsically linked,” he states. When the 605-foot-tall (from base to spire) Space Needle was edited out of the image, only approximately 7 percent could. Upon viewing a photograph of the Seattle skyline, 87 percent of people could identify the city, recalls Alan Maskin, principal at AD100 architecture firm Olson Kundig. Tip: You’ll pay $6 to $10 less for your admission if you visit during the first 2 hours of opening or the last two hours before closing.During the process to redesign Seattle’s Space Needle, the team conducted a perception study.
![seattle space needle seattle space needle](https://ssl.cdn-redfin.com/photo/1/bigphoto/895/1975895_0.jpg)
(If you purchased a Seattle CityPass, you get to skip the long line.) A revolving restaurant, Sk圜ity, provides a memorable but very pricey spot to dine atop the observation deck (but the price of admission to the Space Needle is included if you dine there). The lines in summer and on weekends can be really long, so it’s wise to get there early the admission price allows you to return in the evening to see Seattle at night. More than 60 sites are identified on wall panels, and high-powered telescopes let you zoom in on them. Once you finally get into the glass elevator, you’ll zoom up 520 feet to an observation deck that provides superb and unobstructed views of the entire city and its surroundings.
![seattle space needle seattle space needle](https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/ROYAAOSwTYhi4VhP/s-l500.png)
From a distance, it looks like a flying saucer on a tripod, and when it was built for the 1962 World’s Fair, the 605-foot-tall Space Needle was meant to suggest “the future” (today it definitely looks retro). I’m quite fond of the old Space Needle and have never forgotten the scary thrill of being taken up to the top of it as a kid. So you could say that the Space Needle is Seattle’s Eiffel Tower. This is one of those iconic structures that architecturally epitomize an era-in this case, the early 1960s-and come to symbolize a city.