Seattle’s famous Space Needle, the famous flying saucer on a stick, is back in news after its million-dollar renovation. A sight to behold, the famous monument is almost like Seattle’s symbol of recognition for years now.
However, in the past few years, the tourist attraction to this place had come down drastically. Newer venues like the Olympic Sculpture Park, in all its beauty, was taking away the charm from this structure.
Other things like food and upkeep only added to the down run.
But the Space Needle is back with a bang! A $100 million renovation has done the trick. The 605-foot landmark, which drew two million–plus visitors to its UFO-shaped top storey, when it was opened to the public at the 1962 World’s Fair, has been revamped. The top storeyed Observation Deck has undergone a makeover and now offers visitors not just the thrill of vertigo-inducing heights, but unobstructed views of the city. This was made possible by placing 48 one-ton glass panels with the aid of attached drones. One level below, the restaurant’s rotating floor has been upgraded with a glass one—the first of its kind, according to project architect Alan Maskin—through which visitors can spy its 12-motor turntable at work, plus a bird’s eye look at the busy Seattle Centre campus 500 feet below.
“We were asked to really think big about what a visitor experience to the Space Needle could be,” says Maskin, principal at Seattle-based firm Olson Kundig and co-designer of the remodel alongside Blair Payson. “We removed walls, adding glass,” Maskin says. “We took security structures away, and made them glass. We even peeled the floor away to create the world’s first revolving glass floor.”
Newer attractions like placement of benches on the Observation Deck, serve as the ideal photography location, as they create an illusion that the photographer is dangling in the sky. A new circular staircase takes the visitors directly from the deck to the dining level below.
Definitely, a place to visit for its architectural marvel.