Archinect - News

Renovations complete on Einstein Tower, observatory built to represent Einstein's theory of relativity

2023-09-29T18:03:00-04:00

A solar observatory built to substantiate Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity has been reopened near the German capital after a renovation project to preserve it for future generations. [...] “The Einstein Tower might no longer be at the forefront of research, but it’s not a mere museum piece [...] Following its renovation it’s probably now in a better condition than it was when it was inaugurated almost 100 years ago”

Located on Telegraph Hill in Potsdam, 16 miles southwest of Berlin, Einsteinturm (Einstein Tower) underwent a year of renovations to address its many cracks and extensive dampness, and to preserve its domed zinc roof. The restoration cost approximately $1.2 million.

The structure was built between 1920 and 1922 by German-British architect Erich Mendelsohn in collaboration with astronomer Erwin Finlay-Freundlich. The approximately 66-foot tower was designed to represent and verify Einstein’s theory of relativity. It is considered a landmark in expressionist architecture, with its lack of right angles, organic form, and curved wooden staircase. Originally planned in concrete, a lack of materials after the First World War meant it was built using stucco-covered brick.

The tower is still in operation today as a working solar observatory, run by the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics (AIP). In addition, the working telescopes are the original ones installed nearly a century ago.

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Snøhetta’s Orionis planetarium debuts in France

2023-06-30T14:58:00-04:00

Snøhetta has revealed photos of its just-completed Orionis planetarium and observatory design in the northern French city of Douai.

The project opened in May following a three-and-a-half year construction phase and is defined by a pronounced desire to provoke continuous movement while encouraging users towards a rich multisensory experience on a site adjacent to the city’s Arkéos archaeology museum and Scarpe river.

Image: © Jad Sylla

The 21,527-square-foot planetarium is designed around two offsetting domes connected by a curving envelope that surrounds an elliptical interior courtyard. A landscaped garden path connection to the existing museum completes the exterior program while promoting biodiversity and linking various outdoor spaces together into one accessible whole.

Image: © Jad Sylla

According to the design team, materials used in the paneled curtain wall façade are supposedly inspired by the surrounding landscape and residential structur...

IAAC team’s mass timber nature observatory floats above a Barcelona forest

2023-05-16T12:13:00-04:00

A team from the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC) has constructed a timber observatory in a Barcelona forest to support analyses of nature. The group of students and researchers from the institution’s Masters in Advanced Ecological Buildings and Biocities program were inspired by the hanging walkways of American biologist Margaret D. Lowman.

Image credit: Adrià Goula

Located in the city’s Collserola Natural Park, and named the Forest Lab for Observational Research and Analysis (FLORA), the facility seeks to provide researchers a space to live and work in the forest canopy. Among the observatory’s facilities are a bird radio, bird houses, working and projection space, as well as bird watching spaces.

Image credit: Adrià Goula

The observatory’s design process began with students studying the biodiversity of the forest, including identifying various inhabitants from underground, aboveground, canopy, and sky levels. T...

Architecture of Mesa Verde's Sun Temple reveals ancient astronomical observatory

2023-03-22T10:39:00-04:00

It’s sheer genius...The architect did this with no known writing or numerical system, no computers. They laid it out with yucca cords and sticks. They were the Michaelangelo of their time.

A diagram of Sun Temple drawn by pioneering archaeologist J.W. Fewkes (National Parks Service)

David Gilbert digs into recent analysis by Dr. Sherry Towers who believes cliff-dwellings in southwestern Colorado’s Mesa Verde National Park comprise one of the most advanced astronomical observatories in the ancient world. Though at least some indigenous Hopi argue they were more places for collective celebration, not measurement, of solar and lunar cycles.

Inside Snøhetta’s choreographed observatory at One Vanderbilt

2021-11-03T17:09:00-04:00

Snøhetta has completed a four-story observation complex at One Vanderbilt, New York City. Titled SUMMIT One Vanderbilt, the architects describe the scheme as one which “calms the observatory experience with a choreographed procession of connective social spaces.”

Hallway. Image: Snøhetta

The opening of the observatory comes fourteen months after One Vanderbilt tower itself opened to the public, with a distinct terracotta detailed façade and angular crown. The tower was designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF), who earlier this year was also selected to design 5 World Trade Center, one of the area’s last developable sites.

Hall of Light. Image: Michael Grimm Photography

Snøhetta’s observatory sits more than 1000 feet above Midtown Manhattan. The attraction is accessed at Grand Central Station, with visitors passing through a wood-paneled waiting area and mirrored elevators on their way to the observatory’s entrance on the 91st floor. On arrival, an illuminated walkway named the Hall of Light...

Summit One Vanderbilt announces opening date. See the latest pictures here.

2021-09-20T15:59:00-04:00

A dramatic new feature is close to opening atop one recent addition to New York’s skyline.

Summit One Vanderbilt offers visitors of the Kohn Pedersen Fox-designed tower a multisensory experience as well as an attractive nordic-themed café and lounge in addition to stunning views of the surrounding city that can be taken in from New York’s highest exterior viewing platform.

Image courtesy SL Green

Snøhetta is behind the design of Summit One Vanderbilt’s 65,000-square-foot interior space and lounge called Après. Kenzo Digital’s Air gives visitors an option of two Matrix-like experiential spaces courtesy of Levitation boxes and an all-glass elevator called Ascent that extends to a height of 1,200 feet.

Image courtesy SL Green

“We can’t wait to welcome New Yorkers and visitors to New York to experience this truly unique destination right in the heart of Manhattan connected to Grand Central Terminal. People are going to want to come back to SUMMIT One Vanderbilt again and again.”

Image c...

World's largest astronomy museum opens in Shanghai with an interstellar design from Ennead

2021-07-12T19:42:00-04:00

A cosmic new museum is bringing out the stars in Shanghai thanks to a celestial design from Ennead.

The Shanghai Astronomy Museum opens this weekend following a five-year construction process that left client Shanghai Science and Technology Museum with a new outpost in the heart of the city’s burgeoning Lingang district.

Photo: ArchExists.

The New York-based firm’s plans for the 420,000-square-foot museum won an international competition in 2014 for its tripartite scheme comprised of a planetarium, IMAX theater, exhibitions spaces, and a new 78-foot-tall solar telescope that will make the research center the largest of its kind anywhere in the world.

Photo: ArchExists.

Sun, moon, and stars come together to make a smart reference to the three-body problem of mathematics. The curvilinear structure of the museum is meant as a reflection of the orbit of the planets themselves. The planetarium’s profile is choreographed to look like a moonrise. Heaven an...

Footage released of the Arecibo Telescope's dramatic cable failure and collapse

2020-12-07T11:12:00-05:00

The National Science Foundation (NSF), last week, released video of the Arecibo Telescope's cable failure and collapse. Part of the Arecibo Observatory, the telescope was completed in 1963, and was the largest single-aperture telescope until 2016. This year, NSF decommissioned the telescope following two cable breaks. On December 1st, the suspended receiver's supporting cables failed, resulting in the collapse of the entire assembly.

See the NSF-released video footage below:

Chicago's Aon Center will have tallest exterior glass elevator in North America

2019-03-19T13:13:00-04:00

In the next few years, Chicago's iconic Aon Center will be getting a shiny, new glass-sheathed exterior elevator that is set to be the tallest of its kind in North America. Designed by locally based Solomon Cordwell Buenz (SCB), the elevator — which will be tucked into the northwest corner of the tower — is part of the upcoming “The Observatory at Aon Center”. Construction begins this spring.

Courtesy of Solomon Cordwell Buenz.

At street level, visitors will first go through the geometric entry pavilion, which will contain ticketing functions, retail, and entertainment. Visitors will then hop into a pair of glass-walled double-deck elevators, which will transport them 1,000 vertical feet up the 83-story building in just about 60 seconds. The glass shaft will be anchored at every fourth floor of the tower.

Courtesy of Solomon Cordwell Buenz.

Once visitors reach the public observatory at the top of the tower, they'll be greeted by a panoramic view of th...

Empire State Building unveils new observatory deck entrance just for visitors

2018-08-29T18:01:00-04:00

Thankfully, workers will no longer have to wade through crowds of wayward tourists every day. A new entrance officially opened [Aug. 22] for the famous Midtown supertall, designed to accommodate the large number of visitors and create a more engaging experience. [...] The crown jewel for the new lobby is certainly the introduction of a two-story tall model of the Empire State Building in front of an illuminating blue seamless background.

"Poissy Galore" artfully frames green public space on the banks of the Seine

2017-01-05T13:27:00-05:00

Situated in Carrière-Sous-Poissy in France along the River Seine, "Poissy Galore" by Armengaud Armengaud Cianchetta (AAC) and Herlach Hartmann Frommenwiler (HHF) is designed primarily as an ecological public space for both Parisian residents and far-flung visitors. Consisting of an observatory, an insect museum and a visitor center, the project title is an apt play on the James Bond film, both in terms of its expansiveness and playfulness. The inventive timber construction and visually arresting angular framing is as much a part of the project's allure as its nuanced integration into its 113 hectare site.

As the architects explain, "With the exception of the observatory, which is a steel construction, the collection of pavilions and small 'follies' is based on a modular wood system, repeating and combining different sized and angled timber frames."

In addition to the public spaces, the project also has private offices and storage, including facilities to raise insects.

The latest in F...

Korea's tallest tower poised to rival Dubai’s Burj Khalifa as iconic tourist attraction

2015-11-09T13:49:00-05:00

LDF aims to grow the Lotte Duty Free Shop World Tower into the world’s No.1 duty-free shopping destination. [...] Lotte is poised to turn the Lotte World Tower into a tourist attraction that can compare well with Dubai’s Burj Khalifa and Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands On top of that, the company plans to make the Lotte World Tower the largest tourism hub in Gangnam by equipping it with the world's highest observatory (located on the 123rd floor (555 meters high) [...].

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Apple invites visitors to gaze at its 'spaceship' from new observation deck

2015-07-30T14:12:00-04:00

You’ll will still be able to gaze lovingly upon the ultra-sleek new Cupertino “Spacehip” campus — no drones required. Buried in city documents filed this spring are previously unreported plans for a new visitor’s center — complete with a store and viewing platform. Apple’s 2013 approvals for the massive project included the ability for Apple to build a visitor’s center, but a detailed project description had not been submitted until April.

Tokyo visitors will soon be able to watch Shibuya's busy crossing from high above

2015-07-06T15:58:00-04:00

Tokyo’s bustling Shibuya district will get a 230-meter high observation deck before the Olympics that could become more famous than its statue of Hachiko the dog or the “scramble crossing” by the train station, plans unveiled by Tokyu Corp. showed Thursday. [...] Visitors will be able to see the capital’s other landmarks, including Tokyo Tower and Tokyo Skytree, as well as Mount Fuji on a clear day.