Phoenix Observation Tower

Project Details

Project Description

Denmark-based BIG has designed another highly diagrammatic building, this time scheming up a literal pin dropped in the center of Phoenix. The proposed 70,000-square-foot tower will offer prime views across the Phoenix cityscape to the mountains beyond, with a concrete core supporting three glass elevators that carry visitors up 420 feet to a spiraling walkway that moves through the spherical volume at the top. Within the sphere, and along the walkway, will be flexible spaces for exhibitions, retail, and recreation. A restaurant in the lower hemisphere will feature panoramic views across the desert city, and a public plaza at the tower’s base will provide shade and further retail venues.
“The Pin becomes a point of reference and a mechanism to set the landscape in motion through the movement of the spectator,” Bjarke Ingels, founding partner of BIG, said in a statement. “Like the Guggenheim museum of New York offers visitors a unique art experience descending around its central void, the motion at the Pin is turned inside-out, allowing visitors to contemplate the surrounding city and landscape of Phoenix.”