California's tallest skyscraper is getting a glass-bottom outdoor slide | MNN - Mother Nature Network
4/1/16, 2:12 PM
California's tallest skyscraper is getting a glass-bottom outdoor slide
Admission-based terror is certainly one way to make a nearly 30-year-old high-rise relevant again.
MATT HICKMAN !
March 2, 2016, 2:02 p.m.
Measuring 46-feet-long, the Skyslide at the U.S. Bank Tower in Los Angeles ascends from the 70th floor to a new open-air observation deck
on the 69th floor. (Photo: OUE Ltd.)
Spanning canyons, rivers and urban skylines at dizzying heights, glass-bottom walkways are the it thing in the knee-buckling,
stomach-churning, panic attack-inducing world of thrill tourism. Attendance figures on the decline? Just add a see-through
architectural element and watch 'em skyrocket.
However, the rising popularity — popularity that I, as a non-masochist and moderate acrophobic, have difficulty wrapping my head
around — of glass-bottom walkways, bridges and observation platforms have prompted some companies to take things a step
further …
Say hello — or hell no! — to the glass skyscraper slide.
Opening this June at roughly 1,000 feet above downtown Los Angeles is Skyslide, a 46-foot-long fully enclosed glass chute that
extends from the 70th to the 69th floor along the exterior (yes, the exterior) of the U.S. Bank Tower. Completed in 1989, the 72story U.S. Bank Tower — previously known as the Library Tower — is the tallest high-rise west of the Mississippi at 1,018 feet. The
landmark tower was designed by Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, the New York-based architecture firm founded by legendary (and still
active at 97!) Chinese American architect, I.M. Pei.
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California's tallest skyscraper is getting a glass-bottom outdoor slide | MNN - Mother Nature Network
4/1/16, 2:12 PM
A visit to the U.S. Bank Tower's 69th and 70th floors may now require an extra pair of pants. (Rendering: OUE Ltd.)
Those who wish to subject themselves to such an experience will need to cough up $8 plus the $25 admission fee to access OUE
Skyspace LA, an upcoming open-air observation deck described as the "premiere destination for panoramic, 360-degree views of
Los Angeles." The observation deck itself — mercifully not glass-bottomed — will be located on the 69th floor. A cocktail bar is also
set to open on the tower's 70th floor, which I suppose is helpful for patrons in need of some serious liquid courage before
propelling themselves down the side of California's tallest skyscraper in a 4-foot-wide glass slide.
Said glass, in case you were wondering, is 1.25-inches thick.
Those with weaker constitutions may want to limit themselves to the new indoor Digital Interactive Level, which will be located on
the tower's 54th floor.
Spectacular views and potentially vomit-slicked glass slides aside, OUE Skyspace LA, a singular experience that bills itself as the
"ideal family-friendly attraction, perfect for all ages," is impressive in that it will join the ranks of mega-vertiginous public
observation decks, even topping the observation decks found at the Space Needle (502 feet) and the Eiffel Tower (902 feet). There
are, however, a decent handful of observation decks that reach even higher including Chicago's Willis Tower (1,345 feet), the Empire
State Building (1,225), the CN Tower (1,465 feet) and, gulp, Burj Khafila in Dubai (1,821 feet).
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California's tallest skyscraper is getting a glass-bottom outdoor slide | MNN - Mother Nature Network
4/1/16, 2:12 PM
OUE Skyspace LA's open-air public observation deck will be the tallest (and most expensive) in California. (Rendering: OUE Ltd.)
And as I wrote yesterday, Italian architecture studio Carlo Ratti Associati was recently commissioned by an undisclosed client to
design an observation deck to end all observation decks. Dubbed The Mile, the observation deck-topped structure measures just
that: 1 mile (5,280 feet).
As for OUE Skyspace LA, the Los Angeles Times reports that it will serve as the pulse-raising, tourist-snaring centerpiece of a $50
million makeover at the U.S. Bank Tower. Singapore-based property group OUE Ltd. (Overseas Union Empire Limited) purchased
the glass crown-topped edifice in 2013 with the aim to attract new tenants and breathe new life into the nearly 30-year-old building
which had, prior to the acquisition, experienced declining occupancy rates. While a sky-high tourist attraction operated by Legends,
the same entertainment firm that manages the observation deck at One World Trade Center, may not necessarily attract
commercial tenants to the revived U.S. Bank Tower, other renovations and new additions at the building have helped up its hip
factor while attracting young firms on the hunt for distinctive DTLA digs.
Pre-sale tickets for OUE Skyspace LA are available starting March 18.
Via [LA Times]
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Matt Hickman ( ! @mattyhick ) reports on design, architecture and the intersection between the natural world and the built environment.
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