flexiblefullpage
billboard
interstitial1
catfish1
Currently Reading

London set to have world’s tallest and longest slide

Cultural Facilities

London set to have world’s tallest and longest slide

Transparent sections will provide thrill-seekers with a view of the Olympic Park and East London.


By BD+C Staff | August 4, 2015
London, Anish Kapoor, Cecil Balmond, ArcelorMittal Orbit

A 591-foot tube will connect the observation deck on top of the 376-foot sculpture to the ground. Rendering courtesy London Legacy Development Corporation

The city of London recently approved a proposal to add a slide to the Anish Kapoor- and Cecil Balmond-designed ArcelorMittal Orbit.

With a 591-foot tube connecting the observation deck on top of the 376-foot sculpture to the ground, it is poised to be the world’s tallest and longest slide.

The project is based on the vision of the London Legacy Development Corporation, My Modern Met reports, in the hopes of creating a new tourist attraction for the city.

Bblur Architecture and Buro Happold Engineering have been called on board to execute the plan, which is slated for completion in spring 2016.

Stainless steel will be the primary material of the slide, and transparent sections will allow visitors to view the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and East London.

A single ride would cost $8 and last for 37 seconds, at 15 miles an hour.

 

Photo courtesy of cmglee/Wikimedia Commons

Related Stories

| Aug 11, 2010

Biograph Theater

Located in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood, Victory Gardens Theater Company has welcomed up-and-coming playwrights for 33 years. In 2004, the company expanded its campus with the purchase of the Biograph Theater for its new main stage. Built in 1914, the theater was one of the city's oldest remaining neighborhood movie houses, and it was part of Chicago's gangster lore: in 1934, John Dillin...

| Aug 11, 2010

Top of the rock—Observation deck at Rockefeller Center

Opened in 1933, the observation deck at Rockefeller Center was designed to evoke the elegant promenades found on the period's luxury transatlantic liners—only with views of the city's skyline instead of the ocean. In 1986 this cultural landmark was closed to the public and sat unused for almost two decades.

| Aug 11, 2010

Putting the Metal to the Petal

The Holocaust and Human Rights Center of Maine was founded in 1985, but the organization didn't have a permanent home until May 2008. That's when the Michael Klahr Center, which houses the HHRC, opened on the Augusta campus of the University of Maine. The design, by Boston-based architects Shepley Bulfinch Richardson & Abbott, was selected from among more than 200 entries in a university-s...

| Aug 11, 2010

Jefferson Would Be Proud

The Virginia State Capitol Building—originally designed by Thomas Jefferson and almost as old as the nation itself—has proudly served as the oldest continuously used Capitol in the U.S. But more than two centuries of wear and tear put the historical landmark at the head of the line for restoration.

| Aug 11, 2010

Let There Be Daylight

The new public library in Champaign, Ill., is drawing 2,100 patrons a day, up from 1,600 in 2007. The 122,600-sf facility, which opened in January 2008, certainly benefits from amenities that the old 40,000-sf library didn't have—electronic check-in and check-out, new computers, an onsite coffeehouse.

| Aug 11, 2010

American Tobacco Project: Turning over a new leaf

As part of a major revitalization of downtown Durham, N.C., locally based Capitol Broadcasting Company decided to transform the American Tobacco Company's derelict 16-acre industrial plant, which symbolized the city for more than a century, into a lively and attractive mixed-use development. Although tearing down and rebuilding the property would have made more economic sense, the greater goal ...

| Aug 11, 2010

Bronze Award: Alumni Gymnasium Renovation, Dartmouth College Hanover, N.H.

At a time when institutions of higher learning are spending tens of millions of dollars erecting massive, cutting-edge recreation and fitness centers, Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H., decided to take a more modest, historical approach. Instead of building an ultra-grand new facility, the university chose to breathe new life into its landmark Alumni Gymnasium by transforming the outdated 99-y...

| Aug 11, 2010

Fleet Library, Rhode Island School of Design

When tasked with transforming an early 1920s Italian Renaissance bank building into a fully functional library for the Rhode Island School of Design, the Building Team for RISD's Fleet Library found itself at odds with the project's two main goals. On the one hand, the team would have to carefully restore and preserve the historic charm and ornate architectural details of the landmark space, d...

| Aug 11, 2010

Gold Award: The Lion House, Bronx Zoo Bronx, N.Y.

Astor Court sits at the heart of the 265-acre Bronx Zoo, and its six Beaux Arts buildings were constructed at the turn of the 20th century to house exotic animals from around the world. When the Lion House was built in 1903, the brick and limestone facility was considered state-of-the-art, but as standards of animal care advanced, the lions were moved into a more natural setting, and the Lion H...

| Aug 11, 2010

The pride of Pasadena

As a shining symbol of civic pride in Los Angeles County, Pasadena City Hall stood as the stately centerpiece of Pasadena's Civic Center since 1927. To the casual observer, the rectangular edifice, designed by San Francisco Classicists John Bakewell, Jr., and Arthur Brown, Jr., appeared to be aging gracefully.

boombox1
boombox2
native1

More In Category



Museums

UT Dallas opens Morphosis-designed Crow Museum of Asian Art

In Richardson, Tex., the University of Texas at Dallas has opened a second location for the Crow Museum of Asian Art—the first of multiple buildings that will be part of a 12-acre cultural district. When completed, the arts and performance complex, called the Edith and Peter O’Donnell Jr. Athenaeum, will include two museums, a performance hall and music building, a grand plaza, and a dedicated parking structure on the Richardson campus.


halfpage1

Most Popular Content

  1. 2021 Giants 400 Report
  2. Top 150 Architecture Firms for 2019
  3. 13 projects that represent the future of affordable housing
  4. Sagrada Familia completion date pushed back due to coronavirus
  5. Top 160 Architecture Firms 2021