Tower sights in USA
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A
Coit Tower
Up the Filbert Street steps at Coit Tower, you'll find 360-degree views of downtown and wrap-around 1930s murals glorifying SF workers - once denounced as Communist, but now a landmark.
reviewed
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B
Campanile
The Campanile, officially named Sather Tower, was modeled on St Mark’s Basilica in Venice. The 328ft spire offers knockout views of the Bay Area, and at the top you can stare into the carillon of 61 bells, ranging from the size of a cereal bowl to that of a Volkswagen. Recitals take place daily at 7:50am, noon and 6pm, with a longer piece performed on Sunday at 2pm.
reviewed
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C
Crystal Pier
Up in Pacific Beach (or PB) the activity spreads further inland, especially along Garnet Ave, with bars, restaurants and vintage clothing stores. At the ocean end of Garnet Ave, Crystal Pier is worth a gander. Built in the 1920s, it's still home to a cluster of rustic cabins built out over the waves.
reviewed
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Carew Tower
- Cincinnati, USA
- Sights › Tower
Get a bird's eye view from the world's tallest standing pre-WWII tower. The 49th-floor observation deck has a fine art deco interior and affords magnificent views. You can look across the Ohio river to Kentucky or gaze down on Cincinnati's architecture.
reviewed
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E
County Courthouse
The Spanish-Moorish revival style county courthouse is an absurdly beautiful place to be on trial (or get married). Marvel at the hand-painted ceilings and intricate murals.
reviewed
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Morton Peak Fire Lookout
Jack Kerouac spent a summer as a forest fire lookout during the dharma-seeking days of 1950s American bohemia. Half a century later you too can get a taste of the experience during a night at the Morton Peak Fire Lookout in the San Bernardino Forest.
Back in 2001, the US Forest Service condemned the tower for demolition along with six others nearby. Loath to see a vital part of forest history disappear into memory, the San Bernardino National Forest Association corralled a league of volunteers who meticulously restored the lookouts and maintain them to this day. To help fund the project, they opened up the one on Morton Peak to the curious, stargazers and solitude-seekers…
reviewed
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F
Space Needle
Seattle’s signature monument, the Space Needle (originally called ‘The Space Cage’) was designed by Victor Steinbrueck and John Graham Jr, reportedly based on the napkin scribblings of World’s Fair organizer Eddie Carlson. The part that’s visible above ground weighs an astounding 3700 tons. The tower takes advantage of its 520ft-high observation deck – offering 360-degree views of Seattle and surrounding areas – to bombard visitors with historical information and interpretive displays. On clear days, zip to the top on the elevators (43 seconds) for excellent views of downtown, Lake Union, Mt Rainier and the Olympic Range mountains way across Puget Sound; don’t bother spen…
reviewed
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G
Columbus Tower
Like most SF landmarks worthy of the title, this one has a seriously checkered career. Built by shady political boss Abe Ruef in 1905, the building was finished just in time to be reduced to its steel skeleton in the 1906 earthquake and fire. The new copper cladding was still shiny in 1907 when not-so-honest Abe was convicted of bribing city supervisors, and by the time he emerged bankrupt from San Quentin State Prison, the cupola was already oxidizing green. Towering artistic aspirations found a home here, too. The Grammy-winning folk group the Kingston Trio bought the tower in the 1960s, and the Grateful Dead recorded in the basement. Since the 1970s it has been owned b…
reviewed
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H
Smith Tower
You can’t miss Seattle’s first skyscraper. For half a century after its construction in 1914, the 42-story Smith Tower was well known as the tallest building west of Chicago. The distinctive tower was erected by LC Smith, a man who built his fortune on typewriters (Smith-Corona) and guns (Smith & Wesson). Smith died during the building’s construction, so he never got to see the beauty that still bears his name. Walk into the onyx- and marble-paneled lobby, step aboard one of the brass-and-copper manually operated elevators and let it whisk you up to the 35th-floor observation deck for a great view of Seattle’s Waterfront. The ride up is as exciting as the view.
reviewed
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I
Dorchester Heights
In the winter of 1776, rebel troops dragged 59 heavy cannons to Boston from Fort Ticonderoga in upstate New York. On the night of March 4, they perched them high atop Dorchester Heights, from where the British warships in the Harbor were at their mercy. The move caught the British completely by surprise, and ultimately convinced them to abandon Boston. The Georgian revival tower that stands here today was erected in 1898. To reach the Dorchester Heights Monument, walk east along West Broadway from the T station, turn right onto Dorchester St and head up any of the little streets. (Or take bus 11 and get off near Dorchester St.)
reviewed
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Cathedral of Learning
- Pittsburgh, USA
- Sights › Tower
The University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University are here, and the surrounding streets are packed with cheap eateries, cafés, shops and student homes. Rising up from the center of the U Pitt campus is the soaring Cathedral of Learning, a grand, 42-story Gothic tower which, at 535ft, is the second-tallest education building in the world. It houses the elegant Nationality Classrooms, each representing a different style and period, with gorgeous details such as the red-velvet upholstered chairs of Austria; most are accessible only with a guided tour.
reviewed
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Tribune Tower
Colonel Robert McCormick, eccentric owner of the Chicago Tribune, collected – and asked his reporters to send – rocks from famous buildings and monuments around the world. He stockpiled pieces of the Taj Mahal, Westminster Abbey, the Great Pyramid and 120 or so others, which are now embedded around the tower’s base. And the tradition continues: a twisted piece from the World Trade Center wreckage was added recently. The unusual ‘bricks’ are all marked and viewable from street level. To learn more, dial [tel] 312-222-8687 on your mobile phone to listen to a self-guided audio tour.
reviewed
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John Hancock Tower
Constructed with more than 10,000 panels of mirrored glass, the 62-storey John Hancock Tower offers an amazing perspective on Trinity Church, often reflected in its façade. Designed in 1976 by Henry Cobb, the tower suffered serious initial problems: when the wind whipped up, some panes popped out, falling hundreds of feet to the ground. Fortunately, the panes were replaced and the design problem fixed before anyone was hurt. The top-floor observatory was closed for security reasons in the aftermath of September 11.
reviewed
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Palace of Fine Arts
Like a fossilized party favor, this romantic, fake Greco-Roman ruin is the memento San Francisco decided to keep from the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition. The original was built in wood, burlap and plaster by celebrated Berkeley architect Bernard Maybeck as a picturesque backdrop, and by the 1960s was beginning to crumble. The structure was recast in concrete, so that future generations could gaze up at the rotunda relief to glimpse ‘Art Under Attack by Materialists, with Idealists Leaping to her Rescue.’
reviewed
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Aloha Tower
Built in 1926 at the edge of the downtown district, the 10-story Aloha Tower is a Honolulu landmark that for years was the city's tallest building. The Aloha Tower's top-floor observation deck offers a sweeping 360-degree view of Honolulu's large commercial harbor. Beneath the tower is the Aloha Tower Marketplace. Today cruise ships still disembark at the terminal beneath the tower.
Take a peek through the terminal windows to see colorful murals depicting bygone Honolulu.
reviewed
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O
Freedom Tower
The ‘Ellis Island of the South’ served as an immigration processing center for almost half a million Cuban refugees in the 1960s. Placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979, it was also home to the Miami Daily News for 32 years. The top facade is one of two surviving area towers modeled after the Giralda bell tower in Spain’s Cathedral of Seville – the second is at the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables.
reviewed
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P
Eastern Columbia Building
The 1929 Eastern Columbia Building is a strikingly turquoise art deco tower that originally housed a clothing store and was recently converted into luxury lofts by the Kor Group, which also operates Maison 140 and other fashionable hotels. Note the gilded sunburst pattern above the entrance and on the tower's clock face. One-bedroom apartments rent for $3000 a month; Johnny Depp allegedly bought the penthouse for a cool $2 million.
reviewed
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Hoover Tower
East of the Main Quad, the 285ft-high Hoover Tower offers superb views of the campus. The tower houses the university library, offices and part of the right-wing Hoover Institution on War, Revolution & Peace. At the entrance level there are exhibits on President Herbert Hoover, who was among the first class of students to attend Stanford in 1891. The ride to the top costs around US$2/US$1 per adult/child.
reviewed
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Travelers Tower
Score the best views of the city and the Connecticut River from the observation deck of the 34-story Travelers Tower, named after its tenant, the Travelers Insurance Company, and once the tallest in New England. The observation deck is free, but only open from May through October, and you have to climb 70 steps along a spiral staircase from the elevator to the deck.
reviewed
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Seattle Center
The remnants of the futuristic 1962 World's Fair hosted by Seattle and subtitled Century 21 Exposition are still visible nearly 50 years later at the Seattle Center. The fair was a major success, attracting 10 million visitors, running a profit (rare for the time) and inspiring a skin-crawlingly kitschy Elvis movie, It Happened at the World's Fair (1963).
reviewed
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Begich Towers
Whittier's dystopian townscape is perversely intriguing, and thus well worth a stroll. Start at Begich Towers, visible from anywhere in town, where the 1st, 14th and 15th floors are open to nonresidents. Watching children playing in the cinder-block corridors, you can't help contemplating how much of your private business would be common knowledge if you'd grown up here.
reviewed
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Electric Light Tower
Electric Light Tower The centerpiece is a half-scale replica of the 237ft-high 1881 Electric Light Tower. The original tower was a pioneering attempt at street lighting, intended to illuminate the entire town center. It was a complete failure but, lights or not, was left standing as a central landmark until it toppled over in 1915 due to rust and wind.
reviewed
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Capitol Records Tower
On Vine, you'll quickly recognize the iconic circular 1956 Capitol Records Tower , one of LA's great Modern Era buildings. Designed by Welton Becket, it resembles a stack of records topped by a stylus blinking out 'Hollywood' in Morse code. Garth Brooks and John Lennon have their stars outside here.
reviewed
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Seattle Tower
Formerly the Northern Life Tower, this 26-story art-deco skyscraper, built in 1928, was designed to reflect the mountains of the Pacific Northwest. The brickwork on the exterior blends from dark at the bottom to light on top, the same way mountains appear to do. Check out the 18-karat-gold relief map in the lobby.
reviewed
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X
Buckner Building
Climbing Blackstone Rd from the museum, Buckner Building dominates the otherwise picture-postcard view. Once the largest structure in Alaska, the 'city under one roof' looms dismal and abandoned above town; the use of asbestos in the structure has complicated attempts to remodel or tear down the eerie edifice.
reviewed
