View From the Sky
We Find A Building To Admire
The 20-story, 42 gondola Sky View Ferris Wheel in Atlanta takes you fully around its circle five times. The first time around is the best because that’s when it’s picking up passengers down below so there are extended periods of time when you’re suspended above the city and get excellent views of the surrounding urban landscape.
Little Bean wanted to ride the Sky View ever since we caught sight of it the previous day during an excursion to the Coke Museum.
She claimed it was her first time on a ferris wheel though it was more like her first time remembering being on a ferris wheel. Of all the things we did and saw in Atlanta, my bet is that the Sky View will be the event she most remembers.
Interestingly, the Sky View also ignited a curious interest in her - she kept talking about something she now calls her favorite building. From the Sky View, we were able to get great views of Atlanta’s tallest sky-scraper, the Bank of America Plaza.
Every time we went around, she’d point it out. Later as we drove here and there in the city, she’d look for it. After getting home, she asked about it. She took the picture you see here.
She’s never expressed any interest in architecture or really even one particular building or design over another, and I’m always on the lookout for these little curiosity reaches on her part.
But she liked this one, in particular the open lattice pyramid shape of the cone at the top of the building, which she said looked like a Lego building.
Turns out she has a pretty good eye. The building, at 55 stories, is the 23rd tallest in the United States and is designed in a retro-Art Deco theme. The pyramid of girders at the top is emblazoned in gold leaf with something called sodium lighting, which makes is very bright at night.
One of the building’s designers, Kevin Roche was, perhaps, one of the most famous modernist architects in the world. Over his career, he had his hands in the construction of the St. Louis Gateway Arch, the Met, the Bronx Zoo, Dulles International and a bunch of others you’ve all probably walked through.
Anyway, Little Bean picked a good one for her first architectural crush. What particular building in your travels has drawn you in and made an impression?
There was one in Hartford, CT that I would look for every time we went to visit my grandparents that I always called the Boat Building. It was all this cool blue glass and looked the bow of a ship. I have no idea what it was or if it's still there, but I can still see it in my mind's eye.