It seems that developers in Phoenix, Arizona wanted to get in on the Bjarke Ingels craze, and they certainly got in on it. Bjarke’s firm BIG has been commissioned to design a mixed-use observation tower in downtown Phoenix, for which they have proposed an instant icon of sorts, a spherical spiraling ramp propped high atop a singular piloti like an oversized lollipop, towering 420 feet above the Valley of the Sun. As the project description specifies, “the Pin” consists of a reinforced concrete core and an open-air spiral sphere, which will contain commercial and recreational spaces and, of course, panoramic views abound. Ingels cites Frank Lloyd Wright’s Guggenheim Museum rotunda as a reference, hoping to bring the same motion-setting mechanism to Phoenix, though lest we forget, the 20th-century architect already has a famous (but imperiled) spiraling ramp in Phoenix.

All images: BIG

[Bustler]

- Kelly Chan

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