Bird's eye view

Large viewing towers provide spectacular panoramas and can become popular tourist attraction in hosting cities

After years of preparation the Olympic and Paralympic Games come and go in a flash. However, stadiums built for the Games have a lasting legacy and take on a life of their own long after the Games has finished.

Montréal Olympic Tower attracts 300,000 visitors a year

Olympic facilities can also change the look of a city. Towers built for the Montréal, Munich and Barcelona Olympic facilities have changed their cities’ skylines forever and draw tourists from around the globe. Towers that have viewing facilities also change people’s perception of a city.

David Marks, one of the architects behind the London Eye – which takes visitors 135m above London – says: “Everyone loves a great view – it seems to be a universal desire to see the earth and its cities from exceedingly high places. It is a pleasure both to the eyes, and to the intellect, to seek out and find the reference points and recognise the landmarks, to make the visual connections, and to see wider horizons.

“The London Eye raises people to a great height, safely, comfortably and conveniently, before gently bringing them down again, but with changed perceptions and a new perspective.”

The world’s tallest inclined tower, 175m high and leaning at a 45 degree angle, is in Montréal’s Olympic park. The panoramic view from its 166m high observatory has earned it a three-star Michelin Guide rating.

The tower attracts about 300,000 visitors each year, Montréal Olympic park’s communications and public affairs director Sylvie Bastien told Host City. She says: “Studies show that tourists certainly enjoy their visit here. Climbing the tower in a glass funicular is the beginning of their experience. At the observatory, they can see 80km around Montréal in every direction and also have a close look at the stadium itself.”

Barcelona’s Montjuïc tower was designed by Santiago Calatrava

Bastien runs a campaign to attract tourists each summer. “This summer, the ads are in the subway stations, in other public places that tourists visit. There are also people giving ‘postcards’ to tourists in many areas. These cards offer a rebate on the price of the observatory,” she says.

A workers strike and technical difficulties meant the Olympic park was only partially complete for the 1976 Montréal Games. Work on the tower stopped at 72m, and didn’t restart until January 1979. Work was halted in 1982 for economic reasons – at October 31, 2005 the costs of building and completing the stadium, and other Olympic facilities came to CND 1.5bn. Work on the tower began again in 1984, and was completed in 1986. It was finally inaugurated in November 1987. However, Bastien says: “We would not build the tower differently [today].”

The tower, designed by French architect Roger Taillibert and built by Québec firm Lavalin, is made from concrete to 92m and is topped with an 83m steel construction. Its triangular base houses the Olympic Park sports centre and the tourist hall linked to an indoor parking facility.

The observatory is accessed by a two-storey glassed-in cable car with a capacity of 92. The journey – along 266m of rail – takes less than two minutes. In high season the funicular makes about 100 return trips each day, according to the Government of Québec.

One Olympic tower just got taller. On 5 April 2005 the Munich Olympic Tower (Olympiaturm), built for the 1972 Games, grew by 1.75m – a new antenna was added, which provides digital television to six million viewers in Munich and south Bavaria.

The Olympiaturm gets 600,000 visits a year, Munich Olympic Park spokeswoman Melanie Listl told Host City. The summer season is the busiest, with visits peaking during and after the Games. On a clear day, Listl says, it is possible to see the Alps – a mountain range 100km away.

Munich Olympic Tower is 291.3m high

The 291.3m tower, which weighs 52,500 tonnes, is situated in the middle of the Olympic Park. Facilities include a revolving restaurant at 182m, three visitor platforms at 190m, the Munich rock museum, a snack bar, several shops and telecommunications facilities.

The trip to the top, in one of two visitor elevators, takes about 30 seconds. The tower also includes a transportation elevator, and an emergency staircase.

The tower was constructed between 1965 and 1968, and first opened on 22 February 1968 – well ahead of the Games.

Barcelona did the double – two new telecommunications towers were added to the city’s skyline in time for the 1992 Olympics. The towers – the Montjuïc tower, designed by Santiago Calatrava, and the Collserola tower – were built for telecommunications company Telefónica and allowed television coverage of the Games to be beamed worldwide.

The Spanish multinational invested USD 700m over a four-year period to meet demand from Olympic organisers and, the company says, Barcelona had one of the most advanced telecommunications infrastructures in Europe by the end of the Games.

The 288m Collserola tower – built on Vilana hill in the Collserola mountain range – is the highest building in Barcelona, according to Barcelona City Council. It was designed by the English architect, Sir Norman Foster, in collaboration with Ove Arup & Partners, construction began in February 1990 and the Collserola tower came into operation in July 1992.

The tower is the telecommunications junction of Catalonia – 100 per cent of television broadcasts and 95 per cent of radio stations in Barcelona and its metropolitan area are emitted through the tower, the council says.

It’s not just a telecommunication tower – there’s a public observation point on the tenth of the tower’s thirteen floors. The lookout point, 135m up the tower, is 560m above sea level and on a clear day it is possible to see for 70km to the Pyrenees mountains and the Mediterranean sea.

A glazed 26-person capacity elevator travels up the outside of the concrete shaft to the observatory in less than two minutes. The observatory, with a capacity of over one hundred, has sealed glazing and is climatised. The area is also used for conventions and business meetings.

Other facilities include a maintenance lift, a reception area and an automatic cafeteria at the tower’s base.

The building is a member of the World Federation of Great Towers (WFGT), which promotes dialogue on issues such as improving tower management and generating more traffic and revenues.

Collserola tower consists of a concrete shaft – 4.5m in diameter and 205m high – a tubular steel mast of 38m and, a 45m stretch of latticed steel, according to project promoter and current owner Torre de Collserola. It uses guy lines for lateral support.

It took a lot of people to build the tower – with up to 300 people working on it at any one time. According to WFGT, the total cost was USD 36.6m.

Barcelona’s second Olympic tower – the Montjuïc tower – is located in the Olympic park. It does not have a viewing platform, however, it does have a distinctive design. The white steel constructed tower is 136m high and represents an athlete holding the Olympic flame.

The Galinsky website – originally set up by students from the US’s Harvard University graduate school of design to celebrate modern architecture – details some of the innovative features of the tower. For instance, microwave dishes are enclosed, which replaces “the normal clutter with a serene white arc”. The website says the orientation of the tower means the shadow of the central needle on the circular platform acts as a – rather impractical – sundial.