A glass-enclosed “skyslide” is being added to the US Bank Tower in downtown Los Angeles, offering thrill seekers the opportunity to glide down the building’s exterior. Called Skyslide, the glass chute will measure 14 metres in length and 1.2 metres in width, and will be installed approximately 304 metres above the ground below. “Visitors will experience Skyslide’s unparalleled views in a whole new way, as they glide from the 70th to the 69th floor of the US Bank Tower,” said the developer, Singapore-based OUE Limited, which purchased the office building in 2013.
A rendering from Skyspace architects Gensler shows a totally calm person casually moving through the slide with arms overhead like this is merely Splash Mountain and not an $8 near-death experience. ($8 Skyslide passes will be sold separately from the $25 Skyspace ticket.)
The enclosure will be made of 32-millimetre-thick glass panels. Renderings show the slide attached to the 72-storey building by a metal support system.
When complete, Skyspace will have a lobby on the second floor of the US Bank Tower, and occupy various spaces on the 54th, 69th, and 70th floors of the building. (The 71st floor floor will hold a new restaurant and the 72nd floor will remain office space.) Previous reports on the US Bank Tower’s Skyspace project anticipated a mid-2016 opening, so there are still a few months to muster the courage to ride this thing.
Designed by Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, the skyscraper was completed in 1989 and was the first supertall tower in the western United States, according to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. The 260-square-metre Skyspace will offer California’s highest open-air observation deck when it opens this summer.
all renderings courtesy of Gensler