Symbolic of California’s leadership in energy policy, conservation, research and innovation, this concept for an observation tower in downtown Sacramento accommodates and surpasses traditional program uses, themed destinations and attractions. It transcends the visual icon and landmark to become a high-performance extension of the Sacramento’s urban infrastructure and a component of the regions critical emergency operations system and resiliency plan: the observation decks become the rallying point in emergency events of flood, fire, earthquake. It’s strategic location, marks the region’s Intermodal transportation nexus and the path of the future high-speed rail.

 

AMPLIFIED, as it will come to be known, hosts two observation levels: at 750’ with commanding views of the Capital and Capital Mall, downtown and Golden 1 Center and sweeping views southward to the Delta and San Francisco and beyond; and at 360’ (with a mezzanine at 390’) with panoramic views westward up and down the Sacramento River, northward over the Railyards, and eastward to Mt. Shasta, and the mountains at Tahoe.  Its base it is an active mixed use, pedestrian oriented place, sharing a public plaza with the historic Amtrak Station on H Street. A wide landscaped pedestrian bridge over the tracks connects The Railyards development to the north.

 

AMPLIFIED is a rack for energy collection and storage: solar panels, solar hot water tubes, and wind turbines that leverage the northerly Delta breezes. It will generate energy to offset the embodied energy required to built it, produce energy to support all energy usage, and store energy for emergency power, like a giant emergency generator. As renewable energy technology advances the rack will accept new systems.

 

Triangular in plan, the primary structural system is three steel vierendeel trusses.  Intentionally asymmetrical and dynamic, vs. symmetrical and static, AMPLIFIED reflects the shifting landscape of technology, economics and the environment, respecting the past and leaning into the future, grounded and evolving.

 

Based upon preliminary assessment of this conceptual project and AECOM’s experience and involvement with similar projects, the preliminary construction cost range is as follows:

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Tower Construction                $ 75M - $ 85M

Sitework and Landbridge        $ 10M - $ 13M

Total                                     $ 85M - $ 98M

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Unbuilt

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by Allison Grace Williams FAIA

while Design Director and Vice Principal with AECOM

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