Four years ago, architect Haveit Neox raised the Paper Tower over his ACC Alpha sim. At 175 metres in height, the Tower became a landmark for the region and the neighbouring Sparquerry, where more of Haveit’s fabulous works reside. However, all good things must come to an end.

In January 2014, Haveit took part in the LEA’s series of Interim Projects, and presented his Paper Observatory, indicating that it would replace the Paper Tower on the occasion of the latter’s 4th anniversary. And so it is that on Thursday April 10th, 2014, a special Carnival of Architecture will take place at ACC Alpha, during which the Paper Tower will vanish into inventory, and the Paper Observatory will descend from the sky to take its place.

Festivities will kick-off around 14:00 SLT, with a parade. Then, at around 14:30, free vendors will appear in the Paper Tower Court where the Paper Tower once stood, offering attendees the opportunity to obtain architectural attachments – walls, domes, columns, etc., – they can walk and fly around wearing and come together in groups to “build” their own versions of the Observatory. Then, as a part of the grand finale, the Paper Observatory will descend upon the Court and those in it, in – to use Haveit’s apt description – a raucous collaboration of performance art.

For Haveit, the departure of the Tower is something of an emotional event, and it took him some two years to come to the decision to take it down. “The Paper Tower is one of my pet builds – one of my first,” he says of the Tower. “Working on its grand scale and industrial motifs was an exciting new adventure in my new exposure to 3D building. I have many fond memories with friends, and with public events in and around the Tower. It is one of the last standing of my newbie builds.”

One of the problems with building tall structures in SL, as Haveit points out, is that while in RL they provide excellent platforms for viewing your surroundings, due to the default camera offsets in SL, when you build over a certain height, all that’s seen is the sky. The Paper Observatory compensates for this by having a translucent floor.

While the Tower will be taken down, it will not vanish altogether; although the observatory will occupy the space once taken by the Tower, the Paper Tower Court beneath it remain and continue to be an exhibition space, and the themes of paper and decay seen in the Tower are reflected in the Observatory’s design, which will be used to display scientific information.

Those wishing one last visit to the Tower can still do so ahead of the Carnival, although most of it has been cleared ready for the removal. While there, and if you haven’t done so previously, you might want to explore the rest of Haveit’s remarkable designs and builds within ACC Alpha and Sparquerry.

Related Links

Carnival of Architecture landing point, ACC Alpha (Rated: Moderate)