Glasgow Tower - Millenium Tower

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Glasgow Tower

 

Today, Glasgow Tower is the loftiest tower in Scotland standing at height of 127 meters. It comes in second as the highest free-standing building, the tallest one being the chimney of the Inverkip Power Station. Its ability to rotate full circle from the top to its base earned it a Guinness World Record.

The Glasgow Tower resembles an aerofoil, much as the wing of an aircraft would look if it had been planted vertically on the ground. It is equipped with motors that are computer-controlled to rotate it in

the direction of the wind so as to lessen wind resistance.

Once known as the Millenium Tower, the Glasgow Tower’s design was the result of an international competition whose goal was to get entries for a design of a tower to be placed in the center of the city of Glasgow. This tower is the Clydesdale Bank’s spiritual successor as the former once stood on more or less the same spot in the Glasgow Garden Festival in 1988.

Upon its completion in 2001, it was hailed as Scotland’s tallest tower. Claimed by its website as "The tallest freestanding building in Scotland", it is not recognized as a building by the CTUH (Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat) because the structure’s floors do not come in succession from the ground even though its observation desk stands at more than a hundred meters high.