The Waldspirale, in Darmstadt, Germany, which at first glance from above may appear to be a park, is actually an apartment building that reaches twelve floors at its highest point.

The fascinating building was designed by Friedensreich Hundertwasser, an Austrian architect and painter, between 1998 and 2000. Unfortunately, he died shortly before it was completed. Going with Hundertwasser’s personal style, the building contains Russian onion domes and few straight lines¹. The roof of the building is a green roof, planted with beech, maple, and lime trees.

The building has 105 apartments, as well as a cafe and a bar at the top of the spiral. Uniquely, the building has over 1000 windows of which no two are the same.

Flickr has many ground level photos of the Waldspirale.

In Tulsa, Oklahoma you can see the Bank of Oklahoma tower, which is a near-exact half-scale replica of the World Trade Center towers in New York City which were destroyed in the 9/11 attacks.

Completed three years after the WTC in 1976, the Bank of Oklahoma was designed by Minoru Yamasaki, who was in fact the architect who designed the original.

Like in New York, Yamasaki had proposed a pair¹ of towers, but for some reason only one was ever built.

At 52 stories and 203 metres tall, the Bank of Oklahoma tower it is almost exactly half of the World Trade Center’s 110 stories and 415 metres, but is still the tallest tower in Oklahoma.

Does anyone else have any replicas of famous buildings to share?

Wikipedia has more on the Bank of Oklahoma tower, and believermag.com has the full story of the building. Thanks to Kottke.

What is going on here in Grevenbroich, Germany? This shadow appears to be large human heads on a wheel.

It is actually a steel sculpture by George Ettl, entitled Ettlrad, a play on the German word, Schaufelrad, or paddlewheel. According to a translation of the city of Grevenbroich’s website, the wheel symbolizes the wheel of a coal excavator, with human heads rather than shovels.

The sculpture was part of the Landesgartenschau (Regional Garden Show) in 1995, whose principle is, “To heal the earth.” You can really see their smiles in this ground view photo.

Thanks to hati39 for the suggestion.

Here in Marfa, TX, we can see the patterns of 15 Untitled Works in Concrete, a massive concrete installation at the Chinati Foundation, a contemporary art museum conceived and founded by the artist responsible - Donald Judd.

Judd was a minimalist sculptor who purchased this 1.4 km² of desert in 1979 as a non-profit art foundation dedicated to Judd and his contemporaries, like the previously featured (1, 2, 3) GSS favourite Claes Oldenburg.

15 Untitled Works in Concrete actually consists of sixty five-metre-long concrete boxes, which are divided into fifteen differently arranged groups. The entire piece stretches nearly a kilometre across the desert, which might explain why it took Judd four years to complete!

The Chinati Foundation website has some good photos images of the work from the ground.

Thanks to Nathaniel, who has actually eaten lunch inside one of these pieces of art!

Kiwis in England? No, just a large carving of one cut out of this chalk hillside on the slope of Beacon Hill, Wiltshire.

The kiwi was created in 1919 by the New Zealand soldiers who stayed here awaiting ships to take them home after World War I. After riots began breaking out among the men, the officers put them to work creating this giant kiwi and the letters “NZ” - basically just to keep them busy. The enormous kiwi’s beak is 46 meters long, and its body is 6100 square meters.

During World War II, the giant bird had to be covered over due to its standout appearance and proximity to a military base. Subsequently, the poor bird was nearly lost in the 70s and 80s due to neglect, but it was cleaned up in 1986 and is now tended to annually.

Check out some close-up and ground photos of the huge drawing, or learn a little more about the real life kiwi at Wikipedia.

Thanks to Jens, Barbara, and Cocal!

It’s Volcano Week 3 here at GSS, which explains why all of our posts over the course of the week are very likely to be volcano related.

Mount Tambora is an active volcano on the island of Sumbawa in Indonesia, which is noted for the largest and deadliest volcanic eruption in recorded history.

The eruption occurred in 1815, and could allegedly be heard from over 2000 km away. Lasting 5 days, the volcanic activity removed 1500 m of the volcano’s height, sent 2.5 million tons of ash into the air, and left a 7 km wide caldera behind.

The massive amount of extra dust in the atmosphere actually caused the temperature to fall worldwide, and 1816 became known as the Year Without a Summer, when crops and livestock died in much of the northern hemisphere - resulting in the worst famine of the 19th century.

Some 10,000 people are thought to have died directly as a result of the eruption, but factoring in the related famine and disease brings the total to at least 71,000 deaths.

You can read more about Mount Tambora and the Volcanic Explosivity Index on Wikipedia.

Thanks to Tim, Paul Drye, and Pedro Cristian.

In the city of León, Spain, you’ll find MUSAC, or rather the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León.

The Castile and León Museum of Contemporary Art opened to the public in April of 2005 and showcases a wide range of visiting contemporary art exhibits; none of which are permanent. What is permanent is the architecture, which is a work of art itself with the dizzying zigzag pattern of the building. To add to the interesting external view of the museum, one side of the building is covered with panes of brightly coloured glass.

Inside the museum, in contrast to the rectangular-shaped galleries at most museums, there are instead large interlocking rhombus-shaped rooms that contain the exhibits.

You can see many more images of both the inside and outside of this museum at the Flickr MUSAC photo pool.

Thanks to bruv.