The Century Project Restaurant Rendering - Image by MIR - Architectural Design by Olson Kundig
Courtesy Olson Kundig
A large spiral staircase is being built through the observation deck and restaurant floor of the Space Needle. It will descend into a glass oculus built into the floor.GENNA MARTIN, SEATTLEPI.COM
Jessica Longboy and Kalei Amion, who are visiting Seattle from Hawaii, laugh as they nervously sit back against the new glass walls of the Space Needle observation deck, Wednesday, May 30, 2018. The new angled glass benches and barrier walls give visitors a thrill.GENNA MARTIN, SEATTLEPI.COM
Two-year-old Roman Longboy braves the transparent observation deck during a visit from Hawaii with his family, May 30, 2018.GENNA MARTIN, SEATTLEPI.COM
Part of the thrill of a landmark like the Seattle Space Needle is knowing you are more than 500 feet in the air, towering above the city and enjoying the ample views that come with a perspective like that.
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And with their latest feature from the long-running "spacelift," the Space Needle team has taken that awareness even further: Glass floors on the restaurant level, so visitors can see all the way down to the ground beneath them.
The Space Needle unveiled their new feature on Thursday, the latest step in the $100 million renovation of the 56-year-old landmark. The restaurant's floor will still do its famous 360-degree rotation every 45 minutes, only now you'll be able to see what you're floating above, thanks to the glass floors (as well as the glass furniture).
"If you were sitting at a table (in the restaurant) on Labor Day weekend, everything you'd have seen has been changed," Dave Mandapat, director of public relations for the Space Needle said earlier this year. "You always hear 'take it down to the studs,' well we took it down to the original steel."
Glass floors are just the most recent new feature to be opened to the public; earlier this year the Needle also showed off its new glass walls and barriers, which give the tourist destination a more open look while also reflecting the most major update since the spot first opened in 1962.
SEE MORE: Space Needle trivia
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The Needle was based on a sketch by Edward E. Carlson, chairman of the 1962 World's Fair. After King County declined to fund the project, five Seattle-area businessmen formed the Pentagram Corporation to build it. P-I File
The Needle sits at the former home of the Central Fire Alarm Station at 223 Fourth Ave. N., shown here in February 1961.City of Seattle Municipal Archive
It took 467 cement trucks less than 12 hours to fill the 30-foot-deep, 120-foot-across foundation hole in the largest continuous concrete pour ever attempted in the West.George Gulacsik/Seattle Public Library
Because construction was completed in a little over a year (in time for the 1962 World's Fair), US Steel dubbed the Space Needle "The 400 Day Wonder." The nickname didn't stick.P-I File
At the time of its completion, the Needle was the tallest building in the U.S. west of the Mississippi River, taking the title away from the Smith Tower, a fellow Seattleite.P-I File
The Space Needle hairdo was designed by Mr. Paul of the Fifth Avenue Coiffure for the Washington State Hairdressers' Association annual show in 1961. Standing atop model Donna Edgin, the top of the plastic needle reached 8 feet, 5 inches high.Seattle P-I/MOHAI
You should feel pretty safe at the top of the Needle, which is built to withstand wind gusts of up to 200 miles per hour and a 9.1-magnitude earthquake. It also features 25 lightning rods.
A snowflake falls to earth at about 3 miles per hour, so if you're in one of the Needle's 10 mph elevators during a snowstorm, it appears to be snowing upward.GRANT HINDSLEY/SEATTLEPI.COM
SkyCity, the restaurant at the top of the Needle originally known as "The Eye of the Needle," is 500 feet above the ground. It was the second rotating restaurant in the world. The first was at the Ala Moana shopping mall in Hawaii
There are 848 steps from the bottom of the basement to the top of the Observation Deck. Take the elevator.Ted S. Warren/AP
John Graham, one of the two main architects on the project and the man who who produced the final saucer design for the Needle, also designed Northgate Mall, one of the first malls in the country.Archive Photos/Getty Images
The original nickname of the Space Needle was "The Space Cage." That didn't catch on, either.LINDSEY WASSON
A young Bill Gates won a trip to the top of the Needle in 1966 for memorizing chapters 5, 6 and 7 of the Gospel of Matthew.
The Needle was featured in the 1964 film "It Happened at the World's Fair" starring Elvis Presley, who brought a ham for Washington Governor Albert Rosellini (left) while filming in 1962.Seattle P-I/MOHAI
50 years later, the landmark was featured in the 2014 video game "Infamous Second Son."Screenshot/Sucker Punch
In 1988 Tim Firnstahl and Mick McHugh divided up their Seattle restaurant empire with a coin toss from the Space Needle.File/seattlepi.com
Seattle gunge icons Mudhoney performed on the roof of the Needle as part of Sub Pop Record’s 25th anniversary celebration in 2013.
The Wheedle on the Needle, subject of a children's book by Stephen Cosgrove in 1972, became the Sonics official mascot in 1978.
The original Needle was much more colorful than it appears now, with paint colors like "Orbital Olive" for the body, "Astronaut White" for the legs, "Re-entry Red" for the saucer and "Galaxy Gold" for the roof.
The roof of the Needle was painted gold again in 1962 for its 50th anniversary in 2012.LINDSEY WASSON
Don't worry though: beneath the restaurant is the bottom structure of the Space Needle, so it's possible your mind will be comforted by the steel structure and cogs under your feet.
Or, just don't look down.
SeattlePI reporter Zosha Millman can be reached at zoshamillman@seattlepi.com. Follow Zosha on Twitter at @zosham. Find more from Zosha here on her author page.
