Birminghams tower of fun!

This has been proposed in Birmingham and looks like going ahead-very las vegas..

Birmingham looks set to join the space age with new proposals by Pettifer Estates for a striking new fun palace or Vertiplex called VTP200.

Reminiscent of a Tripod from the eponymous sci-fi novels, the design has three feet on the podium with structural cross-bracing and lifts running up the side of them towards the head of the tower shaped almost like a motorcycle helmet.

The tower stands above a base that includes a new hotel of 250 rooms and multi-storey parking.

It’s been designed by RTKL Architects who have previously worked on earlier designs for the scheme including the now junked 175 metre tall Pinnacle, the building is designed as a vertical fun palace that offers not only the usual viewing platforms of 117 metres, 121 metres and 125 metres but also a variety of white-knuckle activities for its visitors who will be able to reach 200 metres.

There will be the main viewing area that will offer views of up to 33 miles on a clear day in the revolving glass gyro tower that rises up and down a main shaft to a height of 190 metres. This will be accessed from the lower levels by three scenic glass lifts that can carry up to 25 passengers each.

Amongst the rides include the Great Drop, a 95m high free-falling lift that will be the tallest in Europe, the See Saw, an 8 person capsule that falls off the edge of the tower from 125 metres, and Flight Trainer, 20 networked flight simulators where you can pretend to be Maverick as played Tom Cruise who is not gay and feel the need for speed.

For the even madder there is the Walk of Fear that involves being hooked on a harness and literally walking around the edge of the building with no railings.

The sharp eyed will have noticed people scaling to the very pinnacle of the tower in the images and you will be able to do this with the imaginatively entitled Climb to the Top that reaches a respectable 200 metres.

There will also be a Sky Jump where you get attached to a winch and then freefall 100 metres, the longest bungee jump in the U.K and a climbing wall.

Romantic couples who don’t care about heights will be able to take this to the limit as the developers of VTP200 plan to get a license so they can conduct weddings on the premises.

Pettifer Estates aim to submit a planning application this November and hope that the scheme can be open for the public in the summer of 2010.