Located on the eastern Black Sea coast near the Turkish border, the port city of Batumi is the second largest in Georgia and the capital of the autonomous republic of Ayaria. The city is home to a major port and is a centre of trade in the region. At the same time, it is the most important tourist enclave in the country due to its location on the shores of the Black Sea and its subtropical climate. That is why the city’s authorities have devoted considerable resources to promoting tourism in recent decades. One of those investments went into the design and construction of a landmark building near the port, at the northern end of the city’s waterfront promenade: the Batumi Alphabetic Tower.
The architect Alberto Domingo Cabo and the engineer Carlos Lázaro, from the engineering and architectural firm CMD Ingenieros, based in the city of Valencia, Spain, and now defunct, were responsible for the design and construction of the Batumi Alphabetical Tower. With a height of 130 m, this tourist icon was conceived as a tribute to the uniqueness of the Georgian alphabet and the language that is based on it. This motif is echoed by the two bands that ascend and wrap around the structure of the tower, with the double helical shape of DNA, to hold in full view, at a height of 4 m, the 33 letters of the Georgian alphabet.
Two panoramic elevators at its centre take visitors and tourists to the top of the tower. A huge sphere formed by the assembly of glass triangles crowns the structure.
The space enclosed by the sphere is divided into five floors. The first floor is accessed by the two panoramic elevators that run through the structure, and from there other elevators take you to the rest of the floors. The second floor houses a television studio, whilst the third floor houses a revolving restaurant, which revolves every hour and offers diners views of the city and the Black Sea. The fourth floor is an observation deck, and from the fifth floor you can see the 50-ton tuned mass damper (a device to reduce the building’s mechanical vibrations).
At a cost of just over 66 million euros, construction of the tower began in October 2010 and was completed after just over a year. However, almost immediately after opening, the tower fell into disuse. The high maintenance costs of the structure and the building led the authorities of the Caucasian city council to lease the tower (reportedly for 1 Georgian lari or €0.36) for 20 years to an unnamed Spanish company. Today, the Alphabetic Tower is still in operation, with its observation decks, its elevators, and the panoramic restaurant on the third floor of the crowning sphere.
You can check out the details of its construction in this interesting video:
