Designed for All Ages and Abilities! This captivating Virginia Beach Observation Tower is fully ADA-accessible, inviting visitors of all abilities to explore the spiral Nautilus Tower and other attractions year-round. It’s perfect for families, including toddlers in strollers, teens, seniors, and visitors who use wheelchairs.
For adventurers and nature lovers, take a thrilling ride down The Whorl Slide from the top of the tower, traverse suspension bridges, and stroll scenic trails teeming with flora and fauna. For an added challenge, climb the stairs or sprint up the tower! This attraction combines accessibility, excitement, and natural splendor, guaranteeing a memorable experience for all.
Benefits of the Nautilus Tower attraction include:
- Low staffing needs
- Year round operations
- Wide and diverse target audience
- Ability to operate extended hours
- High visibility attraction
The Nautilus Tower lends itself to a wide variety of programming. Operators can provide fitness options such as stair climbing, running clubs and upper deck yoga. The Tower’s spectacular views are ideal for social and corporate events, such as weddings, parties and team building. The addition of exterior lighting attracts attention to the structure and creates possibilities for theming around holidays and other special events.
Additional elements, such as slides and canopy walks, increase the value to visitors and provide additional revenue generating opportunities for operators.
Themed stopping points throughout the Tower provide engagement and education to visitors, as well as resting opportunities during the ascent.
Lighting packages allow for operation at night, providing additional visit occasions for guests who have already enjoyed the attraction during the day.
The Nautilus Tower is constructed from low maintenance hot-dipped galvanized steel and engineered for high wind loads. While the tower at Owl Creek Landing is approximately 65 feet, the Nautilus Tower is designed and engineered for heights up to 121 feet. Due to access constraints at Owl Creek Landing, the design of the Nautilus Tower is modular, allowing for transport and installation of the tower elements in virtually any location.
The Tower was designed as a lightweight structure, allowing it to be assembled using only very small machinery. In fact, all components can be transported with a simple ATV, if needed. This eliminates the need for helicopters or heavy cranes, which not only protects the forest floor from soil compaction but also minimizes the ecological footprint by reducing the use of steel and completely avoiding concrete. The Nautilus Tower is designed to be built in any location, even those that are environmentally sensitive, and it can be easily adapted for installation on a slope. Using the Spinnanker Foundation System, the Tower can even be removed or moved and the site would appear if it was never there.
Partners
- Philipp Strasser, outdoorconcept, Nautilus Tower Designer
- Peter Okonek, Spinnanker, Foundation
More information about partners
The Spinnanker Foundation system was a critical and innovative component of this project and the first commercial application of this system in the United States. Due to environmental and access constraints, a concrete foundation was not possible for this project.
Based on the root system of a tree, the Spinnanker system is engineered to deliver superior holding strength in almost any soil type. Threaded rods are driven through the Spinnanker anchor plate into the soil to absorb the required load. The number and length of rods is adaptable to the specific needs of the foundation. Should the structure need to be removed, the Spinnanker rods and plate can be easily taken out with no signs of damage.
We were able to use the Spinnanker system in place of concrete to carry the high loads of the Nautilus Tower. This innovative foundation allowed us to build in environmentally sensitive wetlands where the only access was a pedestrian bridge with limited load carrying capacity.
