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Mountain Bell Microwave Tower

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1972, Rogers-Nagel-Langhart. I-70 near Vail Dr.
  • (Photograph by Kathryn Holliday)

This $2.7 million utilitarian sculpture on the north side of I-70 is Vail's most visible landmark, a 110-foot-high, shed-roofed structure used to transmit telephone signals over the mountains. “Vail did not want the visual pollution of just another steel phone tower with microwave horns,” architect John Rogers explained in 1990. “So we preserved the natural landscaping and nearby aspen. We used native gravels for the tower's rusticated precast concrete skin.”

Writing Credits

Author: 
Thomas J. Noel
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Citation

Thomas J. Noel, "Mountain Bell Microwave Tower", [Vail, Colorado], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/CO-01-EA18.

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