The Spire

**The Spire** is the main administrative, official headquarters and symbolical building of Canter Aperture Industries. It is located in the National Headquarters Complex in District Ailer within The Capitol, Cantersfield, Armonia and is the world's tallest building at 4,000ft tall (1219m). The building was designed by James Houlahan and constructed by Canter Aperture Construction (before it was rebranded as CAX AECOM) in 2014. It is surrounded by and partially attached via underground tunnels to the Science Ring.

## History

The building was originally conceptualised by James Houlahan in 2012 while making the original plans for Armonia and was officially constructed after Holographic Manufacturing in 2014 at an initial height of 3,000ft tall (914m). It closely resembles the Shard in London which Houlahan claims was a heavy inspiration during the design process. While need-based expansion was factored into the modular design, the rate at which Canter Aperture expanded has prompted 2 emergency relocations throughout the 4 years that the building has been operational, involving departments moving and out of temporary skyscrapers on Pharos (which parks next to Ailer in the Adelphi Bay) causing disjointment. The building was expanded from 3,000 to 4,000ft over the 2017 winter break in order to prevent relocation from reoccurring again.

## Architecture and Design

### Exterior

The building is located on Washington Street in District Ailer and is surrounded by the Science Ring, which was designed to also serve as a protective barrier and guard fence for the building. Inside of the ring is a very natural setting, with many trees, grassy knolls, rivers, lakes, and waterfalls called "The Courtyard". This area serves as a large employee relaxation area, and acts similarly to a college common courtyard with many "on-campus organisations" and other companies promoting onsite. It also has many outside dining halls. It is divided into four quadrants (NE, NW, SE, and SW) coordinating with the Science Ring's four separated buildings. Above The Courtyard is a force field that serves both as weather protection (to keep rain out) and as a security measure to prevent people from gaining access to The Spire from above. There are only two roads leading into the building, one that leads from Washington Street that ends in a roundabout at the south entrance and another that leads to a drop off zone at the north entrance. All other roads on the property lead underground to the parking garages.

### Design

The building looks very much like the Shard in London. It is constructed with tempered-blasted white glass windows that are bulletproof, the can either retain or expel heat depending on the season and the temperature. The building is designed to be modular in order to accommodate company expansion, with a starting base height of 3,000ft and a maximum height of 9,000ft. Canter Aperture has avoided constructed modules in the past, as they are costly and can only been constructed if the building is closed during winter break requiring a tight and stressful construction schedule. Module 1 was added during the 2017 winter break which made the new height of the building 4,000ft. This was prompted by the need for expansion (which had been put off twice prompting relocations) as well as the construction of the Jeddah Tower, which would be 200ft taller than The Spire.

The building's base and pylons extended thousands of feet below the surface of the city and are made out of an unknown advanced concrete.

The building has four elevator blocks, one for each side of the building. The north, east, and west blocks have 5 elevators each, and the south has 7. Elevators South 4, 5 and 6 are reserved for the Observation Deck and tours. The elevators are designed to move up to 120mph above ground and 150mph below ground.

The Spire also has a HoloZip system which runs directly from the 434th floor to the top of Capitol Command.

### Security Features

In addition to the indestructible windows, the building has many advanced security features in order to prevent terrorist attacks, intrusion, or attempted capture.

* Biological and radiation filters in the air ducts and in all corridors.
* Pressurised stair wells and elevator shafts.
* A separate stairwell system for firefighters.
* Anti-aircraft guns on the roof and at the surface of the building.
* Suction fire suppression system.
* Emergency anti-explosion doors at bulkheads and windows.
* All vehicles and employees are scanned before entering the building.

Like Capitol Command, The Spire also has a specialised "HoloZip" emergency evacuation system. During a fire or other emergency, certain designated windows will retract into the building and employees get into slings and are sent off the end of the building to a safety point outside off of Ailer. This system is normally engaged once a year during fire drills. It has only been used once in practice during the 2018 America's First Protest to safely evacuate employees from The Spire at the end of the work day to avoid attack.

### Sustainability

The Spire has been consistently ranked as the greenest building in the world since its construction. It's windows have solar photovoltaic cells which generates electricity, and water from the sinks are recycled as toilet water after particle filtration. Like the rest of Armonia, plastic straws are banned, and paper and metal straws are highly encouraged while plastic water bottles are highly discouraged. Metal straws and water bottles are given out to employees by Canter Aperture to promote hydration as well as environmental consciousness. Employees are also able to customise their own metal straws for free in the Employee Exchange and cleaning machines are located in each break room for them.

Paper is also recycled through a separate system in the basement of the building. After falling through the dedicated chute, the paper falls into a spinning vat filled with a chemical which turns the paper into a paste. The paste is then dried and put through a processor which shapes it into either office paper or paper straws.

## Layout

### Sections and Coding

The building is abbreviated as "SP" on all company communications and reference material. When referring to a room within The Spire, Canter Aperture uses the National Headquarters Complex BuildCode (BC) which is used across Ailer to help with navigation. The code is formatted as: "Building code - Section and floor - room number". For example, office 72 on the 310th floor has a BC of "SP-B310-72".

The building also has 11 "sections" which are used to divide up the departments and elevator decks. Sky lobbies are located on floors 150, 200, 300, and 400.