Architecture: Arecibo Telescope

This is my homage to the Arecibo Telescope, a 1000-foot wide radar dish built into a sinkhole in Puerto Rico which operated from 1963-2020. The complex was used to study the cosmos, including searching for extraterrestrial life and detecting potentially hazardous near-Earth objects. The site was also featured in prominent roles in the films Goldeneye and Contact. The dish was constructed of aluminum mesh panels suspended above the ground that allowed vegetation to grow underneath. Sadly, storm damage, reduction in funding, and finally a catastrophic cable failure leading to the collapse of the suspended instrument platform onto the dish ultimately shuddered the facility after 57 years of operation.

The build's footprint is 18x19 studs and it contains 398 pieces.