Aventura Slide Tower
Aventura, Florida
Shopping malls have a tendency to go to extremes to attract customers. Sometimes that's a good thing. The Aventura Slide Tower, which opened to the public on December 18, 2017, is a welcome example of over-the-top civic/shopping engagement: it's free, it's outdoors (you don't have to go into the mall), and it's big: nine stories tall.
Climbing to the top of the Slide Tower is not for the easily winded. Once there, mall employees hand you a slide mat, you lay on your back, and you're then sent plummeting through a glass-walled tube for a spiraling, 15-second plunge to the bottom.
The slide was designed by German sculptor Carsten Holler. According to his bio, Carsten finds inspiration for his art in amusement parks and playgrounds, and he hopes that the Slide Tower triggers feelings "somewhere between delight and madness." The mall hopes that it triggers impulse purchasing as well.