Radio Voxelia Tower
Radio Voxelia Tower constitutes the home offices of Radio Voxelia, one of the most prominent Vozendi-language RadNet broadcasters aside from local branch of The Guild Gazette. Radio Voxelia Tower is also one of the tallest structures in Silkenvault and is best known for its highly decorative facade depicting (among other things) great moments in the history of radio within The Human Arc.
Purpose / Function
Radio Voxelia Tower contains the administrative offices, studios, production facilities, and radio engineering department of Radio Voxelia. The ground floors of the tower contain retail spaces, a museum, and a tourist center. Numerous other Voxelian corporations rent midlevel suites. The floors just below the taper (see Architecture) contain travel agency offices and airport facilities; the radio mast is hollow and contains an elevator, allowing for the loading and offloading of passenger airships that 'dock' with it.
Architecture
Radio Voxelia Tower has a square footprint in the Silkenvault cityscape and rises almost one thousand into the air before tapering to a sword-like shallow cusp at around 1200' feet. Actually, the whole building tapers slightly to enhance the effect of its size when viewed from ground level, though the angle is only perceptible when the skyline is viewed from far away (i.e. in a sightseeing boat floating along the Blue Silk River). A RadNet mast extends another hundred feet up from this point to constitute the first relay of Radio Voxelia.
Though it was ruled by Silkenvault officials that only the first ten floors or so of Radio Voxelia Tower had to abide by the city's strict architectural codes, the board of directors at that time felt a desire to create for themselves an office complex that would complement, rather than contrast with, the city in its entirety. For this reason, decorative flourishes follow the length of the structure all the way up to the top, with six-pointed florets resembling the Church of the Unexpected's emblem and buttresses entwined with carved curling branchwork similar to that found on Vyozha river card markers. Frescoes in the lobby and at intervals of several floors along the exterior depict important points in Radio Voxelia's history, starting with the invention of the radio, then dieseltech machinery, then the development of the airship, and so forth. The uppermost fresco around the base of the top taper depict a bright vision for a future where radio waves touch every corner of the Manifold Sky while angelic figures blow their trumpets to herald the coming of dawn.
Defenses
Voxelia is a nation that has been at war for almost a century, and this fact has had a significant impact on the way in which its buildings are designed. Radio Voxelia Tower features a doubly-redundant superstructure with a sturdy central spine into which its elevators are integrated. An outer 'shell' of hallways with windows on either side serve to allow light to enter while still causing projectiles and pressure waves from Coalition bombs to be dispersed before striking the inhabited inner volumes. Though the radio mast atop the tower is the primary broadcast point for Radio Voxelia, underground cables distribute the signal to remote masts disguised as landscape trees on the outskirts of town. Backup Biodiesel generators and fuel biosynthesis digesters in the bunkers below the buildings provide power in the event of a catastrophic emergency. In short, when it comes to Radio Voxelia, nothing stops the signal.
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