Ericsson Globe, Stockholm, Sweden

Architect	Svante Berg, Lars Vretblad
Date Built	1986 - 1989
Location	Globus District
Description
Originally known as the Stockholm Globe Arena, this is the world's largest hemispheric building. In 2009 the naming rights were sold to the mobile phone company Ericsson, hence its name today. The huge white ball has a diameter of 110 metres and stands 85 metres tall. Inside is the national indoor arena of Sweden with a seating capacity of 16,000 and the ability to accommodate ice hockey and a variety of shows and concert events. The arena website point out that it is, "... the national stadium for the Swedish national ice hockey team. Here Tre Kronor won World Championship gold in ice hockey (2013), "Bengan Boys" won the European Championship in handball (2002), Nelson Mandela talked (1990), the world artists such as U2, Bruce Springsteen, Metallica, Lady Gaga and Beyoncé played and Filip & Fredrik set attendance records (16,592 spectators) during the celebration of their 200th podcast episode." The Ericsson Globe is also part of a rather amazing model of the Solar System started by Nils Brenning and Gösta Gahm. With the Globe as the Sun this model involves a number of structures each representing the various bodies in the Solar System and located across Sweden at distances from each other on a scale of 1:20 million. Saturn for instance, 6.1 metres in diameter, is located in Uppsala and Jupiter. 7.3 metres in diameter sits on a roundabout outside Arlanda Airport. ***************** Skyview In 2010 a new attraction was added to the Globe when an inclined elevator was built on the outside allowing passengers to ride in glass pods up the side of the building to the top of the dome. There are two parallel tracks along which the pods can travel. Each pods can accommodate up to 16 passengers.