I mean, just look at it.
edit: For anyone wondering, it’s from the first few seconds of HARDY - Sold Out.
Considering their penchant for adopting the symbols of evil empires, I expect this to be their next symbol:
Love to see this grow.
Probably the designers off the tower knew about ATT surveillance and pitched the idea to clueless executives in order to remind the public about the all seeing eye of massive telecommunication giants
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Room_641A
Hmm, darn, was hoping this came first.
2 seconds of googling show this building was designed a decade before that movie came out
I think that’s probably a stretch, but I enjoy the theory.
For those unfamiliar with AT&T, their logo has basically been the Death Star since the 1980s. It makes sense they’re diversifying into other evil movie monoliths.
Can confirm. Worked for a few years for authorized retail and they leaned pretty hard into it.
They also leaned pretty hard into it when I worked against them for many years as a phone phreak. 😆
So good thanks for sharing
Is this the Nashville Batbuilding?
Yes, it is. Was originally the bellSouth building before att reabsorbed most of the baby bells.
No clue - it’s from the first few seconds of a music video. I’ve never been anywhere near that. Others in the comment section seem to be more familiar, though.
Back in my home town, they built something that was clearly a cell tower, then just … Essentially glued a few fake pine tree branches to it.
They didn’t even bother to make the tower look vaguely trunk-like. It’s still matte grey and you can clearly see the antennae attached to the top. When I say “a few fake pine tree branches,” I’m not exaggerating; it’s been a few years so I don’t remember precisely, but it’s no more than five throughout the entire height of a cell tower. Mostly clustered together.
Having seen the political side of this: the local city council probably had some asshole NIMBYS that tired to block the tower from being built. Then AT&T showed up to a meeting and said we will build this by right but if you give us a beautification budget we will use it. Then the city council rightly didn’t give a fuck and gave them the bare minimum dollars that made the 5G NIMBYS fuck off and AT&T bought $200 of plastic Christmas tree to glue into the tower.
They know what their doing.
One ringtone to rule then all.
That’s pretty good!
Palantir contract helping them “protect Americans” by spying on them.
Well if you’re comparing 333 Commerce St building (topped out in 1993) with Barad-dûr, as depicted in Peter Jackson’s “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy (released in 2001-2003), then you maybe should ask why Peter Jackson’s art inspiration (specifically illustrator Alan Lee) based their depiction of Sauron’s tower on the AT&T building (although maybe the architect of the building in Nashville did also draw their inspiration from Alan Lee’s art, timeline become muddled here).
I could find no other depiction of Barad-dûr prior to Jackson’s which had that same forked design, most artists drew a sinister-looking but traditionally spired tower design, with the eye peering through a window in the clouds to some effect.
Tolkien’s book describes the tower like this:
“Then at last his gaze was held: wall upon wall, battlement upon battlement, black tower of adamant, he saw it: Barad-dûr, Fortress of Sauron. All hope left him…
…and then he saw, rising black, blacker and darker than the vast shades amid which it stood, the cruel pinnacles and iron crown of the topmost tower of Barad-dûr. One moment only it stared out, but as from some great window immeasurably high there stabbed northward a flame of red, the flicker of a piercing Eye”
No mention of the two-prong fork design that I could find.
It’s interesting that Peter Jackson’s depiction was so good that people now just assume that’s how it always was.
I did try to read the books but, though I enjoyed The Hobbit, I didn’t make it through the first LotR book; as such, the movie depiction is the only one I really know. Not to say that makes it more accurate or anything, just my only experience with it.
Probably same applies for most people. Those books are very slow at times and hard to get through.
I mean, it… does look pretty cool, honestly.
Well, you’re not wrong, but if you don’t want to look evil it’s not the best choice.
AT&T crossed the rubicon there a long time ago, they would be better off steering into it like this
When someone shows you who they are, believe them.
I have one of these in my town. It’s a cell tower dead center in the middle of town, and they boxed it up in a building-like facade and put that glowing logo at the top. Massive eye of sauron vibes. It’s the tallest thing in the city. At night you can see it for miles.
The only ugly thing you described here was the bullshit glowing ad at the top. Ban all public advertising!
I don’t know why anyone thinks cell towers are uglier then the facades they put in front of cell towers.
They could really benefit from a logo update. I see that and amm reminded of what an awful cell carrier they are as I’m sure millions of others are
That’s actually the most Ma Bell shit they could have done.
