Step out onto a circular glass platform that seems to float in mid-air, giving you the closest look at Canada’s stunning Athabasca Glacier short of climbing it yourself. Sturgess Architecture cantilevered this extraordinary skywalk over the valley in Jasper National Park as part of a 1,475-foot-long walkway carved into the mountainous landscape.
Made of corten steel and heat-strengthened glass, the observation point seems to defy gravity, designed as an extension of the land itself. “We wanted to give people the opportunity to get out of their car, to experience this incredible landscape in a way that would provide a cerebral connection to our changing natural environment,” says architect Jeremy Sturgess.
“The design is founded in the idea of a mountainside outcropping, to exist as an organic extension of the landscape.” The semi-circular shape and glass floor helps provide nearly unobstructed views of the valley below as well as the glacier. Steel and timber surfaces fold and bend upon themselves in the adjacent pavilion, mimicking the shapes of the mountains. 

