Largest Tower in San Francisco turns into the Eye of Sauron On Halloween



Artist's rendering of the Eye of Sauron atop Salesforce Tower
      Two days ago I was surfing the web when an interesting petition came up from Change.org. “Turn Salesforce Tower into the Eye of Sauron on Halloween Night!” it said. The Salesforce tower is the largest tower in San Francisco. According to Wikipedia, “The crown of the tower features a nine-story electronic sculpture...that features low resolution, abstract videos of San Francisco that will be filmed each day.” The petition included a picture imagining how the tower would look if the Eye of Sauron was featured as the exhibit on Halloween night.
      I was happy to sign. Imagine, Salesforce Tower would be Barad-Dur and the whole city of San Francisco Mordor for Halloween. At the time they had about 10,000 out of 15,000 signatures. Researching the subject online, I found that the chances of them succeeding were quite slim. Although I am unable to find the article now, I found out that the owners of the tower were not too keen on the idea. Because of this and the fact that not enough people had signed the petition, I assumed that the whole plan would be ditched.
      So that’s why I was surprised at receiving an email today labeled “Victory!” along with a video of the Salesforce Tower featuring the Eye of Sauron. The petition had succeeded. People looking out over the San Francisco skyline saw the Eye of Sauron and the Tower of Barad-Dur glaring back at them.
      This is the first time that the Eye of Sauron has been featured in any major building. A few years ago plans were made to place the Eye of Sauron on a skyscraper in Moscow
Rendering of Eye of Sauron on Moscow Building
to celebrate the release of the last installment of the Hobbit Franchise “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies”. However, the Conservative Orthodox Church, who saw it as a symbol and precursor of evil, succeeded in canceling the plans.
      There are many existing towers that are the spitting image of Barad-Dur, like the AT&T headquarters in Moscow. However, although these towers might look like Barad-Dur, they are missing a crucial element; the Eye of Sauron itself. Last night we got to see what such a sight would look like.

Works Cited

Pozzebon, Stephano. The Orthodox Church Has Stopped A Giant 'Eye Of Sauron' Being Built

Over Moscow. Business Insider. Dec 10, 2014. https://www.businessinsider.com/

Hobbit-eye-of-sauron-in-moscow-criticized-by-orthodox-church-2014-12. Accessed

November 1, 2018.

Real-life 'Eye of Sauron' will open up over Moscow skyscraper tower. RT Question More. Dec 8,

2014. https://www.rt.com/news/212527-eye-sauron-moscow-scyscraper/. Accessed

November 1, 2018.
Salesforce Tower. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce_Tower. Accessed
November 1, 2018.

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