3D print the Space Needle
A free, printable model of the Space Needle with the lawns, buildings and streets of Seattle Center around it, generated from real map data in your browser.
Free, in your browser. Exports a slicer-ready 3MF.
About the Space Needle
Seattle's Space Needle stands in the Lower Queen Anne neighborhood, at 400 Broad Street, and serves as an observation tower. It was erected on the Seattle Center grounds for the city's 1962 World's Fair. The tower stands 184 m (605 ft) tall and at one time no building in the United States west of the Mississippi River was taller. It is 42 m (138 ft) wide, and it was built to withstand 200 mph (320 km/h) winds as well as earthquakes up to magnitude 9.0.
Businessman Edward E. Carlson and architect John Graham, Jr. each had a concept, and the final design is a compromise between them. Carlson sketched a huge balloon anchored to the ground, which became the gently sloping base. Graham proposed a flying saucer for the restaurant and observation deck, and Victor Steinbrueck supplied the hourglass profile and tripod design. The body was painted Orbital Olive, the legs Astronaut White, the saucer Re-entry Red and the roof Galaxy Gold, and the tower was finished in April 1962.
Elevators carry visitors to an observation deck 160 m (520 ft) up in 41 seconds, where the views take in Elliott Bay, the islands of Puget Sound, Mount Baker, Mount Rainier, the Cascade and Olympic Mountains and the downtown skyline. Unlike Toronto's CN Tower, the Space Needle plays no role in broadcasting. Seattle's Landmarks Preservation Board named it a historic landmark on April 19, 1999.
How it prints
Make this print opens the generator on a 600 m square around the landmark. Buildings print at close to true scale, so the landmark grows with the print size.
| Print size | Landmark height | Scale |
|---|---|---|
| 160 mm default | 49 mm | 1:3,750 |
| 200 mm | 62 mm | 1:3,000 |
| 256 mm | 79 mm | 1:2,344 |
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North
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East
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South
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West
- Slender hourglass legs
- The curved legs narrow at the waist and carry the saucer above. Print slowly with good cooling, and choose a larger print size so the legs are thicker and sturdier.
- A needle-thin spire
- A very thin spire rises from the saucer. Layers of 0.12–0.16 mm keep it crisp; Print friendly adapts it to the print scale, and Full detail keeps it on larger prints.
- One piece with the ground
- The Space Needle is joined to the ground in the exported file, and the four-side check found no floating parts, so nothing needs gluing.
- Pick the detail for your nozzle
- In the Buildings settings, set Landmark detail to Print friendly to adapt thin parts and small details to the print scale. Full detail keeps every modeled feature, for larger prints or a finer nozzle.
- Colors
- Buildings, roads, water and ground arrive as separate filament slots in the 3MF. The Space Needle takes the building color.
- File format
- You get a 3MF for Bambu Studio, OrcaSlicer or PrusaSlicer. Any of them can save it as STL if you need one.
About this model
The Space Needle is one of more than 2,300 landmark models in Mini Skyline. They are made with AI, and each one is checked from four sides in its real surroundings before release. Everything around it is built from OpenStreetMap and Overture map data. If you would rather print the shape from map data, turn off Landmark models in the Buildings settings.
Common questions
Is there a Space Needle STL I can download?
Mini Skyline builds the file for you in your browser and exports 3MF, which every major slicer opens. If you need an STL, open the 3MF in your slicer and export it from there.
How big can I print it?
Any print size from 40 mm across. The Space Needle grows with the print: about 49 mm tall on the default 160 mm print. For a model larger than your printer bed, Project Mode splits the area into tiles.
Is it free?
Yes. Generation runs in your browser, with no account and nothing behind a paywall.
