Case Precedents.
Griffith Observatory is a prime example of a classic observatory. It’s style is classical and derivative of earlier observatories. It is a well established institution which accommodated multiple telescopes, an up to date planetarium and gallery space which serves to educate the general public who visit the observatory about our own world as well as the universe. Located in the Los Angelis hills it also overlooks the city and gives visitors the chance to view the city from a new perspective. Griffith observatory is exactly what you would expect from an institution.
On the other hand of observatories there is the Kielder observatory in the forests of Northumberland. It is purely functional as it is located in an area which has the darkest skies in Britain yet it has clearly been designed.
Kielder observatory is an example of a modern facility, minimal and primarily functional. It was designed to get results but it is not a faceless construct as it was done sympathetically to its surroundings. Although the budget may have had something to do with that.
One step further in that direction and the result is the passive observatories such as the the historically flamboyant such as Jantar Mantar and others like the forest observatory designed by Sami Rintal which is less about astronomy but may well be a direction to pursue as it is about observation in regards to senses, micro compared to macro which bordered on phenomenology.
ozymandiasjohnson 