Quote Originally Posted by Slaists
I don't think the observatory effect is global

From my own experiences, I think it is. I built observatories in all of my provinces and I had four universities in my capital region (England). Once I got to the final four techs I demolished all of my observatories except the one in London, intending to build grand opera houses for a slightly higher public order bonus. However, once all of observatories were demolished, the tech times ballooned from 8-10 turns to 30-40. There was no other reason for the sudden change other than me demolishing my observatories around the world.