Reunion Tower
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Reunion Tower, known locally as The Ball, The Big Ball, The Dandelion, The Circle Tower, or The Microphone, is a 560 foot (171 m) observation tower and one of the most recognizable landmarks in Dallas, Texas (USA). Located at 300 Reunion Blvd. in the Reunion district of downtown Dallas, the tower is part of the Hyatt Regency Hotel complex. The tower is the 15th tallest building in Dallas. Reunion tower was a free standing structure until the construction of an addition to the Hyatt Regency Dallas in 2000. The tower was designed by the architectural firm Welton Becket & Associates.
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[edit] History
Reunion Tower was completed in 1978 as part of an urban redevelopment project that also renovated the historic Union Station, which today services Amtrak, DART, and the Trinity Rail Express to DFW Airport and Fort Worth.
When it first opened, the tower included an FM broadcast radio station owned by Westinghouse Broadcasting: KOAX (105.3 MHz). It broadcasted live twenty-four hours a day from five-hundred feet above the city.
[edit] Architecture
The tower consists of three floors with circular floor plans on top of four shafts of poured in place concrete. A central cylindrical shaft houses stairs and mechanical equipment. Three rectangular shafts, containing elevators, rise parallel to the central shaft. Each shaft's outfacing wall is made up of glass panels, affording views of the city during the 68-second elevator ride to the top. The first level houses the observation deck, the second a revolving restaurant called Antares, and in the third level a club called The Dome. The top three floors are encased in an open air sphere. The sphere is formed with aluminum struts, that at each of its 260 intersections are covered by aluminum circles with lights in the center.
At night, the globe at the top of the building lights with hundreds of bulbs that flash in various computer-generated patterns.
[edit] Operations
[edit] Admission
Admission is US$2 for adults, $1 for seniors (age 65 and over) and children (age 3-12).
[edit] Hours
Sunday-Thursday: 10:00 am-10:00 pm Friday: 10:00 am-12:00 am (midnight) Saturday: 9:00 am-12:00 am (midnight)
[edit] References in popular culture
The tower is a prominent feature in the opening credits of the television program Dallas, is a central location in the 1980 movie, The Lathe Of Heaven, and is the first thing hit by a meteor shower that destroys Dallas in the 1997 movie Asteroid.
