A revolving restaurant is a usually tower restaurant eating space designed to rest atop a broad circular revolving platform that operates as a large turntable. The building remains stationary and the diners are carried on the revolving floor. The revolving rate varies between one and three times per hour and enables patrons to enjoy a panoramic view without leaving their seats. Such restaurants are often located on upper stories of hotels, television towers, and skyscrapers.
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A barrel-shaped, but stationary, restaurant on Fernsehturm Stuttgart, a TV tower in Stuttgart, Germany, built in 1956, was noted as the inspiration for the idea of a revolving restaurant. A revolving restaurant on Florianturm, a TV tower in Dortmund, Germany, was brought into service in 1959.
John Graham, a Seattle architect and early shopping mall pioneer, is said to be the first in the United States[1] to design a revolving restaurant, at La Ronde, atop an office building at the Ala Moana Shopping Center in Honolulu in 1961. Graham was awarded US patent 3125189 for the invention in 1964, and used the technology to build the revolving "Eye of the Needle" restaurant still in service at the top of Seattle's Space Needle, drawings of which appear in the patent application.