Reunion Tower is a 561 ft (171 m) observation tower

Observation tower

An observation tower is a structure used to view events from a long distance and to create a full 360 degree range of vision. They are usually at least tall and made from stone, iron, and wood. Many modern towers are also used as TV towers, restaurants, or churches...

 and one of the most recognizable landmarks in Dallas, Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

. Located at 300 Reunion Blvd. in the Reunion district of downtown Dallas

Downtown Dallas

Downtown Dallas is the Central Business District in Dallas, Texas USA, located in the geographic center of the city. The area termed "Downtown" has traditionally been defined as bounded by the downtown freeway loop: bounded on the east by I-345 Downtown Dallas is the Central Business District...

, the tower is part of the Hyatt Regency Hotel complex, and is the 15th tallest building in Dallas. A free-standing structure until the construction of an addition to the Hyatt Regency Dallas

Hyatt Regency Dallas

The Hyatt Regency Dallas is a 345 ft 30-story, 1,120-room hotel at the Reunion district in Dallas, Texas. It was featured in the opening credits of the television series Dallas for the show's entire run, from 1978 until 1991. The building is connected to Union Station and Reunion Tower, the...

 in 2000, the tower was designed by the architectural firm Welton Becket & Associates.

History

Reunion Tower was completed in 1978 as part of an urban redevelopment

Urban renewal

Urban renewal is a program of land redevelopment in areas of moderate to high density urban land use. Renewal has had both successes and failures. Its modern incarnation began in the late 19th century in developed nations and experienced an intense phase in the late 1940s – under the rubric of...

 project that also renovated the historic Union Station

Union Station (Dallas)

Union Station, also known as Dallas Union Terminal, is a DART Light Rail, commuter rail, and Amtrak intercity rail station located in the Reunion district of downtown Dallas, Texas on Houston Street, between Wood and Young Streets...

, that today services Amtrak

Amtrak

The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak , is a government-owned corporation that was organized on May 1, 1971, to provide intercity passenger train service in the United States. "Amtrak" is a portmanteau of the words "America" and "track". It is headquartered at Union...

, Dallas Area Rapid Transit

Dallas Area Rapid Transit

The Dallas Area Rapid Transit authority is a transit agency based in Dallas, Texas . It operates buses, light rail, commuter rail, and high-occupancy vehicle lanes in Dallas and 12 of its suburbs...

, and the Trinity Railway Express

Trinity Railway Express

The Trinity Railway Express is a commuter rail line in the Dallas – Fort Worth Metroplex. It was established by an interlocal agreement between Dallas Area Rapid Transit and the Fort Worth Transportation Authority . Each transit authority owns a 50% stake in the joint rail project and...

 to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport

Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport

Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport is located between the cities of Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas, and is the busiest airport in the U.S. state of Texas...

 and Fort Worth

Fort Worth, Texas

Fort Worth is the 16th-largest city in the United States of America and the fifth-largest city in the state of Texas. Located in North Central Texas, just southeast of the Texas Panhandle, the city is a cultural gateway into the American West and covers nearly in Tarrant, Parker, Denton, and...

.

When it first opened, the tower included radio station KOAX-FM, now KRLD-FM 105.3 FM, once owned by Westinghouse Broadcasting

Westinghouse Broadcasting

The Westinghouse Broadcasting Company, also known as Group W, was the broadcasting division of Westinghouse Electric Corporation. It owned several radio and television stations across the United States and distributed television shows for syndication....

 ("Live twenty-four hours a day from five-hundred feet above the city."). Because it is not used as a broadcast tower it is not listed in the FCC Database.

Reunion Tower reopened on February 9, 2009, after closing for major renovations on November 16, 2007.

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. Before the 2008 renovations, the first level housed the observation deck, the second a revolving restaurant

Revolving restaurant

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...

 called Antares, and the third level a club called The Dome. The top three floors are encased in an open-air sphere. The sphere is a geodesic dome

Geodesic dome

A geodesic dome is a spherical or partial-spherical shell structure or lattice shell based on a network of great circles on the surface of a sphere. The geodesics intersect to form triangular elements that have local triangular rigidity and also distribute the stress across the structure. When...

 formed with aluminum struts. Each of the struts' 260 intersections is 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.

Attractions

Celebrity chef

Celebrity chef

A celebrity chef is a kitchen chef who has become famous and well known. Today celebrity chefs often become celebrities by presenting cookery advice and demonstrations via mass media, especially television. Historically, celebrity chefs have included Antoine Carême and Martino da Como.-External...

 Wolfgang Puck

Wolfgang Puck

Wolfgang Johannes Puck is an Austrian-American celebrity chef, restaurateur, businessman and occasional actor. Wolfgang Puck restaurants, catering services, cookbooks and licensed products are run by Wolfgang Puck Companies, with three divisions...

 opened the fine-dining restaurant, Five Sixty on the tower's rotating top level on February 11, 2009. The name is a reference to the restaurant's elevation. The middle floor of the tower is used for special events managed by Wolfgang Puck Catering, which is based at nearby Union Station.

As of July 1st, 2011 The Observation Deck is still closed off to the public, but is said to reopen later this fall.

In the media

The landmark appears as a symbol of futurist society in the 1980 film The Lathe of Heaven

The Lathe of Heaven (film)

The Lathe of Heaven is a 1979 film based on the 1971 Science Fiction novel The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin. It was produced in 1979 as part of New York City public television station WNET's Experimental TV Lab project, and directed by David Loxton and Fred Barzyk. Ursula K...

(starring Bruce Davison

Bruce Davison

Bruce Davison is an American actor and director.-Early life:Davison was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of Marian E. , a secretary, and Clair W. Davison, a musician, architect, and draftsman for the Army Engineers. His parents divorced when he was three years old. He was raised by his...

).

Shots of the building also make an appearance in the 2011 Terrence Malick

Terrence Malick

Terrence Frederick Malick is a U.S. film director, screenwriter, and producer. In a career spanning almost four decades, Malick has directed five feature films....

 film The Tree of Life.

External links

• ReunionTower official website
• Reunion Tower image gallery at DFWStructures.com