A
revolving restaurant is a usually
tower restaurantA tower restaurant is a restaurant located in a tower and is accessible by an elevator. Tower restaurants are laid out in such a way that guests can enjoy the panorama when taking their meal and beverages...
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 towerRadio masts and towers are, typically, tall structures designed to support antennas for telecommunications and broadcasting, including television. They are among the tallest man-made structures...
s, and skyscrapers.
History
A barrel-shaped, but stationary, restaurant on
Fernsehturm StuttgartThe Fernsehturm Stuttgart is the world's first TV tower built from concrete ....
, a TV tower in
StuttgartStuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
,
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, built in 1956, was noted as the inspiration for the idea of a revolving restaurant. A revolving restaurant on
FlorianturmThe Florianturm is a telecommunications tower and landmark of Dortmund . It is named after St. Florian, the patron saint of gardeners....
, a TV tower in
DortmundDortmund is a city in Germany. It is located in the Bundesland of North Rhine-Westphalia, in the Ruhr area. Its population of 585,045 makes it the 7th largest city in Germany and the 34th largest in the European Union....
, Germany, was brought into service in 1959.
John GrahamJohn Graham & Company, or John Graham & Associates was the name of an architectural firm, founded in 1900 in Seattle, Washington by English-born architect John Graham , and maintained by his son John Graham Jr. ....
, a Seattle architect and early shopping mall pioneer, is said to be the first in the United States 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 NeedleSkyCity, originally known as the "Eye of the Needle," is a revolving restaurant situated atop the Space Needle in Seattle, Washington. It features a carousel dining floor on which sit patrons' tables, chairs and dining booths. The floor revolves on a track and wheel system, which weighs roughly...
, drawings of which appear in the patent application.
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