Patang Revolving Restaurant

Ahmedabad, Gujirat
INDIA

Aapnu Amdavad’s towering landmark, the revolving restaurant ‘Patang’, is set to soar again. The restaurant that had downed shutters after the 2001 earthquake has been finally sold.

Ahmedabad-based Dharmadev Infrastructure, owned by Umang Thakker, has bought it for a song — Rs 3.31 crore. The price was low because it had been mired in litigation, said Vijay Shah, an associate of Patang promoter Hasmukh Shah.

The sale agreement was inked on Wednesday evening as soon as the temporary injunction, obtained earlier this month by one of the lenders, Sardar Vallabhai Sahakari Bank Ltd, was lifted by a lower court in Ahmedabad.

The bank had obtained the injunction after a title clearance advertisement for the property was published on March 1, 2007. The other lender is General Co-operative Bank. “We will settle our dues with GCB at Rs 1.89 crore while we are hammering out a settlement with SVSBL,” Shah said.

“We intend to refurbish and reopen it as a Gujarati cuisine restaurant within a month,” said Thakker, adding that the restaurant would be part of a 100-room four-star hotel that he is putting up adjacent to Patang on a recently acquired 2500 sq yd plot.

The 110-seater Patang, set up in 1984 around Rs 1.25 crore, towers not just over Amdavad’s skyline at 221 feet but is Gujarat’s tallest standing structure. It offers diners a mind-blowing 360 degree view of the city in 90 minutes from its lofty perch.

Ahmedabad (Gujarati: Ahmada-ba-d ) is the largest city in the state of Gujarat and the seventh-largest urban agglomeration in India, with a population of 56 lakhs (5.6 million).[1] Located on the banks of the River Sabarmati, the city is the administrative centre of Ahmedabad district, and was the capital of Gujarat from 1960 to 1970; the capital was shifted to Gandhinagar thereafter. The city is sometimes called Karnavati, a name for an older town that existed in the same location; in colloquial Gujarati, it is commonly called Amdavad.

The city was founded in 1411 to serve as the capital of the Sultanate of Gujarat, by its namesake, Sultan Ahmed Shah. Under British rule, a military cantonment was established and the city infrastructure was modernised and expanded. Although incorporated into the Bombay Presidency during the British rule in India, Ahmedabad remained the most important city in the Gujarat region. The city established itself as the home of a booming textile industry, which earned it the nickname "the Manchester of the East."[2] The city was at the forefront of the Indian independence movement in the first half of the 20th century.[2] It was the epicentre of many campaigns of civil disobedience to promote workers' rights, civil rights and political independence.

With the creation of the state of Gujarat in 1960, Ahmedabad gained prominence as the political and commercial capital of the state. Once characterised by dusty roads and bungalows, the city is witnessing a major construction boom and population increase. A rising centre of education, information technology and scientific industries, Ahmedabad remains the cultural and commercial heart of Gujarat, and much of western India. Since 2000, the city has been transformed through the construction of skyscrapers, shopping malls and multiplexes.[3] However, this progress has been marred by natural calamities, political instability and outbreaks of communal violence.

360, CN Tower

Toronto, Ontario
CANADA

CN originally referred to Canadian National, the railway company that built the tower. Following the railway's decision to divest non-core freight railway assets, prior to the company's privatization in 1995, they transferred the tower to the Canada Lands Company (CLC), a federal Crown corporation responsible for real estate development. Since local residents wished to retain the name CN Tower, the abbreviation is now said to expand to Canada's National Tower rather than the original Canadian National Tower; however, neither of these are commonly used.

HISTORY

At the time, Toronto was a "boom town" and the late 1960s and early 1970s had seen the construction of numerous large skyscrapers in the downtown core. This made broadcasting into the downtown area very difficult due to reflections off the buildings. The only solution would be to raise the antennas above the buildings, demanding a tower over 300 metres (984 ft) tall. Additionally, at that time most data communications took place over point-to-point microwave links, whose dish antennae used to cover the roofs of large buildings. As each new skyscraper was added to the downtown, former line-of-sight links were no longer possible. CN intended to rent "hub" space for microwave links, visible from almost any building in the Toronto area. The CN Tower can be seen from at least as far away as Gamble Street in Richmond Hill, Ontario, approximately 30 kilometres (19 mi) to the north, and from several points on the south shore of Lake Ontario, 48 kilometres (30 mi) to the south.

The original plan for the tower envisioned a tripod consisting of three independent cylindrical "pillars" linked at various heights by structural bridges. Had it been built, this design would have been considerably shorter, with the metal antenna located roughly where the concrete section between the main level and the Sky Pod lies today. As the design effort continued, it evolved into the current design with a single continuous hexagonal core to the Sky Pod, with three support legs blended into the hexagon below the main level, forming a large Y-shape structure at the ground level.

The idea for the main level in its current form evolved around this time, but the Sky Pod was not part of the plans until some time later. One engineer in particular felt that visitors would feel the higher observation deck would be worth paying extra for, and the costs in terms of construction were not prohibitive. It was also some time around this point that it was realized that the Tower could become the world's tallest structure, and plans were changed to incorporate subtle changes throughout the tower to this end.

CONSTRUCTION

To build the main support pillar, a hydraulically-raised slipform was built at the base. This was a fairly impressive engineering feat on its own, consisting of a large metal platform that raised itself on jacks at about 6 metres (19.7 ft) per day as the concrete below set. Concrete was poured continuously by a team of 1,537 people until February 22, 1974, during which it had already become the tallest structure in Canada, surpassing the recently built Inco Superstack which was built using similar methods. In total, the tower contains 40,500 cubic metres (52,972 cu yd) of concrete, all of which was mixed on-site in order to ensure batch consistency. Through the pour, the vertical accuracy of the tower was maintained by comparing the slip form's location to massive plumb-bobs hanging from it, observed by small telescopes from the ground. Over the height of the tower, it varies from true vertical accuracy by only 29 millimetres (1.1 in).

In August of the same year, construction of the main level commenced. Using 45 hydraulic jacks attached to cables strung from a temporary steel crown anchored to the top of the tower, twelve giant steel and wooden bracket forms were slowly raised, ultimately taking about a week to crawl up to their final position. These forms were not only used to create the brackets which support the main level, but also as a base for the construction of the main level itself. The Sky Pod was built of concrete poured into a wooden frame attached to rebar at the lower level Deck, and then reinforced with a large steel compression band around the outside.

The antenna was originally to be raised by crane as well, but during construction the Sikorsky S-64 Skycrane helicopter became available when the United States Army sold off their examples to civilian operators. The helicopter, named "Olga", was first used to remove the crane, and then flew the antenna up in 36 sections. The flights of the antenna pieces were a minor tourist attraction of their own, as the schedule was printed in the local newspapers. Use of the helicopter saved months of construction time, with this phase taking only three-and-a-half weeks instead of the planned six months. The tower was topped off on April 2, 1975 after 26 months of construction, officially capturing the height record from Moscow's Ostankino Tower, and bringing the total mass to 118,000 tonnes (130,073 tons).

Two years into the construction, plans for Metro Centre were scrapped, leaving the Tower isolated on the Railway Lands in what was then a largely abandoned light-industrial space. This caused serious problems for tourists to access the tower. Ned Baldwin, project architect with John Andrews, wrote at the time that "All of the logic which dictated the design of the lower accommodation has been upset," and that "Under such ludicrous circumstances Canadian National would hardly have chosen this location to build."

OPENING

As the area around the Tower was developed, particularly with the introduction of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre and Rogers Centre (known as the SkyDome before 2005), the former railway "wasteland" disappeared and the Tower became the centre of a newly developing entertainment area. Access was greatly improved with the construction of the SkyWalk in 1989, which connected the Tower and SkyDome to the nearby railway and subway station, Union Station. By the mid-1990s it was the centre of a thriving tourist district. The entire area continues to be an area of intense building, notably a recent boom in condominium construction.

From 1997 to January 2004, TrizecHahn Corporation managed the building and instituted several expansion projects including a $26 million entertainment expansion and revitalization that included the addition of two new elevators (to a total of six) and the relocation of the staircase from the north side leg to inside the core of the building, a conversion that also added nine stairs to the climb.

STRUCTURE

The main level is seven stories, some of which are open to the public. Below the public areas — at 338 metres (1,108.9 ft) — is a large white donut-shaped radome containing the structure's microwave receivers. The Glass Floor and Outdoor Observation Deck are at 342 metres (1,122.0 ft). The glass floor has an area of 24 square metres (258 sq ft) and can withstand a pressure of 4,100 kPa (595 psi). The floor's thermal glass units are 64 millimetres (2.5 in) thick, consisting of a pane of 25-millimetre (1.0 in) laminated glass, 25 millimetres (1.0 in) airspace and a pane of 13-millimetre (0.5 in) laminated glass. Some people experience acrophobia by standing on the glass floor and looking down at the ground 342 metres (1,122.0 ft) below.[citation needed] The Horizons Cafe and the Look Out level are at 346 metres (1,135.2 ft). The 360 Restaurant, a revolving restaurant that completes a full rotation once every 72 minutes, is at 351 metres (1,151.6 ft).

The Sky Pod is the highest public observation deck in the world.[citation needed] On a clear day, it is possible to see 100 to 120 kilometres (62–75 mi) away, to the city of Rochester across Lake Ontario in the United States, or the mist rising from Niagara Falls.[citation needed]

A metal staircase with 1,776 steps reaches the main deck level,[7] reaching 2,579 steps by the Sky Pod, and is the tallest metal staircase on Earth.[citation needed] These stairs are intended for emergency use only and are not open to the public, except for three times per year for charity stair-climb events.[citation needed] The average climber takes approximately 30 minutes to climb to the base of the radome,[citation needed] but the fastest climb on record is 7 minutes and 52 seconds in 1989 by Brendan Keenoy, an Ontario Provincial Police Officer.[citation needed] The fastest record for a woman belongs to Chrissy Redden, who climbed the stairs in 2000 in 11 minutes and 52 seconds.[citation needed] In 2002, Canadian Olympian and Paralympic champion Jeff Adams climbed the stairs of the CN Tower in a specially designed wheelchair.

Falling ice danger

On March 6, the Gardiner Expressway was reopened after winds died down.[8] It was the first time such an event had posed a threat to public safety.

Safety features

Canadian officials subsequently stated that it is "highly unlikely" that a similar disaster could occur at the CN Tower as it has safeguards that are superior to those of the Ostankino Tower. Specifically, officials cited:

• the fireproof building materials used in the tower's construction,
• frequent and stringent safety inspections,
• an extensive sprinkler system,
• a 24-hour emergency monitoring operation,
• two 15,000-imperial gallon water reservoirs at the top which are automatically replenished,
• a fire hose at the base of the structure capable of sending 600 imperial gallons a minute to any location in the tower,
• a ban on gas appliances anywhere in the tower,
• an elevator that can be used during a fire as it runs up the outside of the building and can be powered by three emergency generators at the base of the structure

Nikz at the Top

United Founders Tower
Oklahoma City
OKLAHOMA

Antares Atop Reunion Tower

300 Reunion Blvd E
Hyatt Regency Dallas
Dallas, TX 75207

HISTORY

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.

Reunion Tower closed to the public on November 16, 2007 for major renovations, with reopening set for Fall 2008.

Architecture

At night, the globe at the top of the building lights with hundreds of bulbs that flash in various computer-generated patterns.

Admission

Hours

Top of the World Restaurant

Stratosphere, Las Vegas
NEVADA

The Stratosphere is the northernmost of the major Strip casinos and the only one actually in the City of Las Vegas, as the rest of the strip south of Sahara Avenue is in the unincorporated townships of Paradise and Winchester. Following its completion in 1996 it was initially less popular than first envisioned due to its location on the extreme north end of the strip, far away from the most popular hotel casinos. But its low room prices and unique offerings eventually ensured its success. While many tourists consider its location to be inconvenient, others feel the location is an advantage since it is equidistant between the more popular strip casinos and the downtown area (which includes the Fremont Street Experience).

HISTORY

In 1995, Grand Casinos was brought on as an equity partner for the still privately funded project under construction.

While construction was still progressing, the Stratosphere Corporation was formed as a public company with shares being offered to the public.

The Stratosphere opened on April 30, 1996. Shortly after opening, the Stratosphere Corporation was forced to file for bankruptcy. This caused construction on the second tower to stop with only a few stories partially built and allowed Carl Icahn to gain control through one of his companies by buying a majority of the outstanding bonds.

A major addition was completed in June 2001 for $1 billion that included finishing the 1000-room second hotel tower.

In the early 2000s, the company attempted to get approval for a roller coaster that would run from several hundred feet up the tower and, in the last proposal, across Las Vegas Boulevard. Part of that last proposal included an entry monument on the ride over Las Vegas Boulevard welcoming people to the City of Las Vegas. The City Council did not approve the project due to objections from the neighbors over possible noise from the enclosed cars on the proposed ride. This ride was intended as a replacement for the never-built ape ride.

Since its opening in 1996, five people have jumped to their deaths from the top of the tower.

ATTRACTIONS

The top of the tower has two observation decks, a revolving restaurant, and three thrill rides:

1. The Big Shot at 1,081 feet (329 m) is the highest thrill ride in the world;
2. Insanity the Ride, opened in 2005, at 900 feet (274 m) is the second highest thrill ride in the world, it dangles riders over the edge of the tower and then spins in a circular pattern at approximately forty miles per hour. Since its public opening, the ride has stopped twice with passengers onboard (upwards of an hour each time), due to high winds that trigger a safety mechanism which shuts down the machine immediately without bringing the passengers back to the loading dock. The hotel is currently being sued by the first set of passengers who were trapped on the ride dangling over the edge.[citation needed]
3. XSCREAM at 866 feet (264 m) is the third highest thrill ride in the world. This ride also "drops" people over the edge, and has also stopped while people were on it, though it is not clear what triggered this ride's failure.

Previous attractions

GAMBLING

95th Restaurant

875 N Michigan Ave # 15
Chicago, IL 60611, USA

The John Hancock Center at 875 N. Michigan Ave. in Chicago, Illinois, is a 100-story, 1,127-foot (344 m) tall skyscraper designed by structural engineer Fazlur Khan of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. When completed in 1969, it was the tallest building in the world outside New York City. It is the third-tallest skyscraper in Chicago and the fifth-tallest in the United States, after the Sears Tower, the Empire State Building, the Bank of America Tower (New York), and the Aon Center. When measured to the top of its antenna masts, it stands at 1,500 feet (457 m). The building is home to offices and restaurants, as well as about 700 condominiums and contains the highest residences in the world. This skyscraper was named for its builder the John Hancock Insurance company.

The 95th floor has long been home to a restaurant, the latest tenant being "The Signature Room on the 95th Floor." While patrons dine, they can look out at Chicago and Lake Michigan. The Hancock Center's observation facilities compete with the Sears Tower's Skydeck across town. The Hancock Center is in a commercial district, while the Sears Tower is in the financial district. The Hancock Center 94th floor observation deck displays exhibits about the city of Chicago. Maps explain the view in each direction and a special meshed-in area allows the visitors to feel the winds 1,030 feet (314 m) above ground level. The 44th-floor sky lobby features America's highest indoor swimming

DESIGN

The interior was remodeled in 1995, adding to the lobby travertine and textured limestone surfaces. The elliptical-shaped plaza outside the building serves as a public oasis with seasonal plantings and a 12-foot (3.7 m) waterfall. A band of white lights at the top of the building is visible all over Chicago at night and changes colors for different holidays.

The building is a member of the World Federation of Great Towers. It also has won various awards for its distinctive style, including the Distinguished Architects 25 Year Award from the American Institute of Architects in May 1999.

OTHER FACTS

The John Hancock Center was erected on the site of Cap Streeter's 19th century steamboat shanty. The area is called Streeterville after him, and consists of landfill reclaimed from the lake.

The building's first resident was Benjamin Gingiss, one of the founders and owners of Gingiss Formal Wear. He lived in the tower until his death.

On December 18, 1997, one of the building's more famous residents, comedian Chris Farley, died in his apartment of a drug overdose.

Jerry Springer lives on the 91st floor of the John Hancock Center. This is the second highest residential level of the building.

On March 9, 2002, part of a swing-stage (hanging scaffold for window washing & exterior repairs) fell 43 stories after being torn loose by wind gusts around 60 mph (100 km/h), crushing several cars and killing 3 people in 2 of them. The remaining part of the stage swung back-and-forth in the gusts repeatedly slamming against the building, damaging cladding panels, breaking windows, and sending pieces onto the street below.

On December 10, 2006, the non-residential portion of the building was sold by San Francisco based Shorenstein Properties LLC for $385 million and was purchased by Goldman Sachs. Shorenstein had bought the building in 1998 for $220 million.

An annual stair climb race up the 94 floors from the Michigan Avenue level to the observation deck called Hustle up the Hancock is held on the last Sunday of February. The climb benefits the Respiratory Health Association of Metropolitan Chicago. The record time as of 2006 is 9 minutes 39 seconds.

The building was also the setting of the film Poltergeist III.

The building makes a very brief cameo in the PC game Command and Conquer: Red Alert 2. When the Soviet Union destroys Chicago with a nuclear warhead in "Mission 4: Last Chance" of the Allied Campaign, the tower can be seen collapsing in a very brief cinematic.

The exterior truss construction means that four windows on each side of the building are blocked on each level. This is seen as a status symbol and offices featuring the blocked windows are leased at higher prices.

Hours of Operation:
Lunch: Monday - Saturday 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Dinner: Sunday - Thursday 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Friday & Saturday 5 p.m. to 11 p.m.
Brunch: Sunday 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.