Chase Tower Dome with Fountain Place

Designed by Richard Keating while at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, Chase Tower was completed in 1987 and quickly became the signature building in the Dallas skyline. Often referred to as the keyhole building because of its seven-story rectangular hole in its center near the glass-vaulted top, the skyscraper features a red granite base and pink granite middle. At the center of each elevation is a 45-degree angled window, which helps break up the façade of its midsection. The glass top is set back from the midsection on all four sides, and the vaulted roof runs entirely across the building and notched to provide additional interest. Illuminated at night with spotlights set into the building’s midsection, the glass top can be seen throughout Dallas. The 40th floor also boasts a sky lobby that offers good views of the Uptown area of the city. A domed building in front of the high-rise has been converted into a fitness center and two floors inside the rotunda have exercise equipment while a lower level houses locker and shower areas and another workout room. A 60-story late-modernist skyscraper in Downtown Dallas, Fountain Place is the fifth tallest building in Dallas and 15th tallest in Texas. Original plans called for twin towers with the second on an adjacent block rotated 90 degrees from the first, but it was never completed because of the collapse of the Texas oil, banking and real estate industry and the savings-and-loan scandal in the 1980s. Known for its unique architecture, the building was designed as a large, multifaceted prism with variously slanted sides that give the building a completely different profile from all directions. Named for the 172 dancing fountains in the plaza at its base, Fountain Place was the tallest silicone-glazed building in the world at the time of construction. Its sleek appearance includes an internal gutter system that avoids a waterfall effect from its slopes on rainy days.

Image Details