Fountain Place, Corporate skyscraper in Downtown Dallas, United States
Fountain Place is a 60-story late-modernist office skyscraper at 1445 Ross Avenue in downtown Dallas, 720 ft (220 m) tall. Its faceted prism form has slanted sides, so the profile changes from every direction. The facade is a grid of dark teal-blue glass panels between pale mullions, and a diagonal line splits it into two angled faces, one lighter, one shaded.
Construction began in March 1984 and ended in September 1986. The original plan called for twin towers rotated 90 degrees from each other, but the collapse of the Texas oil, banking and real estate industry and the savings and loan scandal of the 1980s left only one built. The tower was first known as First Interstate Tower and later Allied Bank Tower.
The building's name comes from the 172 dancing fountains in the plaza at its base, an automated water show that was the first of its kind on such a large scale. WET Design, working with I. M. Pei's firm and landscape architects Dan Kiley and Peter Ker Walker, used patented open-jointed paving so jets rise straight from openings in the plaza floor. The tower appears as the Petro Group headquarters in seasons 10–14 of the TV series Dallas.
The building stands at 1445 Ross Avenue, with the fountain plaza at its main entrance; 225 cypress trees and several waterfalls are laid out around the water features. Parking is provided on site with 950 spaces, and 28 to 30 lifts serve the floors up to the 62nd.
The base of the structure houses 172 computer-controlled fountains that create water displays throughout a garden designed by landscape architect Dan Kiley. These water features provide a refreshing contrast to the glass tower above.
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