SkyCity (originally known as the Eye of the Needle ) was a revolving restaurant and bar situated atop the Space Needle in Seattle, Washington , United States.
13-413: The restaurant featured a 14-foot-deep (4.3 m) carousel (or ring-shaped) dining floor on which sat patrons' tables, chairs, and dining booths. Its floor revolved on a track and wheel system weighing roughly 125 tons, moving at a rate of one revolution every 47 minutes. It was the oldest operating revolving restaurant in the world at the time of its closure. Due to the balance and precision of its design,
26-625: A consultant on the project, claimed design credit; the design was also influenced by the Century 21 Exposition design standards and aerospace theme established by supervising architect Paul Thiry . Clearly the revolving restaurant , the "Eye of the Needle", was Graham's conception. He'd already devised " La Ronde " for the Ala Moana Shopping Center in Honolulu in 1961, and was awarded a patent for
39-624: The Loupe Lounge, a cocktail lounge that opened in the restaurant's former space on April 9, 2021. 47°37′14″N 122°20′57″W / 47.62056°N 122.34917°W / 47.62056; -122.34917 John Graham %26 Company John 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 (1873–1955), and maintained by his son John Graham Jr. (1908–1991). The firm
52-593: The Seattle Yacht Club and designed all of their original facilities. He retired from architecture in 1945 and died on March 20, 1955, while on tour in Hong Kong . John Graham Jr. (1908–91) was born and raised in Seattle, Washington . After graduating from Yale University , he established a short-lived satellite office of his father's firm in New York City in 1937, and took over the main office in 1946. Renaming
65-582: The United States in 1900, starting a one-man architectural practice in Seattle. He started off modestly, designing mainly industrial-related buildings and private residences. His first notable project was designing the reconstruction of the Trinity Parish Church at Eight Avenue and James Street in 1902 after it had been damaged by fire. After a brief partnership with Alfred Bodley in 1904, Graham founded
78-513: The enclosed shopping mall genre, notably Seattle's Northgate Shopping Center , which opened April 21, 1950, which anticipates the better-known Northland Center in Detroit by four years. The firm would go on to design seventy malls nationwide. The authorship of Graham's single most prominent work, the Space Needle , is disputed. Both Graham's office and the Seattle architect Victor Steinbrueck ,
91-530: The firm of Graham & Myers with David J. Myers in 1906. He would work with Myers until 1910. As architect for the Ford Motor Company , he designed more than 30 of Ford's assembly plants between 1912 and 1940. Throughout the 1920s and 30s, he would design hundreds of commercial and public buildings in the Seattle area including the Frederick & Nelson store (now Nordstrom ) in 1916. He also helped found
104-417: The firm to John Graham & Company, the firm expanded a relatively modest regional practice to an office with national presence. It was ultimately responsible for over a thousand commissions. Their primary focus was commercial projects. Many were straightforward mid-century modernist office towers, such as San Francisco's 1967 44 Montgomery tower. But Graham was also responsible for early development of
117-556: The floor's rotation is accomplished using just a single 1½-horsepower motor. The restaurant was designed by John Graham & Company and styled after the La Ronde they had built atop the Ala Moana Center in 1963. SkyCity was a fine dining restaurant with a casual dress code and served Pacific Northwest cuisine and new American cuisine , providing local seafood, steak, chicken and vegetarian items among others. The restaurant
130-453: The idea in 1964. Graham died in Seattle on January 29, 1991. The following structures are in Seattle unless otherwise noted: 44 Montgomery 44 Montgomery is a 43-story, 172 m (564 ft) office skyscraper in the heart of San Francisco's Financial District . Groundbreaking was in the spring of 1964. When completed in 1967, it was the tallest building west of Dallas , surpassed by 555 California Street (built as
143-400: The world headquarters of Bank of America ) in 1969. The building was designed, built and dedicated for Wells Fargo Bank , and their IT subsidiary was based there at one time (the bank's headquarters are at 464 California Street). 44 Montgomery, as part of the original design anticipating the then-under-construction Bay Area Rapid Transit subway system, contains direct underground access to
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#1732847653863156-520: Was closed in September 2017 for the $ 100 million "The Century Project" renovation at the Space Needle, with plans for the dining area to be outfitted with a clear glass floor. The glass floor would enable diners to view the city below them and also the mechanics that operate the revolving floor. When completed, SkyCity was to have the world's first revolving restaurant with a glass floor. It was replaced with
169-677: Was responsible for many Seattle landmarks and a number of significant structures nationwide, including the Space Needle , Chase Tower of Rochester, New York , and the Westin Seattle . The firm was merged into the DLR Group on May 19, 1986, and the name saw full deletion in 1998. John Graham was born in Liverpool, England , in 1873. He apprenticed as an architect in England as a young man. First visiting Seattle, Washington , in 1896, he immigrated to
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