Infomart
Encyclopedia
The Infomart is one of the largest buildings in Dallas
Dallas, Texas
Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...

, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

 (USA
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

). It was the world’s first and only information processing marketing center.

History

The $85 million Infomart was opened as part of Trammell Crow's
Trammell Crow
F. Trammell Crow was an American real estate developer. Crow is credited for creating several famous real estate projects, including Dallas Market Center, Peachtree Center , and San Francisco's Embarcadero Center.-Biography:Crow was born in Dallas, Texas...

 Dallas Market Center
Dallas Market Center
Dallas Market Center, located along Stemmons Freeway in Dallas, Texas , sits on of land and spans more than . Dallas Market Center is the international home of the lighting industry, a leader in home décor and the national home of the floral and Christmas industries.- The campus :The...

 in 1985 on the site of the P.C. Cobb Stadium
P.C. Cobb Stadium
P.C. Cobb Stadium was an outdoor athletic stadium near downtown Dallas, Texas. The 22,000 seat stadium was built of reinforced concrete under the Works Progress Administration program in 1939 and was used for high school sporting events of the Dallas Independent School District...

. It was built to serve the needs of information technology companies and provide an environment that would stimulate growth. After several years as a permanent trade show for information technology vendors, the building was sold in 1999 and 2006. The building was purchased by DCI Holdings and currently serves as a technology office and data center, home to more than 110 technology and telecommunications companies.

Design

At 1583309 square feet (147,094.2 m²) spread across 7 floors and 18.2 acres (73,652.9 m²), the Infomart is one of the largest and most distinctive buildings in Dallas. The design was modeled after The Crystal Palace
The Crystal Palace
The Crystal Palace was a cast-iron and glass building originally erected in Hyde Park, London, England, to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. More than 14,000 exhibitors from around the world gathered in the Palace's of exhibition space to display examples of the latest technology developed in...

, a huge iron and glass building originally erected in Hyde Park
Hyde Park, London
Hyde Park is one of the largest parks in central London, United Kingdom, and one of the Royal Parks of London, famous for its Speakers' Corner.The park is divided in two by the Serpentine...

 in 19th century Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. The Infomart also contains a reproduction of the Crystal Fountain created by the same company, Barovier-Toso. Prince Charles visited the Infomart on February 18, 1986 and promotional materials stated that England’s Parliament declared the Infomart official successor to the Crystal Palace.

The Infomart was built with steel frame curtain wall construction. The building's hospital-grade electrical power is supplied by 4 independent electric feeds and six in-building transformer substations, providing a very reliable source. More than 16 fiber providers have a physical presence at the Infomart, allowing 8,700 strands of fiber into the building with bandwidth capacity near 26 trillion bytes per second.

Location

The Infomart is located at 1950 N. Stemmons Freeway
Interstate 35E (Texas)
Interstate 35E , an Interstate Highway, is the eastern half of Interstate 35 where it splits to serve different cities in Texas. I-35 splits into two branch routes, I-35W and I-35E at Hillsboro. I-35E runs north for , maintaining I-35's sequence of exit numbers. It runs through Dallas before...

 in the Market Center
Dallas Market Center
Dallas Market Center, located along Stemmons Freeway in Dallas, Texas , sits on of land and spans more than . Dallas Market Center is the international home of the lighting industry, a leader in home décor and the national home of the floral and Christmas industries.- The campus :The...

 neighborhood between Oak Lawn
Oak Lawn, Dallas
Oak Lawn is a neighborhood in Dallas, Texas , defined in Dallas City Ordinance 21859 as . The unofficial boundaries are Turtle Creek Boulevard, Central Expressway, the City of Highland Park, Inwood Road, and Harry Hines Boulevard. It is over in area...

 and Interstate 35E
Interstate 35E (Texas)
Interstate 35E , an Interstate Highway, is the eastern half of Interstate 35 where it splits to serve different cities in Texas. I-35 splits into two branch routes, I-35W and I-35E at Hillsboro. I-35E runs north for , maintaining I-35's sequence of exit numbers. It runs through Dallas before...

 near downtown
Downtown Dallas
Downtown Dallas is the Central Business District in Dallas, Texas USA, located in the geographic center of the city. The area termed "Downtown" has traditionally been defined as bounded by the downtown freeway loop: bounded on the east by I-345 Downtown Dallas is the Central Business District...

. It is served by DART's
Dallas Area Rapid Transit
The Dallas Area Rapid Transit authority is a transit agency based in Dallas, Texas . It operates buses, light rail, commuter rail, and high-occupancy vehicle lanes in Dallas and 12 of its suburbs...

 Market Center Station.
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