The 1851 Crystal Palace - The Inspiration for the Infomart

    Just north of downtown on I-35 is one of DFW's most iconic structures, the Informart.


Dallas' Infomart, built as a tribute to London's Crystal Palace

The high tech stop on the information highway is designed to recall a structure built in London in 1851 for the Great Exhibition , one of the earliest World Fair type attractions.

The original Crystal Palace in it's second location in south London


   The building, dubbed The Crystal Palace, was an engineering marvel for it's time. It housed 14,000 exhibitors and it's glass ceiling and walls made it possible for the building exist without interior lighting. The technology to create large panes that formed the glass walls and ceiling possible had only been in existence for a few years.  Over 6 million people visited the Exhibition and the Palace during its 5 1/2 month run, equivalent to one out of every thee people who lived in England at the time.

   In 1854, the building was moved to the Sydenham Hillneighborhood in South London. The neighborhood was later renamed Crystal Palace for its famous landmark.  The football (soccer) club Crystal Palace F.C. was formed in 1905 and played in a stadium near the Glass Building.

The Logo of Crystal Palace F.C. soccer club features the building the suburb was named after 


   By the 1930's the building was in a serious state of decline. Many of the glass panels had been broken and had been replaced with wooden panels. In 1936, the Crystal Palace with's wooden floor, panels and furniture caught on fire. It took 400 firemen to extinguish the blaze. The flames inside the glass walls could be seen for miles. The building was a total loss. It was never rebuilt.

After the 1936 fire, very little remained of the Crystal Palace

   In 1985, Trammel Crow built the Infomart in Dallas modeled after the Crystal Palace. Built on the site of the Dallas Independent School District's Cobb Stadium, the Infomart was originally part of Dallas' World Trade Center. Today, it stands in tribute to a revolutionary structure, London's Crystal Palace





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