Look up at the imposing glass giant on your left. This is Renaissance Tower. Back when it was finished in 1974, it was the undisputed king of Dallas at 710 feet tall. But in a city driven by constant one-upmanship, crowns are heavy and easily lost.
By 1985, newer skyscrapers were popping up, and an enormous new neighbor called the Bank of America Plaza dwarfed this place. The building's owners at the time, Prudential, were not about to slide down the rankings quietly. So, they commissioned a dramatic redesign in 1986. They added an elaborate double X pattern of exterior lighting across the facade, which quickly earned the high-rise a popular local nickname among residents... the Dos Equis building.
But cool lights do not win skyline wars. Pull up your app to see the 2009 skyline and focus on the roof of this tower. See those structural towers? They slapped a 176-foot central spire up there purely as a vanity project, a way to artificially inflate the building's height just to beat out their sleeker rivals. It was a brazen move that pushed the overall structural height to 886 feet, successfully reclaiming its title as the second-tallest building in Dallas.
That kind of extreme drive seems to attract people with equally wild ambitions. Take Dan Goodwin, for example. On his twenty-sixth birthday in November 1981, Goodwin walked right up to the base of this tower. He was dressed as a homeless vagrant to avoid getting stopped by the cops. Once he got close to the glass, he stripped off his disguise to reveal a full Spider-Man costume. Then, using nothing but homemade suction cups on his hands and feet, he started climbing the outside of the building.
Goodwin was a high-rise rescue advocate. He had witnessed the horrific 1980 MGM Grand hotel fire in Las Vegas, and he became absolutely obsessed with proving that exterior rescues on skyscrapers were physically possible. He also dedicated this dangerous climb to a young boy with cystic fibrosis he had recently met.
The Dallas police and fire departments scrambled to stop him, but he eluded them the entire way up. When Goodwin finally pulled himself over the ledge onto the roof, the officers waiting for him were so blown away that they actually shook his hand in admiration... right before arresting him for criminal trespassing. He bailed out the next day and hilariously gave a press conference while still wearing his superhero suit.
Picture yourself dangling from the side of that sheer glass cliff with nothing but suction cups keeping you alive. What really drives someone to take such an extraordinary, public risk?
It is just one human matching the audacious ambition of the building itself. Just a quick heads up, the building is open Monday through Friday from 7 AM to 7 PM and closed on weekends, in case you ever want to explore the underground food court. Let us keep moving... First National Bank Tower is just a three minute walk from here.
