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Blazing heat of Texas can't hold a candle to the cold of the HyattWhile the temperature was expected to reach a sizzling 108 degrees in Dallas on Wednesday, guests of the Hyatt Regency Dallas, headquarters hotel for the 2003 NABJ convention, were seen walking around the hotel wearing sweaters and jackets. Some attendees had expected problems from exposure to the wide variance in outdoor and indoor temperatures. "I'll probably wind up with pneumonia by the end of the week," said Kevin Shaw, one of the general service contractors in charge of setting up the NABJ JobFair. Art Norman, reporter/anchor at NBC5 in Chicago, said he had to get up in the middle of the night to turn off the air conditioning in his room because it was too cold. Norman said this is one of the "coldest" conventions he has attended. The atmospheric temperature was hotter during the convention held in Phoenix, he said, but the hotel did better at controlling room temperatures. After being hit with the scorching Dallas heat, some guests said they welcomed the cool air inside. Kareem Copeland, who arrived at the conference from Wisconsin, said he was shocked at how hot it was when he arrived. Gerald B. Jordan, an associate professor at the University of Arkansas, said he was not worried about the coolness inside because the body heat from more people arriving at the hotel would warm things up. "As it [the hotel] fills up the temperature will change in a heartbeat." Claricia Collins, an employee of the Centennial Café in the Hyatt, suggested that the cold temperatures were a result of the hotel trying to cool the atrium, which is encased in glass. Fillip Martin, assistant director of engineering for the Hyatt, said it is difficult to keep the hotel at a temperature that would satisfy so many people from different parts of the country, who as individuals may be more sensitive to fluctuations in temperatures. "There's always going to be some people too hot, too cold, and some people just right." The building uses two systems for cooling. One is controlled by a thermostat and affects the guest rooms and some meeting rooms. The other is controlled by a computer, which covers 75 percent of the building, including the atrium. The hotel tries to set the air conditioning according to the time of the event, the outdoor temperature and the number of participants expected for a particular event, Martin said. The aim is to have an indoor temperature of 72-73 degrees during the summer. Still, Martin said he knows the average feels different to people from different places and with different sensitivities. Kari A. Alexander can be reached at kari35220@hotmail.com |
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