Articles about Architecture
Great Video of Museum of Nature & Science
Last week, James Williford brought us a great dispatch from the hard-hat tour of the Perot Museum of Nature & Science. If you were intrigued by that report, or even if you weren’t, you should watch this video from You+Dallas.
Notes From the Hard-Hat Tour of the Perot Museum of Nature and Science
Resistance is futile. Photo by James Williford
As promised, here is intern James Williford’s dispatch from the Perot Museum of Nature and Science:
The Newest Cube To Come to Dallas
By James Williford
“A large cube floating over a landscaped plinth.” That’s one of the phrases that the public relations folks at the new Perot Museum of Nature and Science chose to describe the building that, over the last two years, has risen out of the ground in downtown Dallas. “Plinth,” the informational packet handed out at today’s media tour helpfully explained, means “roof” — at least, according to whatever dictionary the Perot PR team relies on, that’s what it means. So we’re to imagine this rather severe-looking, 170-foot-high, 180,000-square-foot hexahedron hovering just above its 4.7-acre site next to Victory Park. Yes, hovering.
Pics of the Perot Museum of Nature and Science
Intern James Williford will be along a moment to give us a full account, but here are a couple photos from today’s hard-hat tour of the Perot Museum of Nature and Science. I can tell you two things, though, right here: 1) Construction continues apace. They will have their certificate of occupancy probably sometime in April, and the early 2013 estimate for the official opening is easily within reach. And 2) this place is going to be awesome.
Urban Expert to Downtown Boosters: Dallas Is Screwed
Read between the lines, and that’s what former CEOs for Cities CEO Carol Coletta said at yesterday’s annual Downtown Dallas Inc. luncheon. Details on FrontRow.
Our Favorite Pictures of 2011 From D Magazine
Dallas by night provided scenery worth capturing.
Selecting the most memorable images from D Magazine this year was tough. At first it was going to be a list of the 10 best, but that proved impossible. Then it was going to be the best 12 or 13, but that still left too many out. So I included even more.
See for yourself. Click here for my review of the best pictures of the year.
Museum of Nature & Science Reaches $185-Million Goal
Intern Jessica Melton covered this morning’s announcement from the museum.
The Museum of Nature & Science hosted a special event this morning to announce a $6 million donation from the Moody Foundation, marking the last amount needed to reach the museum’s $185-million goal.
The Perot Museum of Nature & Science is being built on a 4.7-acre at 1155 Broom St. It will now feature a Moody Family Children’s Museum and Robert and Anne Moody forum for children to come together and reflect upon what they learned in their time at the museum.
Franci Moody Dahlberg, trustee and executive director for the Moody Foundation, presented the donation and said she was “delighted” to be a part of the project.
After the donation was announced, a banner was let down saying the Perot Museum of Nature & Science: $185 million and counting.
“We didn’t really know we were going to get that ($185 million),” Forrest Hoglund says. “We’re going to build on this.”
The latter part of the sentence proved to be important as Hoglund noted the $185 million will allow the museum to be built, but to reach a world-class level they will still be seeking donations.
Dallas, Texas vs. St. Louis: The Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge vs. the Gateway Arch
In watching the World Series games between the Texas Rangers and the St. Louis Cardinals from St. Louis the last couple nights, it’s hard to believe that this:
The Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge, Dallas.
Will ever impress as much as this:
The Gateway Arch, St. Louis.
One of these things is not like the other.
Eric Nadel Sends Photos From Comerica Park in Detroit
"Getting ready for game. It's 2:00 EST. Psyched."
UPDATE, 2:33 pm: It’s raining in Detroit. We could be in for another delay.
Texas Rangers’ radio play-by-play announcer Eric Nadel is at Comerica Park in Detroit where the Rangers are getting ready to embarrass the Detroit Tigers. He sent a few pictures he took as he walked into the park. I urge you to turn off the sound on your TV and tune in to 103.3 ESPN Radio and listen to Nadel and (Tim’s buddy) Steve Busby call the game. First pitch at 3:19 PM CST. GO RANGERS!
Jump for more pictures.
New Goal in Life: Beat UTA Students at Something, Anything
I thought Park(ing) Day Dallas was a huge success. It was great seeing all the parking spots (51 in all) be transformed into museums, trails, lounges, and soccer fields. A lot of people weren’t really sure what was going on. But, as one guy said, they all seemed to enjoy coming out of their office buildings or apartments and stumbling onto something cool. The coordinators, Noah Jeppson, James Warton, and the crew with Downtown Dallas Inc., did a great job getting everything together in just eight weeks.
There were a lot of great spots that had good ideas. I thought our book swap area, complete with Dirt’s fantastic landscaping (I wanted to take the book tree home with me) and Half Price Book’s storytelling time, was a shoe-in for the win. But I was wrong. The winners of Dallas’ Park(ing) Day competition, judged by the guys from Better Block, went to RE, one of four UTA architecture teams that participated. This is the second time those students have beaten us (the first time was in June during the 72-Hour Challenge). So I emailed Wanda Dye, assistant professor of architecture, and told her that it’s now my goal in life to beat her students at something. She was very nice in her response. “We do have an advantage of having time!” she says. She made Park(ing) Day part of her students’ class work. The winning scheme was called “The Bird’s Nest.” Watch Robbie Curtis’ video, and you’ll see where the inspiration came from.
And for those of you who are against pop-up ideas, saying that it creates no real difference in a community, here’s this: Dustin Bullard, cityscape and urban design manager at Downtown Dallas Inc., says there are some semi-permanent plans in the works. “Based on the success of Park(ing) Day, DDI wold like to work with the city and stakeholders to create longer term installations that could be rotated around downtown.” For example, in San Francisco, they have dumpsters with plants and seating that they rotate throughout their downtown. I hope this happens. Seeing all the people, the parks, and the excitement on Friday demonstrated the great potential downtown Dallas has. I’d like to see this potential realized.
Bless the Downtown Dallas Tunnels, and Skyways
Corner of Akard and Patterson
I’ve walked by this architectural oddity (at right) jutting out of the side of the Spurgeon Harris building in downtown Dallas hundreds of times since D Magazine World Headquarters relocated in fall 2009. Usually the weather is far too decent for me to think anything other than “what the hell is that?” as I go by.
But today I was inspired by the continuous extreme heat to do something more. I was certain that I was somehow being a sucker for walking all the way down to one of my favored lunch spots near Thanksgiving Square while exposed to the sun’s onslaught. I was certain there must be a better way. And there is.
Today, for the first time, I discovered the missing link. I discovered this link in much the same way that Columbus discovered America. Because my colleagues and I were ignorant of it, I believe I have a right to claim it as our own. Regardless of how many Dallas office drones have tread upon it before.
For this strange structure is part of the skyway that made it possible for me to go nearly the entire distance between Thanksgiving Tower and the garage directly across from our office without suffering heat stroke. (And Krista will be able to walk home indoors, assuming she can leave here during business hours.) As portions of the tunnels cannot accurately be described as featuring “air-conditioned comfort,” I’m looking forward even more to using this system when it’s pouring rain. If 1600 Pacific weren’t closed, I could get all the way to the Bank of America building and back.
Vibrant street life be damned. We need our tunnels.
Museum Tower Forces Nasher to Shutter Tending, (Blue)
Museum Tower is walking to the sky and beginning to interfere with James Turrell’s Tending, (Blue). So the Nasher has closed the installation in its garden. Peter Simek has details and pics on FrontRow. But as I said over on that post, I think the Nasher is being shortsighted about this.
They’ve closed Tending to mollify Turrell, but seeing the pictures on FrontRow actually makes me want to go visit the installation. When Museum Tower is finished, it will clearly destroy what Turrell intended. But right now the tower is like a giant, living Alexander Calder mobile. Men are crawling all over it, that crane is swinging around, unpredictably entering the view from the Tending aperture.
Come on, Nasher. We want to watch.
President Clinton With Harvey Lacey’s Ubuntu-Blox
In our July issue, I wrote about Harvey Lacey and his idea for building low-cost homes out of plastic blocks made from trash. Harvey had been hoping to get to Haiti to start field-testing the idea. He hasn’t made it — yet — but his blocks have. And they met Bill Clinton.
Is Our Calatrava Bridge a Copy of Reggio Emilia’s?
If I were part of Margaret Hunt Hill’s family and saw this picture, I’d ask for some of my money back.
Statler Finds a New Owner
I love the Statler. I love its history. I love its eerily glooming bottom floor. I love the idea of its potential. And apparently so does developer Leobardo Trevino, of Ricchi Dallas Investments. He just recently bought the hotel from a developer who didn’t do much with the place. Trevino has released some sketches of the proposed renovations, but there aren’t many details beyond that. Regardless, I’m excited.
Construction Update: The Park
Katie Minchew is looking ahead on construction at The Park.
It’s official. The Park being built over the Woodall Rodgers Freeway is not going to remain a mess of concrete box beams and conduit wires forever. There’s a plan in place.
On Wednesday I spoke with Jim Burnett, president of the Office of James Burnett, design lead for The Park. Although it is a little quiet at the landscaping office right now, starting in about three or four months “things will start to get geared up,” Burnett says. They will begin examining materials and products, signing off on them to be used, approving or disapproving samples, exciting stuff. “Landscape construction will start in a big way toward the end of this year.”
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