Dallas is soon to be the center of the worlds art scene.

The Dallas Center for the Performing Arts, a new multi-venue Center for music, opera, theater and dance will open in 2009, completing the 25-year dream of the Dallas Arts District. The most significant performing arts complex to be built since Lincoln Center in New York, the Center will provide multi-state-of-the-art facilities woven together by an urban park covering more than ten acres to create a dynamic cultural destination that is unparalleled in the world.

The Dallas Center for the Performing Arts will create new landmarks on the Dallas skyline, with stunning buildings designed by some of the world's greatest architects:

• The Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House brings the design of the grandest opera halls in Europe into the 21st century, with a transparent, welcoming space that will become a focal point of the Dallas Arts District.

• One of the world's most innovative theatres, the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre will be an unprecedented, "stacked," vertically constructed venue that completely rethinks the traditional form of theatre.

• The new Annette Strauss Artist Square will be home to the city's greatest outdoor performing arts productions.

• The City Performance Hall will provide main stage production space for many of Dallas’ smaller performing arts organizations.

• The new ten-acre Performance Park will surround the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts, creating an oasis for visitors.

• An underground parking structure will accommodate 600 vehicles.

• 42 St Museum Tower

• 24 St One Arts Plaza Tower

• 2 More Arts Plaza Towers are planed as well.

• Booker T Washington Center for Performing Arts Expansion

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Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre

The Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre will be one of the world’s most innovative theatre facilities. The 12-level building will feature a groundbreaking design with an unprecedented “stacked,” vertically organized facility that completely rethinks the traditional form of theatre.

Unlike a typical theatre setting, this unique design for the Wyly Theatre places these spaces either above or below the auditorium, enabling maximum interaction and flexibility of performance space and seating. The facility’s advanced mechanized “superfly” system can pull up both scenery and seating, allowing artistic directors to rapidly change the venue to a wide array of configurations, including proscenium, thrust, arena, flat floor and traverse, depending on stage configuration. The flexibility of the facility will allow the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts to host a wide range of performances at the Wyly Theatre, including classical and experimental drama, dance and musical productions, world-renowned vocalists, as well as lectures and films.

The interchangeable structural components of the building and transparent exterior will allow for outside pedestrian views into the Wyly Theatre, as well as audience views of the surrounding outdoor areas.
Design of the Wyly Theatre is by REX/OMA, Joshua Prince-Ramus (Partner in Charge) and Rem Koolhaas.

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Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House.

Designed by Foster + Partners under Pritzker Prize-winning architect Norman Foster and Senior Design Partner Spencer de Grey, the Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House will be engineered specifically for performances of opera and musical theatre, with stages equipped for performances of ballet and other forms of dance.

A 21st century reinterpretation of the traditional “horseshoe” opera house, the 2,200-seat Winspear’s principal performance space, the Margaret McDermott Performance Hall, is designed to be the standard upon which all 21st century opera houses will be measured.

The opera house’s principal entrance, the Gateway, features the Annette and Harold Simmons Signature Glass Façade that ascends to the full 60-foot height of the building creating a seamless flow between the opera house and the surrounding park. The transparent façade provides dramatic views of McDermott Performance Hall, which will be clad in vibrant red glass panels, as well as the Grand Lobby, the staircase and the Mary Anne and Richard Cree Box Circle and Grand Tier levels. From within the Winspear Opera House, the Simmons Glass Façade provides a sweeping view of downtown Dallas.

Radiating from the Winspear Opera House on all sides, the Grand Portico will provide shade over three acres of the Performance Park, creating new outdoor spaces for visitors to gather and relax.

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Booker T Washington Center for Performing Arts

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Museum Tower (42 Stories)

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City of Dallas Performance Hall

Designed by the Skidmore Owings and Merrill and constructed by the City of Dallas, the City Performance Hall will be a 750-seat, acoustically sound space that will provide main stage production space for Dallas’ smaller performing arts organizations.

Dallas is soon to be the center of the worlds art scene.


The development of the Arts District, especially after hearing about it for decades, is exciting for Dallas. However, saying that Dallas will soon be the center of the world's art scene is just a bit over the top.

This indeed looks like one of North America's most exciting developments imo. With Victory and this, the area around dt Dallas will only improve the area by at least 1000%. Wow, how exciting.

Museum Tower looks awesome

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Pictures from maconahey

The development of the Arts District, especially after hearing about it for decades, is exciting for Dallas. However, saying that Dallas will soon be the center of the world's art scene is just a bit over the top.

I agree. Some nice developments there in the Arts District. Reminds me of what the Houston Theater District.

The development of the Arts District, especially after hearing about it for decades, is exciting for Dallas. However, saying that Dallas will soon be the center of the world's art scene is just a bit over the top.

I had a laugh at this statement as well. I can't imagine Dallas overtaking London, Paris, Barcelona or Amsterdam in terms of artistic clought.

I had a laugh at this statement as well. I can't imagine Dallas overtaking London, Paris, Barcelona or Amsterdam in terms of artistic clought.

Dallas has a big under ground art scene. And Amsterdam is artistic? I thought it was the Pot capital of the world.

good

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Pictures from jsoto3

Dallas has a big under ground art scene. And Amsterdam is artistic? I thought it was the Pot capital of the world.

:lol:

that was funny. More than amsterdam I find it difficult for the city to reach the artistic fertility found in a city like New York (the city with most theaters in the world). Then just add the Metropolitan museum, the Guggenheim museum, the MoMa....plus Broadway that has created a new art and talents famous around the world and many other museums, galleries, art schools (it has been elected by many artist the artistic capital of the world toghether with Paris. way on top of Amsterdam that is, nonetheless, a charming city).

This doesn't mean Dallas is nothing or that is a horrible city. The skyline is one of my favorites in the world, and this project demonstrates it is investing in art, something that has always a gain, not always economic.
Hope other cities in america and in the world follow its example.

With the opening of the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts in 2009, Dallas will have the distinction of being the only city in the world with four buildings designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architects located in one contiguous block, including two of the Center’s venues— the Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House designed by Norman Foster and the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre, designed by Joshua Prince-Ramus and Pritzker Prize-winner Rem Koolhaas—as well as the Nasher Sculpture Center designed by Renzo Piano and The Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center designed by I.M. Pei.

I think Dallas is my favorite city in Texas now.

^^ Fare Enough, Chicago has always been my favorite City outside of Texas.

Dallas is soon to be the center of the worlds art scene.


:lol:


nevertheless nice project

This is an awesome project for Dallas. It's going to be great.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvkonDJSXkk

Arts center to bring in touring shows
Broadway series will directly compete with Dallas Summer Musicals

08:18 PM CDT on Thursday, March 27, 2008
By LAWSON TAITTE / The Dallas Morning News ltaitte@dallasnews.com

Dallas will soon have two separate groups presenting Broadway shows.

The Dallas Center for the Performing Arts will announce today that it has hired Shorenstein Hays Nederlander (SHN) as the consultant to bring touring musicals to the new Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House, which is set to open in the downtown Arts District late next year.

The center told Mayor Tom Leppert and the City Council on Thursday via fax. City leaders had been trying to help the center and the Dallas Summer Musicals reach a compromise that would let the Summer Musicals use the Winspear in addition to the two venues it already controls, Fair Park Music Hall and the Majestic Theatre.

Thursday, however, center chairman Howard Hallam sent a letter to Summer Musicals chairman Stanley D. Gardner and president Michael A. Jenkins saying their proposal had been rejected. It cited two reasons: The center wanted to retain control of which shows played in the Winspear, and the center did not think it fair to offer the Summer Musicals the same rate as its two resident companies, the Dallas Opera and Texas Ballet Theater.

The Summer Musicals did not join the original groups that founded the center in 2000 because Mr. Jenkins thought that the opera house needed more than 2,300 seats to make it viable for touring shows. Lately, though, he has been working toward a compromise that would allow the Summer Musicals to present there.

"We were quite honestly shocked. I think it's a huge misstep for the city of Dallas and the Center for the Performing Arts," Mr. Jenkins said late Thursday. "We had been working for a long time to reach an agreement that would keep these venues from cannibalizing each other."

The Summer Musicals is presenting 17 shows in its two venues this season. The center plans to begin with four or five touring shows. Mr. Jenkins says there may not be enough shows available to fill both seasons, and that the future of the Summer Musicals could be jeopardized.

Some civic leaders still held out hope. Council member Mitchell Rasansky, who has been heavily involved in the negotiations, said he spent three hours with both sides Thursday on the issue. But from the way the center's president, Mr. Lively, was talking, the SHN hire was a done deal.

"We spent four years interviewing the Dallas Summer Musicals and other groups. We wanted to get the very best product and still keep the charges low enough to achieve the most income to ensure the financial stability of the center," Mr. Lively said

Mr. Lively said that at least six other American cities have more than one Broadway series. But Mr. Jenkins pointed out that in most of those cities, the separate series are confined to different seasons of the year and don't compete directly.

The new consultants bring along some credentials. Carole Shorenstein Hays is a major Broadway producer. Her co-owner, Robert Nederlander, is related to the owners of the Nederlander Organization, which partners with the Dallas Summer Musicals in Troika Entertainment. SNH owns and manages three theaters in San Francisco.

"The center board and staff want to be on the front lines of all the planning. We will take our lead from them," Greg Holland, CEO of SNH, said Thursday.

Several city leaders expressed concern that the center had chosen an out-of-state for-profit group rather than a local nonprofit group.

"I'm sad that the process did not work its way through," council member Carolyn R. Davis, who represents the Fair Park area, said. "This could have been a win-win situation for the city of Dallas."

Staff writer Rudolph Bush contributed to this story.

Dallas' renovated Booker T. Washington arts magnet school ready to reopen
10:50 PM CDT on Saturday, April 19, 2008

By KENT FISCHER / The Dallas Morning News
kfischer@dallasnews.com
Two years ago, Dallas school officials faced withering criticism over their decision to relocate students from the Booker T. Washington arts magnet school to a damp, run-down shopping center in central Oak Cliff.

On Monday, all will be forgotten as students return to their home campus, a refurbished, expanded and all-around brand-new $55 million school.

"It's absolutely beautiful, the new building. The restored 1922 building is absolutely gorgeous, too," said principal Ruth Woodward. "It couldn't be more thrilling for all of us. It's been a lot of hard work on everybody's part, and as one of my students said this afternoon, it was a real team effort."

The original building – the city's first black high school – was gutted and now houses an art gallery, a theater and a museum of sorts to display school and alumni memorabilia. A new 170,000-square-foot facility extends behind the old school, wrapping around a large courtyard, called the Green Room.

Danny Gross, a student in the school's theater program, said kids can't wait to get into the new Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts.

Students will "be able to let our creative juices flow more creatively in the new building," he said. "And since we are going to be in the middle of the Arts District, we will be influenced and nurtured by other artists sharing our passions and goals."

The school is on Flora Street in downtown Dallas, near the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center and the Dallas Museum of Art.

The school's opening culminates years of effort to raise more than $33 million to help defray construction costs for one of the district's most renowned programs. The district paid another $23 million toward construction through its 2002 bond program.

"It's a wonderful collaboration with the district and the advisory board and the citizens of Dallas and all the donors," Mrs. Woodward said. "It's remarkable and thrilling for all of us."

While the historic original building will retain the Booker T. Washington name, the new facility will be known as the Hamon Arts Magnet, in honor of Dallas philanthropist Nancy Hamon, who contributed $10 million to the project.

Student Emily Domhoff, a singer, said she and her classmates are "stoked" to get out of their temporary facility and into "their own space."

Video
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Toping off Wyly
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Toping off Wyly
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good to see the project following smoothly. Can't wait to see it completed, it will be gorgeous!

Good project principally. I would have prefered it to look more urban and some clearer generel structure, maybe with all those cultural building forming together a pedestrianized center of this new art district.

Of course thats a question of personal taste though.


PS:
Claiming Dallas to become the very worldwide center of arts is obviously way over the top. Its pretty much impossible that it could even dreaming of beating heavyweigths like New York or Paris. I believe that Vienna can dare to risk a comparison as well. But thats not the point anyway, is it? One does not need to be very center of the world to be of significance.

PS:
Claiming Dallas to become the very worldwide center of arts is obviously way over the top. Its pretty much impossible that it could even dreaming of beating heavyweigths like New York or Paris. I believe that Vienna can dare to risk a comparison as well. But thats not the point anyway, is it? One does not need to be very center of the world to be of significance.

Having lived in New Braunfels, TX, now currently residing in Copenhagen and travelling all over the world, I can only say, that the Dallas projects look awesome, however, such plans and ambitions are realized or in the pipe-line all over the world these days. Just take a look at the Copenhagen thread below for instance:)

The Dallas arts scene needs to catch up with Houston first. They're on the right track though.

The Dallas arts scene needs to catch up with Houston first. They're on the right track though.

HAHAHA
right, Houston has to borrow its art scene, ive been there an seen it, Dallas is caught up if not past it already.

http://www.dallasperformingarts.org/index.aspx

Final Renderings, models and cut aways of the City Performance Hall.

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^^A bit Utzon-like.

Photo Updates from maconahey

Winspear Opera House
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Wyly Theatre
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JPI Realtors is building new apartments on the site next to One Arts Tower, ground work just kicked off.

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Photo by Maconahey
6/29/08
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Builders flip the script to construct Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre in Dallas
11:30 PM CDT on Tuesday, July 29, 2008

By JENNI BEAUCHAMP / The Dallas Morning News
jbeauchamp@dallasnews.com
Designers of the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre boast that when it opens next year, it will be one of the most innovative theaters in the world.

But getting there has required some innovative construction methods.

The 10-story building (plus three underground levels) is being built from the top down. That's because most of the Wyly's floors sit – indeed, seem to float – atop what will be its airy, glass-sheathed auditorium.

Building the facility in the conventional way – from the ground up – just wasn't possible, said Jeff Wagner, senior project manager for McCarthy Building Companies, the project's general contractor.

"If we built this in another sequence, the building would want to pull itself apart," he said.

"This is a high-rise theater. I don't think there is any other in the world."

The floor of the theater includes a series of movable platforms that can be raised and lowered during events.

These platforms, Mr. Wagner said, "cannot support the weight of construction equipment, lifts or scaffolding" needed to build the higher floors. So that "high work" had to be finished before completion of the theater space.

The glass-enclosed theater is held up on three sides by thin, angled concrete beams. The fourth side is the enclosure's one solid wall.

Until those beams could be poured and set, six huge steel supports had to be erected to hold up the construction above.

Once the concrete beams were in place, the steel supports were no longer needed. They came down this month.

It took the contractors several drafts to come up with a plan for carrying out the dramatic vision of the building's architects, Rem Koolhaas and Joshua Prince-Ramus.

"This is far and away my most complicated project," Mr. Wagner said. "The biggest hurdle was trying to engineer how to construct the structure. We didn't anticipate the duration or complexity that would require. We modified our plan ... 50 times."

The theater chamber, with a seating capacity of 600, will be blacked out for performances, using electric shades on tracks built into the glass. The shades are patterned; on the inside, the audience will see a forest motif. On the outside will be a pattern of folded silver curtains.

"They wanted a very intimate stage. They want you to feel really, really special when you are in here. And you will," Mr. Wagner said.

Also under construction in the Dallas Arts District is the Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House.

With the completion of the Winspear and the Wyly, Dallas will be the world's only city with four buildings in a contiguous block all designed by winners of the Pritzker Prize, one of architecture's most prestigious awards:

•Mr. Koolhaas (the Wyly)

•Norman Foster (the Winspear)

•I.M. Pei (the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center)

•Renzo Piano (the Nasher Sculpture Center)

A fifth Pritzker winner, Thom Mayne, is designing the Perot Museum of Nature & Science in nearby Victory Park.

I didn't mean my last post to be insulting. Houston's Theatre District is quite impressive, and Dallas will likely surpass it once all these projects are completed. I'll stay respectful though, regarding Chicago's arts scene. ;)

This development is really changing the downtown area of Dallas, is looking awesome.

from SDORN

Wyly
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Winspear
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Some Photos I took this weekend

3 buildings designed by Pritzker Winning Architects in one shot.....awesome
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sad
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Performing Arts School
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What the Art district is
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What it will be
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More to come

as prommised....MORE

Winspear
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Wyly
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Billingsley Co. plans second high-rise in Dallas' downtown Arts District.
10:45 PM CDT on Wednesday, August 27, 2008
By STEVE BROWN / The Dallas Morning News
stevebrown@dallasnews.com
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/stories/DN-twoarts_28bus.State.Edition1.3f3cd7f.html

Developer Billingsley Co. is finalizing plans for its second high-rise in Dallas' downtown Arts District. Two Arts Plaza will include more office and retail space, condos plus loft-style residences on the lower floors and an urban park. "The next one will be a little more feminine than the first building but still contemporary and true to the neighborhood," said developer Lucy Billingsley.

Earlier this year, she finished the $150 million, 24-story One Arts Plaza at Routh and Flora streets. The second building will be just north of One Arts Plaza at Routh and Woodall Rodgers Freeway. The most eye-catching addition to the project will be a park and retail complex with swooping lawns and landscaping.

At the base of the new high-rise, Billingsley Co. plans to construct a five-story building with loft residences overlooking the park. Two Arts Plaza was designed by architect Morrison Seifert Murphy, which also did the first tower. A marketing center is expected to open in October to seek residents and office tenants for the new tower.

"The whole aim is to get a lead office tenant and let it roll," Ms. Billingsley said. "We'll take the risk and build the condos. "We are not dreaming with this – we are just trying to get a deal done." Construction is to begin next year. The initial building kicked off the Arts District building boom and is now almost fully leased to office tenants including 7-Eleven Inc. and law firm Thompson Knight. And all the lower-level retail space has been rented. More than two-thirds of the condos at the top of the tower have been sold.

Some images from today's DMN:
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/pt/slideshows/2008/08/business/

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^^^^ great:cheers:

yep, truly a masterpiece!!!:okay:

Is the carpark really part of the design?... that's very, Texas.

http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/7049/picture2sp9.png

I really like this awesome grass wave thing though. This whole development is 'the shit'.

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Is the carpark really part of the design?... that's very, Texas.

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O god...let me give you the "history" of the "Car Park"

from long ago......

What's wrong with this picture?


October 31, 2003

By STEVE BROWN / The Dallas Morning News

The Meyerson Symphony Center anchors the Arts District and dominates the northeast corner of the downtown skyline.

But right across the street from the Meyerson is another landmark that's often overlooked.

The jumble of rust-streaked concrete columns between Flora Street and Ross Avenue is all that's left of a developer's dream.

In the 1980s, a Chicago builder started work on twin 50-story skyscrapers. But a real estate crash killed the deal, and nothing was built but the foundation.

http://classifieds.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/realestate/realestatenews/L_IMAGE.f88d5cfcee.93.88.fa.80.36b1026.jpg

Allison V. Smith / DMN

The foundation of Lone Star Plaza is artistic in its own right, but it's all that was ever built of planned 50-story towers.
The site is emblematic of the Arts District's history with the private sector.

Almost $500 million has been spent on infrastructure and cultural facilities, but private developers have for the most part been out of the game.

"We are still waiting for the economics of development in the Arts District to catch up with the cultural amenities that are on the ground," said developer John Sughrue, who owns several properties in the area. "Everyone thought it would happen a lot sooner."

Now, with the opening of the Nasher Sculpture Center and the building boom in nearby Uptown, developers are taking another look at the Arts District.

"The Nasher has refocused attention on the area," Mr. Sughrue said. "And I think people expect to see things happening down there."

High hopes are nothing new in the Arts District. In the 1980s, you couldn't have found a hotter chunk of real estate on the planet.

Before the Dallas Museum of Art – the first cultural facility there – opened its doors in 1984, developers were buying up land between Ross Avenue and Woodall Rodgers and making big plans. Land quickly hit almost $300 per square foot.

Properties traded and flipped, and architects designed futuristic towers for every corner.

Along with the art museum and the symphony hall, proposals for the district included millions of square feet of office space, hundreds of rental units, and lavish shops, studios and galleries for artists.

Developers including Lincoln Property Co., Bright Banc and Metropolitan Structures of Chicago announced plans for almost a dozen office towers for the district.

The construction plans reached the point that art critics fretted that all the skyscrapers would keep the DMA's sculpture garden in perpetual shadow.

Such worries were misplaced.

In the end, only one office tower – the 50-story Trammell Crow Center at Ross and Harwood Street – was built. And much of the Arts District remains pretty much as it looked in the early 1980s.

http://classifieds.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/realestate/realestatenews/L_IMAGE.f88d5cfcee.93.88.fa.80.369be78.jpg

This 50-story tower never made it off the drawing board.

Prime development tracts are still occupied by crumbling parking lots, scruffy vacant land and decrepit buildings.

Phil Montgomery, whose P.O'B. Montgomery & Co. was instrumental in early coordination of the Arts District, said the area never gained the critical mass of private sector construction needed to spur continued building.

"But I think having the Arts District helped stabilize downtown a lot more than if we had done none of that," Mr. Montgomery said.

And he credits the Arts District with kicking off the housing boom in the nearby State Thomas district of Uptown. "The creation of the district meant a lot to Uptown and all those new housing units."

Dallas architect Graham Greene still hasn't given up the notion of building luxury housing in the Arts District. He and partners own the block across the street from the Nasher Sculpture Center at Flora and Olive streets.

In 1998, Mr. Greene announced plans for condominiums and retail space on the site.

"We have delayed development of our site because of Sept. 11 and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq," he said. "But we haven't given up our plans."

Mr. Greene wants to eventually develop an eight-story building on the block with about 80 residences.

"We believe that residential development is the best thing that can happen for downtown Dallas and the Arts District," he said. "If there was less uncertainty about the economy, we would move forward."

A landmark, of sorts

Another prime Arts District development tract – the Stonehenge-like Lone Star Plaza site across from the Meyerson – is in the hands of Dallas real estate investor and developer Craig Hall.

While Mr. Hall has shown that he's not afraid of taking risks with other investments, so far he hasn't pulled the switch to start work on the Lone Star Plaza site.

He's owned the building site, which sits on top of an underground parking garage, since 1995.

"I still think I'm two or three years away from building something there," said Mr. Hall, who has hired architect HKS Inc. to design a 12- or 13-story office building with residential space on top.

"Unfortunately, the market down there is just not ready for office and residential construction," he said. "I think the Nasher Sculpture Center is fantastic and a tribute to Ray Nasher that he did it.

"But I don't think it will have an immediate impact on development in the area," Mr. Hall said. "In any other city, it would be a home run."

The largest undeveloped tract in the Arts District is held by another experienced developer, Lucy Crow Billingsley.

She has almost 10 acres at the east end of the district at the end of Flora Street.

Ms. Billingsley said her family began assembling the land in the late 1970s with an eye toward building high-rise office, hotel or residential space.

"I imagined back then that downtown Dallas would have tremendous growth, and the heart of the city would have expanded to the Arts District," she said. "But it never happened."

Ms. Billingsley said she still hopes to build high-rise residential on the land someday. And she's held discussions with the Dallas Museum of Natural History about perhaps locating there as well.

"But I'm real flexible," she said. "If something doesn't transpire, we will wait and see what the development and resurgence of downtown calls for."

Work in progress

Mr. Sughrue isn't waiting.

His Brook Partners is converting the former Southwestern Life Insurance Co. building at Ross and St. Paul across from the DMA into first-class office space and a wholesale apparel mart.

In the 1980s, the block was slated to be demolished to make way for a row of skyscrapers. Twenty years later, the old buildings are getting a new look.

And Mr. Sughrue is selling a small block at the north end of his property to a cultural group.

"There is going to be a priority placed on proximity to these incredible cultural institutions," he said. "We believe we are getting closer to the day we can support high-rise residences or an additional office tower.

"We're close, but that's not today," he said.

Mr. Sughrue blames runaway land speculation and the real estate market crash in the 1980s with keeping the Arts District off most builders' maps.

"Land values in the Arts District today are more than 50 percent less than what they were 15 years ago, but they are still too high for most retail and residential development," he said. "If current trends continue, we are going to see quality private development again in the Arts District."

These are the towers that are supposed to be on the "Stonehenge" parking garage that is left that looks NOTHING like the render up top.
http://www.greenargon.com/bldg/images/0250.jpg

Dallas Center for the Performing Arts lands $15 million windfall, improves design
08:02 AM CDT on Monday, September 22, 2008

By SCOTT CANTRELL / The Dallas Morning News
scantrell@dallasnews.com

The Dallas Center for the Performing Arts has landed its third-largest contribution and a new, improved design for outdoor spaces around the Winspear Opera House and Wyly Theatre, now under construction.

Thanks to a $15 million gift from Sammons Enterprises Inc., the 10-acre park in the downtown Arts District will be named the Elaine D. and Charles A. Sammons Park.

In response to criticism of initial designs for the park, French landscape architect Michel Desvigne and the Chicago firm JJR have produced a simpler, calmer plan that is more coherent and will compete less with the adjacent buildings, designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architects.

Scheduled to open in fall 2009, the center's Winspear was designed by Foster + Partners, the Wyly by REX/OMA (Joshua Prince-Ramus and Rem Koolhaas). The adjacent 19-year-old Meyerson Symphony Center was designed by I.M. Pei.

The two largest gifts to the performing arts center came earlier in the fundraising campaign: $42 million from Margot and the late Bill Winspear for the opera house and $20 million from Dee and Charles Wyly and Cheryl and Sam Wyly for the theater. To date, the campaign has raised more than $325 million toward a goal of $338 million.

"To get a gift of this significance at this point in the campaign is really remarkable," Mr. Lively said. "It gives us the incentive and momentum to push to the end."

Founded by Mr. Sammons in 1962, Sammons Enterprises evolved out of a stock-life insurance company. At one point, Sammons Enterprises included everything from financial-services companies to hotel properties to bottled water, and it was one of the first investors in cable television.

Today, Sammons Enterprises is a diversified holding company that employs more than 4,300 in the United States, Mexico and the United Kingdom. One of the largest privately held companies in Dallas, the firm has operations including insurance and construction-equipment companies and the Grove Park Inn Resort & Spa in Asheville, N.C.

Since Mr. Sammons' death in 1988, his wife, Elaine, has been chairwoman of the company and a philanthropist and arts patron. A contribution from the couple helped establish Dallas' Sammons Center for the Arts, which provides permanent office and rehearsal spaces for 12 performing arts organizations and is used by more than 40 groups for performances, rehearsals and meetings.

"Sammons Park will be a refreshing venue for all the people of Dallas – those attending the symphony, opera or theater, as well as families and those who work and live downtown," said Sammons Enterprises CEO Robert Korba. "It will host cultural events, outdoor art exhibits and outdoor performances."

A 'calmed' design
The previous design, unveiled in September 2006, drew a dismissive review from longtime Dallas Morning News architecture critic David Dillon, who described what was then called Performance Park as "a potpourri of discrete elements in search of a larger idea."

"Performance Park turns [out] to be more miniature golf course than grand civic space, with water hazards, tiny fairways, everything except the flags for pin placement. ...

"The park is overwrought and unresolved, with no clear center, no hierarchy or crisp spatial definition."

Stung, the performing arts center and its landscape designers regrouped and assembled a peer-review panel including Frederick Steiner, dean of the University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture, and Dr. Dillon, who by then had left the staff of The News.

"We as a group, with our clients, revisited the design," said Debra Mitchell, senior vice president of JJR, the site architect of record. "We undertook a number of things that I would say calmed the design.

"With two such prestigious buildings, it needed to be very calming and simple and not detract from their magnificence."

Gone are the earlier design's fussy groupings, clearly conceived as naming opportunities, in favor of more open spaces with fewer trees and water features.

The plan creates a clear axis between the Wyly and Winspear and punctuates lawns among paved walkways with crisp patches of native grasses and perennial flowers. The only water feature is a rectangular fountain, to the right of the opera house entrance.

Park plans
The plan envisions the aluminum-fin canopy extending well beyond the opera house, shading movable tables and chairs. It also calls for free wireless access throughout the park.

In the middle of the long, wide slope into the underground entrance to the Wyly will be a zigzag, handicapped-accessible ramp, its switchbacks interspersed with more native plantings.

The park is expected to be completed by October 2009, when the opera house, theater and the outdoor Annette Strauss Artist Square open. A lineup of opening events will be announced soon.

"What we have envisioned all along is that this be a very democratic space," Ms. Mitchell said of the overall plan. "It should feel welcoming to anybody. If I were coming in from a suburban location to downtown with my family, I should feel free to walk down the street, enter the plaza, buy a newspaper and enjoy it.

"We want this to be not only a big, splashy, premier performance place, but a space that is well used by Dallas citizens around the year."

Designs for the Annette Strauss square are being reworked in response to noise concerns from the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, which performs and has offices in the Meyerson Symphony Center. The performing arts center design calls for moving the outdoor performance space behind the Meyerson, with its stage backed up against the northwest corner of the opera house.

And still to come from the city of Dallas are plans for the large urban park envisioned for a deck covering a two-block stretch of Woodall Rodgers Freeway northwest of the center.

New Photos

Winspear
(check out the Red Glass.....ooooooooo)
http://i402.photobucket.com/albums/pp101/brinkwest/DSC01423.jpg

http://i402.photobucket.com/albums/pp101/brinkwest/DSC01424.jpg

http://i402.photobucket.com/albums/pp101/brinkwest/DSC01432.jpg

http://i402.photobucket.com/albums/pp101/brinkwest/DSC01428.jpg

http://i402.photobucket.com/albums/pp101/brinkwest/DSC01435.jpg

Wyly
http://i402.photobucket.com/albums/pp101/brinkwest/DSC01425.jpg

http://i402.photobucket.com/albums/pp101/brinkwest/DSC01433.jpg

http://i402.photobucket.com/albums/pp101/brinkwest/DSC01434.jpg

Both from another angle
http://i402.photobucket.com/albums/pp101/brinkwest/DSC01436.jpg

Is the carpark really part of the design?... that's very, Texas.

http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/7049/picture2sp9.pnglol......truly texas-like

seriously? Car park is the only thing you idiots are looking at? I mean, you have these theaters and parks and your worried about a car park that every city has, and those cities usually have 10 to 15+. I mean, seriously. WTF?

Here is the real photos of the angle everyone is throwing a fit about. And there is your parking garage, we call it Stone Henge. It is the base of what was going to be a 50 story tower in the late 80's tower boom in Dallas. Now it is closed and many kids use it for a skate park.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3159/2870381628_d54352bb73_b.jpg

Very Texas.

Very Texas.

I don't think this word means what you think it means.

Very Texas.

Really? I mean, if shown this view for the first time and having no idea what any of this was, you would think Texas?

cars + freeways + giant car parks = Texas.

Sorry dude, I know Texas has some great places and is more than just a giant homage to the auto industry. But you guys really are mad about trucks and stuff...

Anyway, this is getting off topic. This is a great development, very exciting for Dallas I suspect.

cars + freeways + giant car parks = Texas.


No, the Equals the United States of America where the State of Texas and California are as big if not bigger then 3/4th of the countries in Europe. We have to drive everywhere in our own cars because our country is to big for trains going everywhere. Seriously, you Europeans do not understand the USA internal workings at all, it is nothing like Europe.

Besides, you only see one car park, and it is small, very small.

And that is not a freeway, it is a connector between 3 freeways. European morons.

And we dont all still drive trucks, come look at a used car lot, it only has trucks because everyone is trading them in for fuel efficient smaller cars. You seem to think that you know everything about this region of this country based on stereotypes you hear, im surprised you didnt ask where we keep our horses!

when i said very taxes i meant in a good way i love everything about USA i been to lots of states, i know europe is different from US much old and out of date.

when i said very taxes i meant in a good way i love everything about USA i been to lots of states, i know europe is different from US much old and out of date.

o.... then Cheers! :cheers1:

What a great project. Dallas looks great btw ;)

I'm not even going to bother with a reply :ohno:

now if that damn woodall rogers park will get built. :cheers:

it should be built soon

With the Wyly, Insulation now covers the entire building. Soon we'll start to see the final siding put in place.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3292/2935837999_cae3568fd4_b.jpg (http://flickr.com/photos/18361786@N00/2935837999/)

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3161/2935827407_c8cf5c848f_b.jpg (http://flickr.com/photos/18361786@N00/2935827407/)

Thanks to NThomas76207

And on the Winspear, More red tiles, more angles. Plus, the overhang is starting to take shape.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3248/2935837427_ba3162eb2c_b.jpg (http://flickr.com/photos/18361786@N00/2935837427/)

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3059/2935840819_1bd88e31ea_b.jpg (http://flickr.com/photos/18361786@N00/2935840819/)

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3025/2935827629_ccec90e216.jpg (http://flickr.com/photos/18361786@N00/2935827629/)http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3176/2936697240_ee47750549.jpg (http://flickr.com/photos/18361786@N00/2936697240/)

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3244/2936698094_18f42f8ff3_b.jpg (http://flickr.com/photos/18361786@N00/2936698094/)

Thanks to NThomas76207 again

Great source of video on this project.
http://www.dallasperformingarts.org/experiencethecenter/multimedia.aspx

Update: October 17, 2008

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2091/2958286010_6650fa2902.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3061/2958859402_d3c5c7a3d6.jpg

By TexasStar

I took this last Thursday October 23rd.


http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/6686/dallasoct20080639216413ua5.jpg

http://img520.imageshack.us/img520/5071/dallasoct20080659231946hn2.jpg

http://img444.imageshack.us/img444/338/dallasoct20080669239169hd0.jpg

http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/1126/dallasoct20080709357314nq7.jpg

http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/4244/dallasoct20080589178129ez6.jpg

Fosters + Partners Web Site for Winspear
http://www.fosterandpartners.com/Projects/1173/Default.aspx

R E X Web Site for Wyly
http://rex-ny.com/work/wyly-theatre/construction

sure that is a grateful project 4 dallas...

sure that is a grateful project 4 dallas...

what?

McCarthy selected to build the Dallas City Performance Hall
BY PEGASUS NEWS WIRE

McCarthy Building Companies, Inc., a Texas builder since 1980, was selected to build the Dallas City Performance Hall, a 124,000-square-foot multi-phase theatre facility. During phase one of construction 45,000 square-feet will be completed. The City Performance Hall, McCarthy’s fourth project in Dallas’ Arts District, will be the first LEED Silver rated performing arts facility in Texas and will provide a new state-of-the-art home for small and medium arts groups reflecting the diverse communities of Dallas.

The City Performance Hall will be a striking structure composed of a long sweeping roof flanked by two stories of cast-in-place concrete walls. The front entrance will feature a large expanse of glass, and the finishes will consist of wood harvested from local stocks.

More at http://www.pegasusnews.com/news/2008/nov/25/mccarthy-selected-build-dallas-city-performance-ha/

JPI Apartments Under Construction In the Arts District.

Picture by Maconahey today
http://img101.imageshack.us/img101/1720/img5104jb1.th.jpg (http://img101.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img5104jb1.jpg)

Two Arts Plaza
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Museum Tower
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^ Great videos! that first one is very impressive and informative

Opera House getting shinny.

http://img93.imageshack.us/img93/6871/operawb4.jpg
Photo by maconahey

^^Looking good.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3394/3235085888_4a62f8be33_b.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3079/3234236523_a412b65d7f_b.jpg
Photos from NThomas

Τhe opera building is very interesting, especially the giant roof and the red color at the top. Thanks for the photos!

Video on putting the the tubbing curtain up on The Wyly

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Video Update

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Whats up with Museum Tower..Are there still plans to build the 43-story tower?

we hear rumors every few months. Most likely after the economy bounces back.

The project is looking very good. I can't wait to see the park go in around the new buildings.

dirt Flying for the City Performance Hall

http://forum.dallasmetropolis.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=440

Photos by Urbanartistry's phone

Just last weekend, I headed off too the Arts District (I live about 5 minutes from Downtown) and I was suprised at how lively the city was especially for a Sunday. I went too see the Tut exhibit. The arts district looks beautiful and especially the new opera building.

Slideshow: Dallas' arts center builds to a crescendo

The Dallas Center for the Performing Arts site is punctuated by the aluminum-pipe-clad box of the Wyly Theatre and the striking red drum of the Winspear Opera House.

Seven months from opening, the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts site is punctuated by the aluminum-pipe-clad box of the Wyly Theatre (above left). Our photographers give you a closer look.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/pt/slideshows/2009/03/pho_031309_performingarts/

This is amazing. someone show me a better arts district...please.

really cool project

http://www.dallasperformingarts.org/

From Today

Wyly
http://i402.photobucket.com/albums/pp101/brinkwest/ArtDistrict1-032309.jpg

http://i402.photobucket.com/albums/pp101/brinkwest/ArtDistrict3-032309.jpg

Winspear
http://i402.photobucket.com/albums/pp101/brinkwest/ArtDistrict7-032309.jpg

http://i402.photobucket.com/albums/pp101/brinkwest/ArtDistrict4-032309.jpg

The Arts School
http://i402.photobucket.com/albums/pp101/brinkwest/ArtDistrict2-032309.jpg

City Performance Hall under construction
http://i402.photobucket.com/albums/pp101/brinkwest/ArtDistrict5-032309.jpg

http://i402.photobucket.com/albums/pp101/brinkwest/ArtDistrict6-032309.jpg

All Together now
http://i402.photobucket.com/albums/pp101/brinkwest/ArtDistrict8-032309.jpg

Great pictures, lowsy weather out today. The wind nearly blew me down....

Anyways, I really hope the Arts District will not be ravaged by parking lots and abandoned shacks.

no above ground parking yet except for where Museum tower will be.

all else is under ground parking

wow... cool.

Video
http://www.dallasnews.com/video/dallasnews/hp/index.html?nvid=347863&shu=1

by ChapinUrbano

http://img524.imageshack.us/img524/6366/photo0165.jpg



http://img512.imageshack.us/img512/4497/photo0166.jpg


http://img206.imageshack.us/img206/9951/photo0167.jpg


http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/3415/photo0168.jpg

progress on the parking garage for the City Performance Hall.

Photos by NThomas

http://img34.imageshack.us/img34/694/photo052409014.th.jpg (http://img34.imageshack.us/my.php?image=photo052409014.jpg) http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/2765/photo052409015.th.jpg (http://img35.imageshack.us/my.php?image=photo052409015.jpg) http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/9445/photo052409019.th.jpg (http://img29.imageshack.us/my.php?image=photo052409019.jpg) http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/5030/photo052409020.th.jpg (http://img35.imageshack.us/my.php?image=photo052409020.jpg)

Video report with the opening 4 months away.

http://www.wfaa.com/video/index.html?nvid=366707&shu=1

A vibrant urban community is taking shape just two miles from DC in Hyattsville, MD. Arts District Hyattsville features a unique mix of townhomes, retail shops, and live-work homes, as well as the area's most unique new community center complete with a fitness center, art gallery, studio space, and billiard's lounge. Discover life within walking distance® at the neighborhood's many eclectic shops and restaurants, all just a stroll from your front door.

Its certainly a fine development but where is the integrated aspect? I mean are there any mentionworthy residential, commercial and maybe office developments part of it? Or is it rather a mono use district?

Its certainly a fine development but where is the integrated aspect? I mean are there any mentionworthy residential, commercial and maybe office developments part of it? Or is it rather a mono use district?

The Arts District is a 68 acre area of downtown Dallas that is home to most of the fine arts facilities but also includes office and residential towers. New construction adjacent to the Center for Performing Arts include One Arts Plaza, the tall white building in the photo which contains offices and condos. Another apartment building is under construction next to One Arts Plaza. Also joining all of the new performance facilities together will be a 10 acre urban park, and the streetcar extension begins construction in the fall. There are other announced projetcts that haven't started yet, such as Museum Tower and the Lone Star site. It is a vibrant district, and upon opening in a few months the new facilities will change Dallas greatly.

More information about the entire district: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arts_District,_Dallas

2009-05-12
http://www.dallasperformingarts.org/newsandevents/newsdetail.aspx?id=1586

Dallas Center for the Performing Arts Commissions Guillermo Kuitca to Design Curtain for Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House
Curtain Will Be First Designed by the Artist; Center Has Also Acquired Kuitca’s “Dallas Opera House,” 16 Works on Paper Based on the Winspear’s Seating Plan

DALLAS (May 12, 2009) – The Dallas Center for the Performing Arts announced today that it has commissioned a curtain designed by renowned Argentine artist Guillermo Kuitca for the Center’s new Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House, which will open on October 12, 2009.
The Center has also acquired Kuitca’s Dallas Opera House (2008), consisting of 16 mixed media works on paper based on the seating plans of the Winspear Opera House. These works will be permanently installed at box level of the Opera House.

...

A vibrant urban community is taking shape just two miles from DC in Hyattsville, MD. Arts District Hyattsville features a unique mix of townhomes, retail shops, and live-work homes, as well as the area's most unique new community center complete with a fitness center, art gallery, studio space, and billiard's lounge. Discover life within walking distance® at the neighborhood's many eclectic shops and restaurants, all just a stroll from your front door.

THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS. DELETE.

Its certainly a fine development but where is the integrated aspect? I mean are there any mentionworthy residential, commercial and maybe office developments part of it? Or is it rather a mono use district?

they are working on it. The best Development projects dont always have to cary the same theme from building to building.

Center for Performing Arts has put these cool photos up on their Facebook page.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/album.php?aid=131168&id=109727801144&ref=mf

Wow, thanks for the post, interesting news happeing in Dallas

Read about Dallas down town a bit and it seems like this arts district (which as you mentioned also includes offices and condos) is really only one aspect of a large strategy for the entire centre of the city. Lets hope the plans turn out to work out as intended.

http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2009/07/dallas_center_for_the_performi.php

New Center for Music, Theatre, Dance and Opera Opens with Weeklong Celebration October 12-18, 2009

DALLAS (July 6, 2009) - The much-anticipated Grand Opening of the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts is just 100 days away. The most significant new performing arts complex to be built since New York City¹s Lincoln Center, the $354-million Center opens with a weeklong celebration from October 12 through 18, 2009 to launch its Inaugural Season. Daily outdoor performances, concerts and public art installations will be free and open to the public throughout the week, as will architectural forums with Center architects Norman Foster and Rem Koolhaas. Other highlights include events throughout the Dallas Arts District in recognition of its cultural completion.

...

The Grand Opening celebrations will begin on the morning of Monday, October 12, 2009, with a civic dedication. Held in the Elaine D. and Charles A. Sammons Park, the 10-acre public park that unifies the venues of the Center, the civic dedication will launch the week of celebratory events. This event will be free and open to the public.

Following the civic dedication and each day throughout the Grand Opening week will be a series of outdoor performances and performance art. Mass Ensemble, a multi-media performance group, will install a large-scale interactive instrument known as the Earth Harp on site, stretching strings from the ground to the roofline of the Center¹s neighbor to the east, the Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. Mass Ensemble will perform on the instrument throughout the week and the public will be invited to participate and play. Grand Opening week will also feature light shows by Luma and gravity-defying acrobatic performances by Anti-Gravity.

Other highlights of Grand Opening week are two architectural forums presented by the world-renowned architects who designed the venues of the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts and in association with the Dallas Architectural Forum and the Nasher Sculpture Center. Pritzker Prize-winning architect Rem Koolhaas, one of the designers of the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre, will discuss the future of theatre design on the afternoon of Thursday, October 15 in the innovative Wyly Theatre. On Friday morning, October 16, Norman Foster, also winner of the Pritzker Prize for Architecture, will present his designs for the Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House and Annette Strauss Artist Square. Both of the architectural forums will be free and open to the public.

On Friday evening, October 16, the entire community will be invited to Sammons Park for a free concert by renowned GRAMMY® Award-winning saxophonist David Sanborn. The Grand Opening week will be capped off with the Grand Finale on Sunday, October 18, when the public will have the opportunity to tour the Winspear Opera House and Wyly Theatre, as well as experience a sampling of performances in each venue and in the Park with artists such as Latin GRAMMY® Award-winning flutist Nestor Torres.

Other Celebratory Dallas Arts District Events
In recognition of the cultural completion of the Dallas Arts District, special visual and performing arts events will take place throughout 68-acre district celebrating the opening of the Center. The Nasher Sculpture Center will feature The Art of Architecture: Foster + Partners with a nod to one of the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts' primary architects. The Dallas Museum of Art will present Performance/Art, an exhibition showcasing the work of cntemporary artists who have taken inspiration from the theater and opera in the creation of their painting, sculpture, video, and photography. The exhibition includes work by David Altmejd and Yinka Shonibare, among others, as well as Guillermo Kuitca, whom the Center has also commissioned to design the curtain for the Winspear Opera House. The Crow Collection of Asian Art will host Tibetan lamas, who, painting with sand, will create a mandala in the museum. The Dallas Center for Architecture will present a retrospective of the creation of the Dallas Arts District and the new Center. The Dallas Arts District, in association with the Center for Architecture, will also host walking tours of the District.

On Sunday, October 18, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra will present a free afternoon concert, featuring Beethoven¹s Symphony No. 9, conducted by Music Director Jaap van Zweden. Additional soon-to-be-announced activities will also take place at the Booker T. Washington High School for Performing and Visual Arts, the prized arts magnet high school located in the heart of the Arts District.

...

sweet

http://www.wfaa.com/video/gmtgeneral-index.html?nvid=378802&noad=yes&shu=1

Photos of the near completed Wyly theater, Winspear and the progress on the Dallas City performance hall and a few apartments by City council member Angela Hunt

http://www.flickr.com/photos/angelahunt/sets/72157622099238850/show/

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2652/3841285245_3bab012fd3_b.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2676/3842046090_e99aa450b2_b.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3535/3841256039_2b08f05820_b.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2487/3842050104_1baa2344f2_b.jpg

Entrance
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2505/3842066032_50d33b5032_b.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2475/3842071504_b6b460971b_b.jpg


Winspear

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2655/3842061982_65f2eb709c_b.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2435/3842076610_1b2cab6e5e_b.jpg

City Performance Hall and apartments

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2469/3842052736_ef369b91fc_b.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2673/3842055270_1766c57655_b.jpg

The Dallas Center for Performing Arts is now to be called the AT&T Performing Arts Center:


http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/091509dnentcenter.42c5c73.html

"AT&T, which relocated its corporate headquarters from San Antonio to Dallas last year, promises to offer free Wi-Fi throughout the 10-acre Elaine D. and Charles A. Sammons Park and the Annette Strauss Artist Square, as well as the center's three main venues – the Winspear Opera House, Wyly Theatre and City Performance Hall.

But, Nerenhausen said with a laugh, "patrons will still need to turn off their cellphones during performances."

Sarah Andreani, a spokeswoman for AT&T, said Monday that the technology will also include "mobile-messaging platforms" to keep patrons informed through text messaging and other ways "about things happening with the center," such as updates on upcoming performances."

...

Opening next week!

The Winspear chandelier:

http://www.kera.org/artandseek/content/2009/10/09/shooting-stars-at-the-winspear-opera-house/

http://www.kera.org/artandseek/content/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/smaller-star-burst.jpg

The Winspear curtain:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/04/arts/design/04spea.html

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/10/04/arts/02spear_600.jpg

awesome

awesome

The prophecy is December 21, 2012. I love the development of Dallas. Go Texas!

AT&T Performing Arts Center was dedicated today!

Winspear Opera House: Sleek venue welcomes patrons with sonic, visual intimacy
02:16 PM CDT on Sunday, October 11, 2009
By SCOTT CANTRELL / The Dallas Morning News
scantrell@dallasnews.com
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/ent/stories/DN-apacWinspear_1011gd.ART.State.Edition1.4bc18e2.html

The Winspear is a huge presence, spreading a finned sunscreen far beyond its functional footprint. The ruby-red inner drum, rising through the lobby and projecting above, is the Arts District's sole splash of color – and one of far too few anywhere near downtown.

But the Winspear, in effect a sleek modern interpretation of a Greek temple with portico, is also by far the most welcoming building in the Arts District.

That sheltering canopy, 60 feet above placid lawns punctuated with patches of native grasses and wide walkways, draws us in. So does the expanse of ground-to-roof glass wrapping a lobby crisscrossed with free-floating staircases that spin out multiple terraces. Glowing night and day, the red-glass core exudes excitement and mystery.

"Very much at the heart of what we're trying to do," says Spencer de Grey, an opera fan who headed Foster + Partners' design team for the Winspear, "is making the building not one that you have to pluck up your courage and enter, but very transparent."

That part of the design looks like an unqualified success, although visitors will ever wonder why the canopy fins vary so much in density. (Their main purpose is to shade the building from the blazing Dallas sun; they're sparer on the fringes.)

And bully for de Grey's insistence that even patrons parking in the underground garage enter the opera house through the same front doors as people walking in off the street. The elevators and escalator from the garage open into a glass-roofed porte-cochère leading into the lobby.

Apart from that ruby-red drum, rotated off the entrance axis, everything in the lobby is silver or gray. But stand just about anywhere on the ground floor and look up, and you'll see a lively counterpoint of grids and fan shapes. If the building draws you in from outside, on the inside it seems to draw all of Dallas inside, too. Views in all directions are exhilarating.

On the east side of the lobby will be a cafe, with three sections of glass wall that can be raised for an 84-foot opening to the outdoors. Above will be a sit-down restaurant, with smart flying-saucer lights hung overhead. A compact lecture-and-performance hall opens to the lobby and the outdoors.

...

As yet unseen are the stage curtain, decorated with colored squiggles by Argentine artist Guillermo Kuitca, and the chandelier, an inverted cone of 320 lighted acrylic tubes that can retract into pinpricks of light.

How the Winspear meets its ultimate acoustical tests won't be known until this week's first performances, and, really, until the Dallas Opera mounts its season-opening Otello, starting Oct. 23. But reports from an initial tryout rehearsal are glowing.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/img/10-09/1011winspear1big.jpg

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/img/10-09/1011winspear2big.jpg

Wyly Theatre: Top to bottom, a vertical display of industrial rawness
02:24 PM CDT on Sunday, October 11, 2009
By DAVID DILLON / Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/ent/dcpa/stories/DN-apacWyly_1011gd.ART.State.Edition1.4bc2ac5.html

The Wyly packs a lot of architectural punch into a small space. At nine stories – roughly 130 feet – it looks much taller than it is. That's because a little height goes a long way in the horizontal Arts District and because its silvery aluminum skin flows upward to a line of skyscrapers in the background, borrowing height from its neighbors.

Knowing that the Wyly could be upstaged by the Meyerson Symphony Center and the Winspear, architects Rem Koolhaas and Joshua Prince-Ramus chose to go up rather than out, stacking lobby, stage, costume shop and offices on top of one another like hat boxes. Koolhaas has been playing the vertical city game since the publication of Delirious New York in the 1970s, and here was his chance to try it in the Wild West.

It is an unconventional plan, intriguing and high-risk, and right now it's impossible to know whether to grade it an "A" or an "F." The Wyly has been designed as a machine for performance that will challenge directors and probably confound some patrons with its industrial rawness and tight interior spaces, especially the single narrow staircase connecting lobby to main stage and a set of small, pokey elevators.

The moment you walk down the dust pan ramp from Flora Street to the lobby –one of the strangest theater entrances ever – you feel you've entered an engine room. No sofas and swag and warm soothing colors; only concrete floors and walls, sleek aluminum canopies and bare fluorescent tubes hanging from the ceiling like Luke Skywalker light sabers. This is tough, take-that architecture, uneven in its craftsmanship – the perfect joint has never been Koolhaas' grail – yet executed with admirable consistency from bottom to top. It's not just another trendy decorator touch, but a total aesthetic.

The main stage, seating 600, is directly above and packed with winches, pulleys, cables and catwalks. Seats can be flown up to the ceiling at the touch of a button; the stage floor can be configured from flat, proscenium or thrust in a few hours.

...

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/img/10-09/1011wyly1big.jpg

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/img/10-09/1011wyly2big.jpg

--

Some photos I found on Flickr

Winspear Opera House:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dallasterry/sets/72157622543407900/

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3204/3993508036_32b3759d9f_o.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3477/3992751191_c3aeefbdf3_o.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3504/3992751431_d862d6805a_o.jpg



http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2448/3992750955_870b7a136f_o.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2489/3992751651_1c7a1c83fa_o.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2584/3993510002_0ca3acfffe_o.jpg

video
http://www.dallasnews.com/video/dallasnews/hp/index.html?nvid=406403&shu=1

new rendering for the Dallas City Performance Hall.

http://bit.ly/6v5S2

new rendering for the Dallas City Performance Hall.

http://bit.ly/6v5S2

New York Times review: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/15/arts/design/15dallas.html?_r=1

video with speeches from both architects

http://www.dallasnews.com/video/dallasnews/hp/index.html?nvid=407351&shu=1

pcS19qqfgBg

AT&T Performing Arts Center's Wyly Theatre and Winspear Opera House impress crowds at free downtown Dallas fest
12:18 AM CDT on Monday, October 19, 2009
By JOY TIPPING / The Dallas Morning News
jtipping@dallasnews.com
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/101909dnmetartsopenhouse.3f73e36.html

Scott Whittall practically vibrated with excitement as he strolled down Flora Street during the AT&T Performing Arts Center's "Sunday Spotlight" event, which topped a weeklong celebration of opening festivities for the center.

"They've created this amazing walk through the center of the arts," said Whittall, 45, of Dallas. Gesturing around at the crowds, he compared the vibrancy to that of New York City. "This is such a huge day for Dallas," he said. "We're so metropolitan now – with the opening of this center, Dallas has landed."

Thousands of visitors attended the daylong festival, which included tours of the new Wyly Theatre and Winspear Opera House, free admission at Arts District museums, hands-on art activities, and more than 50 free performances of dance, music, acrobatics and more.

Maria May, public relations director for the AT&T Performing Arts Center, estimated that the crowd numbered at least 25,000, based on the number of programs and other materials that volunteers handed out. But since not everyone got a program, that number is probably low, she said.

...

--

great project!!!

Good Job, Dallas. Hope the momentum continues and changes downtown and uptown for the good. Now we just need for the park to be finished and it will be even better. You have a jewel in your city and you all should be proud.

With new performing arts center, a star is born: Dallas
10:15 PM CDT on Monday, October 19, 2009

On Sunday, downtown Dallas gave itself an awesome bar mitzvah, quinceañera and Sweet 16 party rolled into one.

I've often wondered if there was a defining moment when New York, Chicago or San Francisco knew that it had moved beyond its original commercial reasons for existence and had come of age culturally.

I've wondered, too, whether Dallas would ever reach that point.

If you think of cities in terms of life cycles, Dallas celebrated its passage into young adulthood with a free public unveiling of the AT&T Performing Arts Center.

Sunday Spotlight, as it was called, capped off a week of festivities and nearly two weeks when North Texas put its best face forward: Oprah at the State Fair of Texas, U2 at the new Cowboys Stadium, TEDxSMU on the Hilltop, Texas-Oklahoma at the Cotton Bowl, and a U.S. Navy SEAL and F-16 aerial show at the SMU-Naval Academy football game.

Organizers estimated Sunday's crowd at 45,000, and it included people of every possible demographic who walked around the plaza like proud owners. This was theirs – even if someone else paid most of the $345 million price tag. They took in 50 performances of just about every imaginable culture and art form, and enjoyed museums without paying admission.

The Winspear Opera House was kinetic activity as masses flowed into the performance hall while listening to musicians or watching dancers on stage.

The line for a 10-minute tour of the Wyly Theatre was a never-ebbing 90-minute wait. The weather was glorious, so no one seemed to mind – although I did brave hostile looks when I used my media credentials to buck the crowd.

As my husband and I stood in the plaza and did a 360-degree survey of the neighborhood, we were impressed. If we were young professionals just starting out, this would be a fabulous place to live, work and play.

Missing excitement
In 2001, I publicly ridiculed Boeing Co. when it chose Chicago over Dallas for its new headquarters and cited a better quality of life there. But I secretly knew the company had a valid point.

Dallas is an excellent place to attend college, get married, start a career, buy an affordable home, rear kids and enjoy comfortable living.

But when it comes time for an urban energy jolt, my family goes to Chicago, New York and London.

Ten years ago, we returned from a near-mystical trip to San Francisco, where we rode trolley cars, dined in eclectic restaurants, took in history, studied striking architecture, enjoyed the bay and frolicked in packed public parks.

My daughter, who was 7, asked if people ever came to Dallas for vacation.

When I said yes, she asked why.

My response was Six Flags and shopping. And I wasn't being flippant.

Later that year, I had my first glimpse of what Dallas could become when my best friend insisted that our families spend our traditional New Year's Eve together by ringing in the new millennium at festivities downtown.

It was Times Square without the travel time and expense, but the energy was fleeting.

For the last few years, coming into downtown daily on Woodall Rodgers or I-35E, I've watched in amazement as construction cranes set about building a far more expansive urban core.

The magic
But I didn't feel the magic until Sunday, when vision and reality coalesced.

The district connects – both physically and spiritually – our museums, arts magnet high school, performance venues, historic churches, modern office towers, restaurants and residences, and eventually Woodall Rodgers Park, which will connect to Uptown.

Smart employers might move downtown even without city incentives. Young professionals and youthful retirees might choose to live in this cool environment. Restaurants, dry cleaners and grocery stores might make a go of it. Businesses in downtown tunnels might come above ground like ants after a heavy rainfall. Major conventions might want to come here.

One weekend does not make a future, and formidable challenges lie ahead.

The district will have to work hard not to be viewed as elitist.

The recession and financial sector meltdown have put big private-sector projects planned for the district on hold.

And other connecting pieces of Dallas' rebirth jigsaw puzzle haven't been put into place. Too bad that the DART rail doesn't easily connect the Arts District with the West End, Main Street or the convention center.

Still, as I stood in the plaza doing that 360, I couldn't help but feel that Dallas is finally beginning to live up to its "Big D" nickname.

And I'll bet we'd stand a better chance with Boeing today.

Photos by Ninjatune:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2764/4031499906_849742dd41.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/ninjatune/4031499906/)

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2675/4031501636_d10f6cf1ff.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/ninjatune/4031501636/)

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2537/4031501050_cb5abee2b0.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/ninjatune/4031501050/)

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2645/4030746237_d4eb5d1d87.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/ninjatune/4030746237/)

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2770/4030745887_43c057a894.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/ninjatune/4030745887/)

(BTW)
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2789/4031499572_d58412a547.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/ninjatune/4031499572/)

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3492/4031499382_f99ed97f35.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/ninjatune/4031499382/)

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2804/4031499180_33257f190f.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/ninjatune/4031499180/)

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2568/4031498968_21f128e04d.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/ninjatune/4031498968/)

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2461/4030744433_0605ca8491.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/ninjatune/4030744433/)

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2547/4030744215_4ce92ab55c.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/ninjatune/4030744215/)

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2535/4031498460_fdf4e14c64.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/ninjatune/4031498460/)

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2691/4031498146_a0bea5fe49.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/ninjatune/4031498146/)

City Performance Hall construction:

August 4

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4116/4862283092_fc088902da_z.jpg

September 10

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4092/4989318624_1721882369_z.jpg

Here's the info on City Performance Hall:

http://www.architypereview.com/ar_v04_n02_som_dallas.html

http://www.architypereview.com/images/images_v4n2_arts/som_dcph_01.jpg

http://www.architypereview.com/images/images_v4n2_arts/som_dcph_02.jpg

http://www.architypereview.com/images/images_v4n2_arts/som_dcph_floor_plan.gif

A good article & photos of the restored St. Paul United Methodist Church...

St. Paul United Methodist Church Is the Soul of the Arts District
Dallas’ historic house of worship gets a renovation thanks to an unlikely partner.
by Walton Muyumba
Published 7.21.2010 From D Magazine AUG 2010
http://www.dmagazine.com/Home/D_Magazine/2010/August/St_Paul_United_Methodist_Church_in_Dallas.aspx?page=1&gpage=15#articlegallery

Squatting in its corner of the Arts District, St. Paul United Methodist Church is dwarfed by One Arts Plaza to its immediate south and by the rising concrete pedestals holding up Woodall Rodgers to its north. Even the polished and expanded Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts across Routh Street to the west seems to mock the stocky old church.

...

http://www.dmagazine.com/~/media/0_Articles/D%20Magazine/0_August2010/StPaul_02.ashx?db=master&20100721T1402090115&w=600&h=484

http://www.dmagazine.com/~/media/0_Articles/D%20Magazine/0_August2010/StPaul_06.ashx?db=master&20100721T1405287201&w=600&h=484

http://www.dmagazine.com/~/media/0_Articles/D%20Magazine/0_August2010/StPaul_12.ashx?db=master&20100721T1408123776&w=600&h=484

http://www.dmagazine.com/~/media/0_Articles/D%20Magazine/0_August2010/StPaul_05.ashx?db=master&20100721T1404115791&w=600&h=484

A promising project

Here's the Museum Tower

http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/5701/img0678cy.jpg
http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/6559/img0677tw.jpg
http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/8080/img0672xa.jpg

Here's the Deck Park over the Freeway

http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/deckpark804.jpg

great architecture for a ghost town

great architecture for a ghost town

I disagree at times Dallas feels somewhat of a ghost town but during the day there's constant foot traffic downtown the Muesum Tower and the park will help alot once completed.