dfwcre8tive
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Dallas may have downtown streetcar line within 5 years
09:44 PM CDT on Tuesday, October 13, 2009
By RUDOLPH BUSH / The Dallas Morning News
Dallas could have a downtown streetcar system up and running within five years if an ambitious plan being hashed out at City Hall becomes reality.
City Hall still hopes to build the line with the help of federal and state funds. But many City Council members appear ready to have Dallas go it alone, likely by issuing tens of millions of dollars in bonds backed by anticipated growth in downtown property tax revenues.
"That's exactly what we're investigating now. We have to figure out the route, the cost and the physical challenges. Then we have to figure out what level of development each [proposed] route will support so we understand the possible bond funding," said council member Angela Hunt, whose downtown district would include the streetcar line.
Under the plan, the bonds could fund construction of the line even as taxes from rising property values helped fund its operation.
It is unclear at this point, however, whether the city can raise enough bond money for the cost of building the line or whether it will have to seek outside funding to fill in the gap that city money can't cover.
Linda Koop, chairman of the council's transportation committee, appeared confident the funding question will be answered in a matter of months and the council can begin the process of ordering Dallas' streetcars.
"We're hoping to have it up and running in 4 ½ years," Koop said.
Koop estimated the cost of building a downtown streetcar line at around $80 million, a preliminary figure that surely will change as details of the project are set.
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Hunt said Dallas is in discussions with Fort Worth, where a streetcar system is also in the works, to purchase cars with similar designs in an effort to minimize costs.
At a meeting of the transportation committee Monday, council members hashed out how financing might work for the proposed line.
It appears it would rely heavily on two funding sources: tax increment financing and public improvement district dollars.
Council members expect a streetcar line would significantly improve property values around its stops.
Additional tax revenue from growing values could be devoted to paying off bonds sold to fund the line.
Though the city would own the line, it is expected that DART will oversee its construction and operation and have a say in its governance through seats on a board of directors established specifically for the line.
While focus at City Hall is now on the downtown streetcar line, there is also movement to create a master plan to expand lines through downtown's adjoining neighborhoods.
Koop is working to form committees for five districts around downtown to study possible routes and financing for an expanded streetcar system.
The committees will include a council member and representatives from businesses and neighborhoods in the corridors.
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Testing the LED "garden rooms" at Main Street Garden, which opens next month.
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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
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.
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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.
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
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.
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Here's the Dallas streetcar proposal that is in the works. They are hoping to purchase modern streetcars next year.
http://dallascityhall.com/committee_briefings/briefings1009/TEC_StreetcarBusinessPlanDev_101209.pdf
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The Winspear chandelier:
http://www.kera.org/artandseek/content/2009/10/09/shooting-stars-at-the-winspear-opera-house/
The Winspear curtain:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/04/arts/design/04spea.html
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I think the increased exposure of Dallas and response to the Center is one effect of the project, but not the motivation. The arts groups have dreamed of this for several decades, and the $335+ million in PRIVATE donations raised is quite impressive and shows the commitment of Dallas citizens to the arts. Next week's opening will be a milestone for Dallas and something to brag about for a while. I'm looking forward to my season tickets at both the opera and the theater!
The curtain of the Winspear looks interesting:
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Your hypothesis might be plausible...if any of the routes proposed for high speed rail included a direct connection to Love Field or Hobby Airport. Otherwise, not only does SWA stand to lose market share on transporation within Texas, but it will face a severe competitive disadvantage on long-haul flights.
By then Love Field and DFW will both be connected via DART to Union Station.
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SNCF, operator of France's TGV, unveiled their proposal for the Texas high speed rail line.
From:
http://transportationblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2009/09/french-interested-in-texas-hig.html
"From Yonah Freemark on the TransportPolitic blog:
At $13.8 billion in construction costs, SNCF expects benefits to outweigh public infrastructure costs by 170% over a period of 15 years. This project would have the highest rate of return of any of the corridors profiled in the studies presented here.
Quoting now from the proposal, as posted on a federal website:
Speeds of up to 220 mph for HSR services are expected to generate a significant number of new trips as well as draw from the air and auto modes. Access to HSR services for both residents and visitors will be convenient due to 7 proposed stations conveniently located close to medium and large city populations, city central business districts and airports to attract residents, providing convenient and cost competitive alternative to driving and air travel.
This HST 220 concept keeps pace for a further complete Texan HS network ("Triangle" or "Tbone" type) involving Houston, once the pertinence of HS services proven. Meanwhile, the existing corridors will serve as key feeders."
Full DFW-San Antonio Proposal:
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Main Street Garden park opens in November:
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from Unfair Park
Next Stop on the Mayor's Dallas Makeover Tour, the Perot Museum of Nature & Science
By Kimberly Thorpe in News You Can Actually Use, ActuallyThursday, Sep. 17 2009 @ 4:14PM
Mayor Tom Leppert has run quite the lengthy victory lap this week: He took a ride on the Green Line; got off at the Woodall Rodgers Deck Park ground-making; then hustled on over to the convention center hotel groundbreaking. Which brings us to today's stop: Leppert attended the unveiling of the model of the Perot Museum of Nature & Science at Victory Park, designed by 2005 Pritzker Prize winner Thom Mayne. And he took a moment to applaud the $185-million facility in Victory Park, scheduled to open in 2013, as a gateway that will encourage kids to elect science careers.
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Plans for Perot Museum of Nature & Science at Victory Park to be unveiled today
06:59 AM CDT on Thursday, September 17, 2009
By SCOTT CANTRELL / The Dallas Morning News
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcon...um.432f49b.html
Plans for the boldest piece of modern architecture to hit Dallas are being unveiled today. The Perot Museum of Nature & Science at Victory Park, designed by Pritzker Prize laureate Thom Mayne and his California architecture firm Morphosis, is expected to break ground this year and open in early 2013.
Schematic renderings and models of the complex will go on public display Saturday at the construction center on the museum's future site at the northwest corner of Field Street and Woodall Rodgers Freeway.
The Morphosis design loudly proclaims the $185 million museum's double focus on science and nature.
The main gallery spaces will be in a big cube-shaped structure as tall as a 14-story building. It will have a stark, high-tech look, with a 150-foot escalator structure jutting out from the south side. A cutaway corner atrium will offer dramatic views of downtown and at night, dramatic views into the building. The cladding has not been determined.
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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."
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http://www.dallasnews.com/video/index.html?nvid=399005
Design unveiled for Perot Museum of Nature and Science at Victory Park
The planned Perot Museum of Nature and Science at Victory Park, designed by Pritzker Prize laureate Thom Mayne and his California architecture firm Morphosis, is expected to break ground later this year and open in 2013.
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Here's another article about the revised design:
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Here's the latest rendering:
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DART's new map:
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Ground breaking takes place for Woodall Rodgers deck park in Dallas
01:42 PM CDT on Monday, September 14, 2009
By CHRIS DELL / The Dallas Morning News
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/091509dnmetpark.17bdaad49.html
The 5.2-acre Woodall Rodgers deck park that some doubted would ever get built took one step closer to reality this morning as officials gathered for a groundbreaking.
The Woodall Rodgers Park Foundation held a celebration in Dallas, marking the end of the five-year planning phase of the urban park that will span across the freeway. The park will stretch three blocks between Pearl and St. Paul streets, linking the Uptown and downtown areas.
"Many people felt this couldn't be done – it's too complicated, too expensive and too much of a challenge for the city of Dallas. Today, we proved them wrong," said Jody Grant, park foundation chairman, during the celebration at the Parkside Condos.
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Green Line opened its first section today:
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/091409dnmetdartgreen.43d0b4e.html
Hi-res versions (2400px × 3200px):
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Opening party for the Green Line on Saturday with full service starting Monday...
Deep Ellum Station:
Baylor Station:
Fair Park Station:
MLK Jr. Station
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Ever since Rita Sweeney's death in 2007 this project has been back and forth. http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/102307dnmetsweeneyobit.196b4afbf.html
No news if Mr. Sweeney has obtained the required 2009 hotel building permit from the city, though. I could see the hotel going forward, with the residential tower later when Pacific Plaza park starts construction of the undergroung garage.
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Some new photos of all the construction wrapping up:
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And it's been wetter, cooler and greener than usual up here in Dallas.
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So I might have a free flight to Dallas available to me in the fall. Is it worth heading down there to take some pictures, get a feel for the area, and put together a Dallas web site?
If you visit, try to do it Oct. 12-18 or soon after MORE INFO. That's the grand opening of the Dallas Center for Performing Arts, which will definitely be worth a visit.
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The AT&T Experience store has opened at the base of the building and the lobby has been renovated to house "The Spirit of Communication," which was moved here from New Jersey.
http://cityhallblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2009/07/att-unveils-24-foot-bronze-stu.html
Dallas Center for the Performing Arts
in Dallas/Fort Worth/Metroplex
Posted · Edited by njjeppson
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.
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