Calatrava Progress

The webcam cannot hide how the construction of the first of the three (or is it two? Depends on funding calculations) signature Calatrava bridges over the Trinity River greenway to the west of Downtown. The Margaret Hunt Hill bridge that extends Woodall Rogers west into Singleton Boulevard is in the footings stage. Additional construction on segments is going on at a fabricator's in Italy.

Dallas in Postcards

With an eye to the future and one foot in the past...it's amazing to appreciate how our city's landscape is changing. The above images of Elm Street and the Houston Street viaduct are courtesy of Dallas Sights, which has numerous views preserved online. Thanks to Unfair Park for mentioning a new book, Greetings from Dallas ($13.57 at Amazon), which includes over 140 vintage cards featuring the Dallas of years past. They've also pointed us to eBay, where you can begin to amass your own vintage collection. Or start saving today's cards, and your grandkids won't believe the pre-LEED, gas-dependent downtown that we used to traverse.

Dallas Design(*Sponge) Guide

Featured yesterday on Design*Sponge, the design guide is a pretty comprehensive categorized directory of hot spots for fashionable living in the Big D. A few of my favorite haunts made the list, a few not. Look here for some of the places I've featured over the past year.

Dallas gives good

Metroblogging Dallas (and the other Metroblogging sites) are doing a count-down this week of seven of each featured city's greatest gifts to the rest of the world. As the site explains it, "In the spirit of the abundant holiday gift giving that will be taking place over the next couple of months, all the Metroblogging cities are giving 7 gifts to the world throughout the week of NOV 26th - DEC 2."

The 7th gift from Dallas Metroblogging is Dallas, the series, followed by shopping malls at 6th (Dallas has more pre capita than any other US city) and the futuristic skyline at 5th.


A summary of the 'gifts' from each Metroblogging city is collected here. Outstanding items include John Philip Sousa, Blue Diamond almonds, Greenpeace, Chik-Fil-A, and the US Constitution. This is going to be an interesting assemblage and I'm probably going to learn a thing or two along the way (example: Karachi's W-11 bus is a kaleidoscope of sensations).

Name-Brand Modern: Now or Over?

I'm all in favor of pushing the envelope, and in previous posts I've admired IKEA and Target for bringing modern design aesthetics to a wider population in a more approachable, less risky way. At the extreme of this, however, is the pre-packaging of acclaimed, agreed-upon tasteful designs into a plug-and-play "lifestyle" home. Buyers are attracted to the familiarity of a brand that they may have previously encountered in furniture, merchandise, pre-cooked gourmet meals, and fashion. But ready-made options are a convenience and not a personal expression. In the luxury market, it's becoming an increasingly expensive convenience. In the Vanity Fair Roundtable, A.A. Gill recently called New York's "high concept" condo developments marketed to the super rich antiseptically-clean "marvels of sterility". They are all haute design and no home, an "architectural catwalk" where a dwelling is as signature as someone's shoes, but it doesn't reveal their heart. Like home-style mashed potatoes in a plastic take-out tub, the comfort of these homes is encased in artificiality. The buildings generally involve large swaths of steel-supported glass, "bendy-glass-and-steel erections, with their tacky design features worn like second wives' engagement rings". I don't think Mr. Gill missed the double-meaning of the prestige that comes with occupying a signature project. Not to mention taking advantage of the building's life coach, personal training, and concierege services.

Previously intrigued with developing hotels, Ian Schrager developed plans for 40 Bond Street, where the style and theme are modern, modern, modern. 20 Pine Street The Collection (I don't kid, that's the full name) features Armani/Casa-styled interiors to provide "a couture concept in lifestyle living." What is lifestyle living? VF answers: a transitory fashion choice, a glass-fronted box where one stores one's "unexplored, unused life." Ian Schrager says, "Lifestyle is the way a person distinguishes himself or herself. It is the artistry of living....The home is the ultimate expression of lifestyle." Funny, I thought 'lifestyle' referred to sullen Goth chicks or those back-page Observer ads. Does this pre-designed lifestyle truly express the condo's occupant? Or is it just one more prop of a characatured "life"? For most folks, living creates the style, not vice-versa. While how I dress and where I live reveal something about me, how about judging me by my actions, not my sectional (even if it is a very sleek and modern art piece). Stylistic choices of expression, yes. Living a style, no thanks.

Starchitect projects are not unique to New York, either. In Dallas, there is an epidemic of high-style, luxury high rises afoot in Uptown, with Philippe Starck's House by Starck and Yoo in the Victory Project leading the name-brand cache. While the W residences, One Arts Plaza, the Azure, and the Ritz-Carlton are selling well, other planned projects (namely Maple Terraces) have been put on hold due to lack-luster sales. In New York some "starchitected" projects' offerings are moving slowly, say Newsweek and the Wall Street Journal, blaming the recent market downturn and the changing of the guard that accompanies the moving-target of of-the-moment taste and edginess. As constructions costs have risen, the investor market has shrunk, leaving luxury-quality projects to compete over fewer buyers. Don't get me started (yet) on Dallas' own Calatrava bridges.

Not to fear though, the image-seekers are still searching for the perfect statement. In the meantime, I'm going to stick with picking out stylish pieces that I like--with or without the pedigree or the price tag. And I intend on living first, and wearing Armani only if that's what's called for.

Austin Modern

Maybe the biggest national exposure for Austin's hip and modern design came from the Season 16 of MTV's Real World. Downtown Austin has tons of other reasons to be both hip and modern. The views and svelte loft-style design offset more traditional or edgy furnishings. The nightlife and the music scene complement the design aesthetic.

Scott (recently moved from Dallas to Austin) has a fabulous Blog called Mies and Carrots that covers nice design in Austin and beyond. His most recent post features the Ultimate Tree Houses exhibit at the Dallas Arboretum! Even better, he's from the same mindset that I am: good, modern design is in evolution, meaning that we're always on the lookout for something new, and even better if it's a bargain. The modern eye appreciates the interaction between man-made and natural beauty and the contrast of crisp lines and organic forms. As Scott writes, "beautifully simple, and on sale". The savvy design fan's trifecta.

ModernAustin.com is another fabulous site that is devoted to cataloging the modern homes in the Austin area, as a way of documenting and preserving non-McMansion architecture. While some of them are for sale, others are presented for appreciation.