Save the Date

Cliff Fest, Oak Cliff, November 14th, 2009

From "Oak Cliff People", 6/26/09:

‘Cliff Fest’ Planning Begins
New festival will take cues from Taste of Addison
By Silver Hogue
Staff Writer
http://www.peoplenewspapers.com/ME2...E75FD51480D8A7D

The wheels are turning on one of the biggest festivals to hit Oak Cliff’s Bishop Arts District....Cliff Fest.

The event, which is slated for Nov. 14, will be a showcase of all things Oak Cliff and is being modeled after Taste of Addison, a food and entertainment festival held each year in the suburb north of Dallas.

“I want it to show the best of Oak Cliff,” Sheri Mathis, event coordinator for the Oak Cliff Chamber of Commerce. “All the things people don’t know about — the artists and galleries that are out there that people don’t know about, the restaurants, the neighborhood feel of it.”

Cedars Open Studio Tour, 11/22

Save the date for this artsy weekend event: the Sixth Annual Cedars Open Studios tour. The weekend event in the Cedars neighborhood south of Downtown features open house opportunities to see artists and their works.

The day is planned to conclude with a sunset performance art piece titled “Decorating the Tree” by glass blower Jim Bowman.

A review of the 2005 tour is posted at the DallasArtsRevue site.

Event Details:

When: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday 11/22/2008

Where: The Cedars

Cost: Free

http://cedarsopenstudios.blogspot.com/

Oak Cliff's Future Boom?

According to this release today, over $2 billion in development plans are in the works for Oak Cliff, just north and east of the Bishops Arts district, in striking distance of the Trinity River project.

Incap Unveils Full Scope of $2B Plan for Dallas
By Connie Gore

Incap's Vision
DALLAS-With 300 acres of entitled land now ready for development, Incap Fund is pulling the cloak of secrecy off its plan after two years of market speculation and limited details. The $2-billion build-out is a vision to reshape the landscape of Oak Cliff.

"We had a blank canvas for master planning," says Alan McDonald, managing director of Dallas-based Incap. "Now we're starting to take offers on this." Incap has divided the assemblage into four districts, investing $240 million into the land acquisitions, scraping roughly 2,000 apartments and prepping the dirt for resale, he tells GlobeSt.com.

Incap has nearly 100 acres of the ready-to-go mixed-use land under contract or under negotiation, with closings set to start in July. The dirt is bringing $30 per sf to $35 per sf, McDonald says.

Kessler Woods Plan
First out of the chute will be an 8.93-acre sale to Dallas-based Sky Modern Homes, which will develop 96 zero-lot line homes and row houses as the third phase for its Kessler Woods, according to McDonald. The developer is getting the sites of the Acorn Tree Apartments and Gulf Latin Church along West Davis Street.

In October, McDonald says Gus Woehr of Dallas will buy four acres for an 80-unit residential project. Woehr's site once held the Kings Highway Apartments in the city's oldest conservation district.

Closing in November will be 4.3 acres that once held the Chateau Crete Apartments along Stevens Forest Drive. McDonald says the development partnership is Beck/Holley, with Dallas-based Beck Group at the forefront of the deal.

Another 10.15 acres near Methodist Hospital will be sold in November to a national homebuilder. The hospital controls another 5.44 acres, also earmarked for development. McDonald says he can't release the homebuilder's name due to a confidentiality clause, but the build-out plan calls for 200 multifamily units, 200 senior housing apartments, 150,000 sf of medical office and 150,000 sf of retail.

A 4.9-acre site at 1836 W. Davis St., once Cliffwood Apartments, is being marketed to retail developers for $32 per sf. McDonald says the vision is to create another eclectic shopping district like Knox-Travis. Another 5.34-acre tract along Cedar Hill Drive also is being marketed.

The lion's share of Incap's land assemblage is earmarked for a sustainable mixed-use urban campus spanning 100 acres. Marketing begins next month. The Westmoreland urban campus tentatively calls for 200 single-family lots, 400 townhouses, 1,800 condos in mid-rise towers, 4,800 apartments, 450,000 sf of retail and possibly 30,000 sf of office space atop some street retail.

The urban campus is "the largest undeveloped tract in the inner city," McDonald says. And, he quickly points out that it's just 3.5 miles from Downtown and Uptown.

McDonald says Incap's tracts aren't contiguous like other massive redevelopments that he's undertaken in Dallas. "But, the unique part of these tracts is they are in the most fabulous neighborhoods in the city and the oldest ones in the city," he says. Many surrounding homes were built in the 1920s and 1930s. "They are little jewel boxes," he says. In the past five years, he says the various neighborhoods have transitioned from an aging population to the Gen Y age crowd, spawning eclectic emerging pockets like the Bishop Arts District.

Incap's land bank is situated within the 589-acre Davis Garden District Tax Increment Financing District. McDonald labels it a "new generation TIF" because it is so broad-based and focused on residential redevelopment, including affordable and seniors housing, unlike TIFs of Downtown and Uptown. Interstate 30 is Incap's northern boundary; Davis Street, southern; Methodist Hospital, eastern; and Pinnacle Park, western.

But for the veteran McDonald, the assemblage is another opportunity for him to reshape a Dallas neighborhood like he did with projects in Uptown and Knox-Travis.

Typical Site View
He says the second-story view from all the assembled tracts will be the city skyline, the Trinity River and the to-be-built Calatrava bridge trio. "That's the view corridor from every single site on the second floor," McDonald stresses, "and it's unobstructed because of the Trinity River's flow. The river is coming back with the Calatrava bridges and town lake plan and it connects to the original neighborhood that was the birth of Dallas."

Architecturally Nosy

Sure, admit it. You like snooping around homes to see those little design details, whether it's at someone's party, an organized tour, an online real estate query, or an open house. You're nosy because you care about execution of design. Preservation Dallas's fall home tour is just a few weekends away, and this weekend it's mid-century modern and beyond on the Oak Cliff home tour. If the weather, football, the Fair, or work keeps you away from the Oak Cliff event this weekend, consider some couch-touring instead. This site pleasantly curates some of the signature gem homes in Dallas, from Tudor to post-modern. While we all know some of the homes on this list, it also includes some off the beaten track.

Urban Arts Festival

This weekend (tonight and tomorrow) South Side on Lamar hosts the second annual Urban Arts Festival, featuring artists, musicians, and fun for all. It's a great opportunity to explore this developing sector of town and grassroots creative artists in Dallas.

Tonight is Art Love Magic, a Live Art Experience from 8:00 pm – Midnight in the Janette Kennedy Gallery/Artist Quarter. For $7 admission, you can enjoy simultaneous events as paintings, jewelry and ceramics come to life. Live music and poetry will be featured all night long.

Tomorrow from 10am to 8pm you can partake in a melange of arts and musical performances along with Make It Yourself stations sponsored by the Dallas Museum of Art. The evening is capped off with performances at Opening Bell and Poor David's.

Urban Reserve Sneak Peeks

Urban Reserve, Diane Cheatham's development of fifty sustainable design, modern single-family residences is located on a 13-acre plot off Forest Lane and Central Expressway (map). The project has been in the works for over two years, and the first residence, at 51 Vanguard Way designed by Lionel Morrison, was recently completed. Other designs are in varying stages of the process; all are dramatic and definitively modern.
Nods to ecological sensitivity include narrower streets (less asphalt allowing water run-off), and design criteria including goal home energy efficiency 20% above market average, native and drought-tolerant adaptive plantings, and rainwater irrigation schemes.
Homes are priced between $400K and over $2M. Completion of the entire development is anticipated in 2009. A full news story appeared earlier this month in the Dallas Morning News.

White Rock Modern

A trio of Forest Hills neighbors on Eustis Avenue, off Garland Road near White Rock Lake, have a unique proposal for a new home:

"The structure at 8520 Eustis is beyond repair and will be dismantled this spring, leaving an exceptional building opportunity. We have designed a home that will take full advantage of this lot without damage to the landscape and is of a size and style in harmony with the existing neighborhood. Our goal is to build this structure with materials and techniques that are sustainable and efficient, and we look forward to working with a client as the project progresses."

Counteracting the threat of a new McNeighborly Mansion, Bruce Goode, contractor Josh Grieswell, and Harvey Phillips are taking the opportunity to influence the view from their front windows by sticking with the mod feel. The planned eustismodern.com structure will be a modernist, minimalist two-bedroom flat-roof home on one floor. The floor plan wraps around a central courtyard and is surrounded by a canopy of trees. The garage and a guest suite across the courtyard complete the compound.