Weekend Plans

Looking for something to do this weekend? Here are some ideas.

1. Dallas Art and Design Fair - this will be the first year for the design portion of the fair. Can't wait to see what modern goodies I might find.

2. A Day in the Park - Main Street Garden will have music, dance demonstrations, and tours of the architecture of Main Street.

3. The Dallas Film Festival ends this weekend, but you still have some time to see the next Oscar nominated movie.

Statler Hotel has a new owner!

I have written a few times (here, here, and here ) about the Statler Hotel and its travails. News today from Dallas Observer and Unfair Park's Fingers of Fury, Robert Wilonsky is that the Statler Hotel has a new owner. Its former Hong Kong based owner has sold the hotel to local developers Ricci Dallas Investments for $13.1 million dollars. According to Unfair Park, the owners plan on cleaning it up and getting with local preservationists to discuss its future renovation.

I have always been a fan of this building and all the MCM goodness it has to offer. If the folks at Ricci Dallas Investments can get the renovation off the ground it will be a boon to downtown, the future UNT Law School, and a nice bookend to the Main Street Garden.

Read more about the sale here, here and here.

What would a renovation of the Statler Hilton look like?

I've talked about the Statler Hilton Hotel before here and here. The Statler Hilton, also known as the Dallas Grand Hotel is a MCM hotel that borders the newly opened Main Street Gardens. Robert Wilonsky on the Dallas Observer's Unfair Park has followed the story of the Statler and the attempts to reopen the hotel or convert it to lofts, apartments, etc. As part of the marketing for Main Street Gardens, Merriman Associates created this nice video about what a potential renovation of the Statler could look like.

The Shroud of Statler Unveiled

Unfair Park has pictures of the wall covering/shroud/drape for the old Statler Hilton which is across the street from the new Main Street Garden that opens tonight.

Pretty lame shroud if you ask me.

See the pictures here.

I hope to venture down to the Main Street Garden in the next few weeks to check things out.

The Great Hotel Coverup

For those who love MCM architecture, you are probably familiar with the old Statler Hilton in Downtown Dallas. It has been vacant for years and has been listed on the National Trust for Historic Preservation's Most Endangered Historic Places.

Come October, the Main Street Garden will be opening across the street from the Statler. The powers that be don't want people to gaze upon a vacant hotel, so they have devised an architectural competition to design a scrim, shroud, sheet, shrink-wrap to cover the Statler Hotel. Unfortunately, the competition is only open to AIA members. But if you are an AIA member and want to submit a design, go here for info on the competition.

Lots of pictures of the Statler here on Flickr.

H/T to Unfair Park.