Slideshow of the interior of the Statler Hotel

Want a sneak peek into the hopefully soon to be renovated Statler Hotel?

Check out the slide show at Unfair Park. Pictures of the interior start at slide 7.

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.

Dallas' CityDesign Studio plan for West Dallas

So maybe that Calatrava designed bridge to nowhere (aka Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge) may not be a bridge to nowhere after all.

So who is CityDesign Studio and what do they have planned for the other side of the Trinity River where the bridge ends? From the CityDesign Studio website:

"The Dallas CityDesign Studio was formed in October of 2009 through a grant to the City from the Trinity Trust Foundation, funded by a generous gift from Deedie and Rusty Rose, to focus on neighborhoods and development along the Trinity."

CityDesign Studio recently had a presentation where they presented a proposal for the development of the area of West Dallas that adjoins the Trinity River and Calatrava bridge. The proposal includes pedestrian friendly streets and "mixed-use developments", in addition to development of public spaces (hope that means parks!). This presentation and proposal is interesting because it seeks to bring some much needed development to the area. It will interesting in the future to see how this shapes up and how that area will springboard off the development already there; i.e. the Belmont Hotel.

Read more about CityDesign Studio's proposal here.

Dallas Observer's Unfair Park blog has a review of the presentation meeting here.

Hear Joan Davidow's, former director and curator of the Dallas Contemporary, commentary for KERA 90.1 here.

Potential buyer for the Statler HIlton?

According to Unfair Park it looks like Plano, TX based LIG Assets Inc. is putting together an offer to buy the Statler Hilton from its Hong Kong owners. LIG says they plan on turning it into a mixed use development with an "adult arcade." Whatever that means.

Read more about it here.

Can you find an apartment to rent in Downtown Dallas for less than 600/month?

Dallas Observer's Jim Schutze sent the DO's intern out to find out. He posed the question because apparently a lot of the new downtown lofts and apartments were built in part with money from the US Housing and Urban Development (HUD). In order to get HUD money, you need to have "at least 51 percent of its units set aside for low income tenants."

The post over on Unfair Park is an interesting look into the Downtown Dallas apartment game. There are also some interesting points made in the comments, once you wade through all the name calling.

Dallas MCM designation in our future?

I am way, way late talking about this, but Unfair Park back in March had a brief item about creating a MCM designation for homes in Dallas. The Landmark Commission has seen an uptick in MCM homeowners wanting designation, the problem is there are no guidelines to designate what homes would come under an MCM designation. Sure, we don't want to include every single run of the mill rancher, but there are definitely MCM homes worth saving. Go to the White Rock Home Tour this weekend and you will see what I am talking about.

Read the full post here. Here's hoping that like minded lovers of MCM will band together to try to save these examples of American architecture with as much gusto as others have devoted to saving the homes in the Swiss Ave. area.

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.