Weekend Plans

Ok, my weekend suggestions has been on a hiatus for a looooong time. But let's get back in the saddle and give you some reasons to get off that couch this weekend.

1. If I wasn't celebrating my favorite holiday on Thursday, I'd be at the Dallas Museum of Art listening to Marianne Stockebrand, Director Emerita of the Chinati Foundation talk about minimalist sculptor Donald Judd.

2. Savor Dallas is this weekend. There are multiple events happening all weekend from a Wine and Art Stroll through the Arts District on Friday to tastings, lectures and workshops from Texas wineries/distilleries and elsewhere and local Dallas chefs.

3. Put on your skinny jeans, Docs, and guyliner (or eyeliner for you ladies) and head over to the Granada Theater to hear Peter Murphy of Bauhaus. Alternatively, if you don't want to embrace your inner goth, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark will be playing at the same venue Sunday night. Cue the John Hughes movie....

Wright 20 Modern Design Auction

Modern Design 31 March 2011 from Wright on Vimeo.

Wright 20 is an auction house based in Chicago, IL that specializes in mid-century modern contemporary furniture and design. Most of their items are out of my price range, but you can purchase the catalogs from their auctions to drool over. March 31 is their modern design auction with items from the likes of Jean Prouve, Charlotte Perriand, George Nakashima, Harry Bertoia, Milo Baughmann, Edward Wormley, and on and on.

If you can't make it to the live auction, you can bid by the phone, absentee, or online.

The folks over at Wright 20 put together this short dynamic little video to advertise the auction.

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.

Woodall Rodgers Park Update

Last week the folks at The Park announced they received another 9 million in private donations. This leaves only 17 million left in private donations to gather before completion. Last Thursday, The Architect and I went to hear Blair Kamin speak at the Dallas Architecture Forum. We had the privilege to speak to Blair before the lecture where he expressed his excitement about The Park. During the lecture he stated that The Park was one of the best uses of stimulus funds he had seen. He also paraleled the project of The Park with the WPA projects done in the 1930s.

Read the entire press release on The Park here.

Learn more about the Dallas Architecture Forum and upcoming lectures here.

Snow day DIY

Today is Day 2 of Icepocalypse 2011 here in Dallas. I haven't left the house since Sunday and I am tired of watching HGTV and the Real Housewives of [insert city].

So I whipped up this brightly colored wreath you see here. Learn how to make your own wreath over at the Take Heart blog.

Strindberg and Helium

For those of you who have the day off because of Iceapocalypse 2011, check out Strindberg and Helium. It is a series of cartoons about Swedish writer August Strindberg and his pal Helium.