Weekend Plans

1. White Rock Home Tour - Saturday and Sunday come tour 5 modern and mid century modern homes. I'll be volunteering at the Woodgrove home on Sunday from 12-2. Come by and say hello. Proceeds from the home tour benefit Hexter Elementary.

2. DADA Art Walk - Saturday is the Dallas Art Dealers Association Spring Gallery Walk. Tour the 35 participating galleries all over Dallas.

3. Creek Craze - Sunday head down to Lee Park for a more kid centric Easter event. There will be an Easter Egg hunt, pet photos, costume contest, balloon animals, face painting and more.

Odds and Ends

Some things I have been reading about on the interwebs:

1. Price Tower in Bartlesville,OK has been nominated to be an UNESCO World Heritage site. Next weekend Price Tower will be hosting multiple events to celebrate the nomination and discuss the history and significance of Price Tower. You can read about my trip to Price Tower here and here.

2. LEED v. U2's The Edge. The Edge is developing a community of homes (called Leaves in the Wind) in Malibu that has many architects, homeowners and environmentalists questioning whether the project is truly green. While the project may "check the box" on all the required elements needed to obtain LEED status, some are saying this project does not follow the spirit of what LEED is about. Make your own judgments here.

3. The next architecturally significant building to get the Lego treatment will be Mies van der Rohe's Farnsworth House. Now I just need to convince the Architect that a Lego house should qualify as an acceptable piece of art to be displayed in the house.

4. The folks over at The Park have a new video of what the park should like upon completion.

5. Apparently, The Simpsons took a few jabs at our Arts District and Jerryworld in a recent episode.

6. Second Shelters has a sneak peek into what is happening at the Statler Hotel now that it is under new ownership.

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.

Weekend Plans

Work this week has been a combination of The Real Housewives of [insert city] and Jersey Shore this week. Here's the quick and dirty of where you should be this weekend.

1. Dallas International Film Festival - see a future hit, possible see a celebrity.

2. Scavenger Hunt at Neiman Marcus Northpark - leave your Louboutin's at home in this race.

3. Deep Ellum Arts Festival - it is not as scary as you think.

Weekend Plans

1. Saturday is the Dallas Flea at Southside on Lamar. Part flea market part indie crafters, there is much shopping to be had here.

2. Saturday is also the season opener for the Assassination City Roller Derby at Fair Park. I've always wanted to join a roller derby, but the Architect thinks I would injure myself. I can injure myself walking down the hall in flats and run into the door frame. At least in a roller derby I'd have an excuse for that huge bruise on my arm.

3. If you are a runner the Rock and Roll Marathon is this Sunday. Bret Michaels of Poison will be playing too! If you are more of a couch potato, the Texas Theater is showing episodes of the Dallas television series.

Architectural Petting Zoo

Last month, Chicago Tribune journalist and architecture critic, Blair Kamin spoke at the Dallas Architecture Forum about his new book Terror and Wonder: Architecture in a Tumultuous Age. While Kamin was here he took some time to travel around our fair city - most notably the Dallas Arts District and the future Woodall Rodgers deck park.

Kamin reflected on his experience in Dallas and what he thinks of our newly expanded Arts District on his Cityscapes blog. The quote that simultaneously made me laugh and wince was this:

"Is it a good idea to organize arts buildings in such a clear and concentrated fashion? Or does the more mixed-up Chicago way make better sense? I ask because, despite its impressive architectural firepower, the Dallas Arts District can be an exceedingly dull place. There are no bookstores, few restaurants outside those in the museums, and not a lot of street life, at least when there are no performances going on. Even some of the architects who’ve designed buildings here privately refer to the district as an architectural petting zoo — long on imported brand-name bling and short on homegrown-urban vitality."

OUCH. That kinda hurt Blair. But there is some truth to your ruminations. Dallas is struggling to bring people back to the downtown core. On an average day when there isn't a show or Savor Dallas happening, the arts district and elsewhere in downtown is pretty dead.

But don't count us out yet. We are just getting started. Call me an optimist, but I think we have got somethings in the pipeline to start bringing the people back downtown. Like that deck park. If we can get the law school off the ground and the Statler Hilton is renovated, there will be some more people interested in hanging around after the work day is done and contributing to a live/work culture.

Nothing is perfect. I question the need for another high rise tower catering to the uber rich. I am concerned about the dead zone known as Victory Park. I question the lack of public transportation near the arts district and the dwindling available parking.

Rome wasn't built in a day and I'm sure Chicago's bustling downtown city wasn't either. So cut Dallas a little slack and give us a little time to grow and nurture what we've got.

But I do have to agree that the architectural petting zoo comment was pretty funny.

Hugh Ferriss and The Metropolis of Tomorrow

A couple years ago Dwell had a small article about the American architect and delineator, Hugh Ferriss. His drawings in the 1929 book The Metropolis of Tomorrow were absolutely stunning. I am a huge fan of the 1927 Fritz Lang silent movie, Metropolis. Yes, it is 3 hours long, but 3 visually interesting hours. Ferriss' drawings would be at home with the visual landscape created by Lang.

Even though Ferriss was an architect by training, he is not remembered for his buildings. Rather, it is his ethereal drawings of New York and "the future" that sealed his place in history. His drawings are mostly of buildings at night and he cast the buildings in shadow, giving it a sense of mystery. Ferriss' work appeared in the Christian Science Monitor, Harper's and Vanity Fair. Ferris' drawings and papers are housed at the Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library at Columbia University.

So why am I blathering on about this guy? Well, after reading the Dwell article I started poking around on the Internet about getting a copy of The Metropolis of Tomorrow, his seminal work. Specifically, a first edition of the book. A cheap paper reproduction would not do. Well, most of the first editions on Amazon and other sites were in the $200.00+ range. Not too expensive but a bit more than I wanted to pay for a book. The Architect and I have a lot of books, but we are not collectors of first edition books. I added this book to the bucket list of furniture and items I wanted to add to our home. Someday I may post my MCM bucket list.

Then lo and behold I happened to be browsing around on eBay and scored a first edition of The Metropolis of Tomorrow. FOR SEVENTY BUCKS. Thank god for eBay. This eBay score turned into a very nice birthday present for the Architect.

I'm not the only fan of Hugh Ferriss. The Oxford, England band A Silent Film used Ferriss' illustrations for the cover of their album The City That Sleeps. By the way, that album rocks.

Read about the top things to know about Hugh Ferriss here.

Browse through selected images from the Avery Library here.

Image from the Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library at Columbia University. Sources: Wikipedia, Dwell, Avery Library at Columbia University.