Visual Arts

High-profile arts facilities aren't the only action around the Dallas Arts District.

GUY REYNOLDS/DMN

Construction cranes bob over projects in the Dallas Arts District. A symposium will look at the effects of the downtown development.

True, cranes are bobbing over construction of the Winspear Opera House and Wyly Theatre, both set to open in October 2009. And students have settled into the renovated and vastly expanded Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts.

But new commercial construction now bookends the district: the mixed-use One Arts Plaza on the east, the Hunt Oil Co. headquarters on the west. A 42-story Museum Tower condo is planned in the heart of the district, just south of Woodall Rodgers Freeway.

Tonight a group of Harvard University students will present ideas for developing underused land at the district's southeast corner. The presentation, titled "Good Design Makes Good Business," will explore the impact of star-architect-designed arts facilities on commercial development nearby.

A panel of respondents will include Mayor Tom Leppert and developers Lucy Billingsley and Ken Hughes.

The symposium will be at 6:30 tonight at the Federal Reserve Building, after receptions for Harvard alumni and the public. Because of security requirements, reservations were required by Friday.

"The class that this is part of is called 'Field Studies in Urban Design and Planning,' " says Richard Peiser, Spear Professor of real estate development and director of the universitywide Real Estate Academic Initiative at Harvard.

"Each year, we have two or three projects that students work on. One of the three projects this year is looking at the extension of the downtown Dallas Arts District and the implications of the star architecture, how that can be used to catalyze development on adjacent downtown sites."

The two Dallas Center for the Performing Arts facilities under construction were both designed by firms headed by internationally acclaimed architects: Norman Foster for the Winspear Opera House, Rem Koolhaas for the Wyly Theatre. Existing "starchitect"-designed buildings in the district include the Meyerson Symphony Center, by I.M. Pei, and the Nasher Sculpture Center, by Renzo Piano.

"One of the assignments the students have is looking at other cultural districts around the world," says Dr. Peiser, a Dallas native who previously taught at Southern Methodist University. "Dallas is certainly not the first place to feature an arts district with buildings by star architects, but it probably has one of the largest concentrations."

The Dallas district is also unusual in combining both visual and performing arts.

"The students were here at the end of February for several days," Dr. Peiser says, "doing their field research, trying to understand the market, trying to understand Dallas prototypes of residential and office buildings."

In particular, the Harvard seminar, which brings together students in urban planning and real estate programs, is focusing on the area south of Ross Avenue, between Leonard Street and the south end of North Central Expressway. Surface parking lots now cover most of the area.

"The students are looking to create a sense of urbanism on the site that we don't find in too many parts of Dallas yet," Dr. Peiser says. They're coming up with plans for a building program and the amenities that will help make it a place people will choose over other areas. It will certainly be mixed-use.

"Unlike a lot of design-school studios, what sets this class apart is that, in addition to doing designs for the site, the students have to do market and financial analysis for the project area. The students have to deal with real-world issues, including political issues and what the neighbors and other stakeholders are willing to support."

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