Newsweek: Will Performing Arts Center Pull "Double Duty As Urban-Renaissance Project"?

By Robert Wilonsky Fri., Oct. 2 2009 at 12:43 PM

Categories: Arts, News

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In the October 12 issue of Newsweek, Cathleen McGuigan takes a visit to the AT&T Performing Arts Center and tells Lincoln Center to watch out. Well, more or less: "Lincoln Center is still the country's premier cultural complex, but it's getting competition from an ambitious project in -- are you ready for it, New Yorkers? -- Dallas." But she wonders the same thing everyone else has been asking since, oh, 1988, maybe? As in: Does an Arts District a "city" make? Writes McGuigan:

Dallas audiences will certainly explore the new complex and the surrounding public space. But weaving it all together to create a dense and urbane neigh-borhood requires more than dramatic buildings by famous architects. Ask the people in another car-centric city: Los Angeles, where the vaunted Disney Concert Hall (also by Gehry) has had almost no effect on creating a street life downtown, even though Gehry proposed a plan, never instigated, to help do just that. "It's almost impossible to design a city," [Renzo] Piano, architect of the Nasher Sculpture Center in the Dallas arts district, once said. "What makes a city beautiful is that it's not designed. Time makes cities beautiful."

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Dallasm, what's giving time going to do? If we wait ten years, will the underground space for thousands of cars connected directly to the buildings going to mature into a rapid transit line? Will the large setbacks in front of the street grow and turn into productive use directly at the sidewalk? Will the open greenspace that is nothing but grass turn into a real park? Will Pearl Street shrink down into a pedestrian-friendly street with more time? Will the skywalks shrivel up and encourage street activity in the next decade? The issue isn't time. The issue is design. As I said, these are great buildings on their own. As a whole, this area is typical Dallas, stand alone, flashy and ultimately empty. THe best hope is for the Museum Tower site and Craig Hall's site. As it stands now, MT is more of the same. So that leaves one chance. If you get a chance and you are down there, look at the map of the Arts District at Flora and Crockett. It highlights shopping and dining options. The four shopping destinations are the gift shops in the Nasher, DMA and Crow Collection as well as a 7-11. The dining option include the good options of Pyles and the ones at One Arts, but also the "cafes" inside the DMA, Nasher and Winspear, as well as the Star Bucks inside the Trammel Crow Tower. As I said, people will come, park, see and then leave.
The problem with the "give it some time" argument is that the available real estate for subsequent development is already spoken for, and the projects at those locations (Museum Tower, Craig Hall office building) are going to be walled-off, big blank spots with no connectivity, no urban contribution to the rest of the district. Unless pressure is exerted now to change that, Branden is right, the district is destined to be just another drive-in, drive-out venue.
I'm beginning to think Mr. Wilonsky has a Constanza-like fetish for secretly wanting to be an architect with all the architecture related stories he writes. As an architect myself this warms my heart. My insecure profession craves any attention it can get, be it vicarious or not.
@Branden Helms Give it some time. I hate to use the worn-out meme but Rome wasn't built in a day. Uptown took a long time to build up, now it has a very dense and vibrant community, and getting better every year. The area you speak about in downtown too time to develop too, and it's not where it needs to be yet either. These things take time. A city is not a shopping center. Heck, the core building aren't even finished yet, much less the surrounding development. The people and businesses will come soon. It just takes some time. (Unfortunately the bad timing of the grand opening will delay the development further. But it will come.)
I wouldn't count on any street life around these venues when there is no event. Hell, even if there were an event, there would still be nothing going on when it was happening, just before and after. Dallas has yet again produced something distinctive yet solitary. There is nothing to tie it all together. People will continue to drive to the location, see what they came to see and go home. If you want to see a good urban environment in Dallas, just look at Main between Field and Ervay. Nothing that just stands out, but all the parts work together to make a distinctive place, with lots of street activity.
New Yorkers crow about urbanity as if they, themselves made it. They didn't. In a sense, because of our city's age, we have to try at it much harder than New York could ever imagine.
Renzo Piano is just riding the coat-tails of his ancestor, Pietro Piano. Being the descendant of the inventor of a world renowned musical instrument is a tough act to follow... (I made this up but please pass it along as fact to anyone who may be adequately duped.) My opinion of what makes a city beautiful: A beautiful city has something to offer all ages, races, and income brackets. It must have parks and cultural venues. City services and schools must be top notch. Civic projects must share exquisite form and function. Travel must be economical within the bounds of time efficiency, and cost. The citizen must have a sense of place with a distinctive feel while the citizen feels like he/she is a part of a whole organic system. The system and city become synonymous and it can then be called a beautiful city.
So true. Time makes cities age. Design makes them beautiful for ages.
"What makes a city beautiful is that it's not designed. Time makes cities beautiful." I think I know some city planners in Chicago and Vancouver that would disagree with that statement.
Yet another first find by Robert. Wake up front burner!