Perot Museum Needs $50 Million. Spare Some Change? Come On. Do It for the Children.

By Andrea Grimes Wed., Aug. 18 2010 at 1:43 PM

Categories: Development, News

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A conceptual rendering of the entry plaza to the new Perot Museum

Hold up on that Gilt Groupe purchase you were about to make and take a moment to think of the children -- specifically, the five children of Ross Perot, who've given $10 million each to the future Perot Museum of Nature and Science expansion, presently under construction at Victory Park. These children, they cannot build the $185 million museum by themselves -- and, after all, since the museum is largely for children, the wee ones -- and maybe it's time you "pony up," as museum fundraiser Forrest Hoglund said today.

Because there's $50 million left to go to pay for the 14-story Thom Mayne cube and surrounding Texas-inspired landscape. (Becky Mayad, the museum's PR maven, assured me that the landscape architect, Dallas-based Talley Associates, actually gets what Texas is like in August and is designing accordingly.)

It was media day at the Perot -- one of many held over the past couple of years by the savvy bunch of science enthusiasts -- and us journalist types were given an opportunity to check out mock-ups of the museum's interior and exterior, along with a fancy short film on the other side intended to, ya know, inspire the imagination.

Director of Strategic Initiatives Jennifer Houston called the museum a place where "the olog-ies are gone," replaced by exhibit halls called "Everybody Plays" (sports-themed anatomy and physics exhibits) and "Being Alive, Being Human" (DNA, etc.) and the "Tom Hunt Energy Hall," named for the petroleum magnate, a classic children's favorite right behind Elmo and Bagel Bites.

The building's going for a LEED certification, featuring rooftop rainwater collection that will be used for everything but the drinking water and will have five floors of public space and a temporary exhibition hall that designers say will put Dallas in competition with Houston and Chicago for big-name exhibits--think Dead Sea Scrolls, Lucy the australopithecus. We mentioned that it's a giant cube, right? (Maynard told me, "People will either love it or hate it.") Drive on down Field Street, south toward Woodall Rogers, and you'll see the beginnings of the building's basement footprints. And if you want a closer look, head over to the community open house on August 28 from 1-3 p.m. to get a look at the schematics.

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I did not give them permission to display a likeness of me encased in a glass display case outside the museam! They can't get away with using my likeness without greasing me first!
This $50 million is money that the Perots would have paid to income taxes, but alas, this charitable donation off-set that.
I think Al Hill should help make up any shortfall. Y'all are focusing on the Perots as missing the funding, it's a consortium of the rich that includes many more than the Perots, who just got here for goshsake. I'm reminded of Nancy Dedmon and how her name could be put on either a useless facade, or the parking garage. She chose the parking garage. If it's going to be useful, we'll find someone(s). Maybe they could sell the naming rights (that looks just like the Fritos Habanero Plaza entry).
ummm, plus: What did Dell just pay to buy Perot Systems? Did he (and 'the children') think we'd forgotten about that?
Anonymous said: "Would it be unreasonable to ask Perot to write a check for the Perot Museum's shortfall?" One has to realize that it is always 'other people's money' that has to be used on projects such as this. How do you think the really rich and wealthy get that way...by spending their own money ???
Toots nailed it. Perot also donated lots of cheap rural land to the federal government 20 years ago, then successfully lobbied the fed to spend billions building a new cargo airport, Alliance. The airport is of course completely surrounded by land owned by the Perot entities. I'm sure Ross is just now driving down the road humming Sinatra's "I did it my way....." Of course, after losing billions of dollars of their own money and billions invested by their former friends (and current lawsuit opponents), on their mismanaged hedge fund venture, I imagine $50 mil is real money to Perot again. Maybe that's why little Ross filed a penny-ante lawsuit against Mark Cuban.
Would it be unreasonable to ask Perot to write a check for the Perot Museum's shortfall?
I can't wait to see the Tom Hunt Energy Exhibit on the greatness of oil and how we should get away from the idea of so-called sustainable energies. Oil's sustained him just fine. It should also be able to sustain the other $50 million.
Don't worry Sparky, I'm sure the Nasher has received a variance from the city, much like all the golf courses in the city that pour millions and millions of gallons of water onto their grass during the middle of the afternoon, only to have about 95% of it evaporate immediately.
Yes, beautiful and thank you Perot. But on a more important note, we were at the Nasher the other day, and the sprinkler system was watering the lawn (speaking of understanding/not dallas weather in August) from 1pm-2pm. Screw the Water Conservation Ordinance. I'm reporting them
I'm ambivalent about this, but the Perot's aren't the Bass's. This is like the horse I wanted when I was a young teen. My dad said he'd buy me a horse if I could cover the cost of the stable and tack. At 13 I was more sophisticated than our council or those that ignore our budget short falls, the vast % of the budget (1/4) that goes to pay off bonds. That's not free money. What would be a most generous gift would be an endowment that covered the operational costs. Carnegie, Getty and the winners of that gilded age provided such endowments. Today, we can't even get a freeway built. (unless it's in a creek bed for some wasteful reason)
The Perots are doing a great thing, but I wonder if we can afford to support another museum or arts building. We cannot barely maintain our parks.
@Dallasism - because fuck the rich, that's why!!!! /sarcasm Seriously though, I'm right there with you. The Perot's are doing a great thing for the city with this museum.
Wow... Negativity much? How about a comment that says: "Good for him. Thank you Perot for giving back to Dallas in a Big way." Or, "That looks like a cool museum, lets hope they can fill it with worthy specimens that could rival the Field Museum in Chicago." Or, "That looks like beautiful architecture, and will really help accent the Dallas Skyline." Or, "Yeah, this will create good paying jobs for people in Dallas, and give us a great attraction."
I think its about time Dallas had a world class museum. I am very excited about the new culture district Dallas is growing!
I agree with Toots and others. The Welfare Billionaire (Perot) and his friends can take care of this on their own.
I'd like to know what the BS LEED cert costs.
A 14-story museum? WTF? I know that doesn't translate to 14 floors, but the seems kind of ridiculous. And the exhibits, as described, sound a lot like what the Fort Worth museum turned to. In other words, crap.
Perot is asking for 50 million? Fuck him. He got the city to build a new arena on land Jr. owned for a team Jr. owned. He sold the Mavs for a huge profit while also making the land around the AA triple in value. He can find it himself.
Perot is asking for 50 million? Fuck him. He got the city to build a new arena on land Jr. owned for a team Jr. owned. He sold the Mavs for a huge profit while also making the land around the AA triple in value. He can find it himself.
Let's reveiw: -Perot museum $50 million short. -AT&T Arts Center $30-$40 million short. -Overpass park $15 million short. Looks like a tough time to be fund raising in Dallas. Yet they have started/finished construction on all of these. Wonder who'll get the bill if they can't raise the money?
Why did they begin construction if they were 50 million short? Get ready for a nasty round of Value Engineering. By the end of the day, it will still be a cube, just a considerably less interesting one.
Why don't they ask Tom Hicks?
I for one am glad that the Perots have come up with so much funding for this already. I have no doubt that they'll find the remaining $50 mil by bugging their similarly rich friends for pocket change.
So what happens if the Perots can't find the remaining $50 mil? Do the Victory Park German investors get stuck with that structure too? Hopefully it gets finished... I do like the rendering and I think it will look great against the Dallas skyline.