Arts District Gets Artsier

Snazzy new look for 2100 Ross suits Dallas Arts District

UPDATE - April 2015: The Tristan Al-Haddad sculpture Allotrope will not be installed at 2100 Ross due to "unforeseen challenges with the fabrication and installation at the building." Instead, a large-scale mural by Texas artist Aaron Parazette will be painted in the lobby off of San Jacinto Street.

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Cousins Properties Incorporated, owner of the high rise 2100 Ross Avenue, had big plans for the building when it announced renovations in May 2013. Although it's taken a bit longer than expected to get everything into place, the company is nearing the finish line in its bid to fit in with the rest of the Dallas Arts District.

The showpiece of the renovations, a magenta steel sculpture by Tristan Al-Haddad now called Allotrope, is scheduled to start installation in late July. The massive pieces, winding around and into the building on both the Ross and San Jacinto Street entrances, should all be in place by September.

Katherine Molyson, development manager for Cousins, says that the need for extra steelwork and the difficulty in finding the ideal steel fabricators are responsible for the project's delay, which was originally scheduled to conclude in March.

However, that sculpture is the lone missing part in this artsy makeover. Anyone who remembers the formerly dark and drab interior will appreciate the bright new lobby, replete with works from artists like Gabriel Dawe, Paul Fleming, Jay Shinn and Kim Cadmus Owens.

Dawe's Plexus C11, the most striking of the interior works, is a towering geometric piece made out of multicolored string occupying a space previously taken up by escalators. Geometry, in fact, is a theme of most of the pieces.

Fleming's three works utilize multiple circles and squares, while Shinn's three paintings incorporate vaguely triangular shapes to evoke different times of day. Owens' two paintings are less geometric but do call to mind road trips in Texas.

2100 Ross is also home to Stephan Pyles' new restaurant, San Salvaje, which opened at the beginning of May. It contains more than a few interesting artworks of its own.

Tristan Al-Haddad's Allotrope, shown here in its ultimate terminus in the 2100 Ross lobby, will be installed starting in July.

Photo courtesy of Tristan Al-Haddad

Tristan Al-Haddad's Allotrope, shown here in its ultimate terminus in the 2100 Ross lobby, will be installed starting in July.

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GP News

Grand Prairie expands to the south with new master-planned community

Rendering courtesy of Provident

Goodland Grand Prairie

The City of Grand Prairie is growing fast and expanding to make way for a new master-planned development south of US Highway 287 and along Tollway 360, in Ellis and Johnson counties.

The community development, called Goodland, is the result of Grand Prairie’s recent 1,500-acre annexation extending its southern border toward Mansfield. Overall, with the added land, Goodland will be a 5,000-acre site featuring 15,000 residences including townhomes, custom homes, and gated communities for 50,000 residents.

According to a release, it will be a “city within a city” and a 45-minute drive from Dallas-Fort Worth. Beyond housing, there will be shops, restaurants, schools, public and private event venues, regional sports fields and complexes, dance halls, churches, trail systems, city parks, ponds, and preserved green spaces.

“This is a significant step in our city’s development,” says Grand Prairie Mayor Ron Jensen in a statement. “Unlike many of our neighboring cities, we have the unique advantage of new development opportunities to our south that will drive the growth and prosperity of our city. We recognized the opportunity and took decisive action.”

Leading the development is Provident, a Dallas-based real estate firm that has created other master-planned communities across Dallas-Fort Worth, such as Preston Hollow Village and Hillstead in Collin County. Provident has plans to work nature into the space design with more than 1,600 acres of creek corridors and floodplain land.

Plans are ongoing for a centralized mixed-use walkable Town Center, complete with civic buildings and other commercial development. Further south on the property near Highway 67, light industrial uses and other private employment campuses are already underway, projects that will contribute vital tax dollars for city growth and future expansions.

“This level of placemaking is quite rare, and certainly not easy to execute, especially in a brand-new community," says Provident Managing Director Rylan Yowell in a statement. "We are committed to a long-term vision with a desire to be good stewards of the land."

A new four-lane road called Goodland Parkway will link Goodland to Grand Prairie at Tollway 360 and US Highway 287. It's set to open by December 2025.

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