justin terveen, photographer

I don’t believe I have yet expressed my sheer excitement with the fact that the grand opening for the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts is but two weeks away. This marks a great accomplishment of the arts and Dallas both. Through the donations of many wealthy elites and others this master plan is nearly complete.

Most notably are the two new major additions: The Winspear Opera House designed by Foster+Partners (Spencer de Gray) and the Wyly Theater designed by REX/OMA (Joshua Prince-Ramus/Rem Koolhaas). Both feature radical theater design strategies. Just Google either venue and you will find a plethora of information and images.

norman foster

rem koolhaas

joshua prince-ramus

justin terveen, photographer

Even more thrilling, each of the three major designers is coming to Dallas during that grand opening week to give free lectures to the public on their work. Pinch me, please. I have secured my tickets and am anxiously awaiting the forum.

Here is a full showing of what the Dallas Arts District will be by 2011. And there is more to come. It is truly a great time to be here. This is the first opportunity I have ever had to witness the opening of such great architectural works and will soon have the opportunity to experience them myself.

01. Margaret & Bill Winspear Opera House, Foster+Partners / 02. Annette Strauss Square, Foster+Partners / 03. Elaine D. and Charles A. Sammons Park, Michel Desvigne / 04. Dee & Charles Wyly Theatre REX/OMA / 05. City Performance Hall, SOM / 06. Morton H. Myerson Symphony Center, I.M.Pei / 07. Cathederal Guadelupe / 08. Belo Mansion / 09. Crow Collection of Asian Art / 10. Dallas Museum of Art / 11. Nasher Sculpture Center / 12. Museum Tower (future), Johnson Fain / 13. Woodall Rogers Park / 14. Booker T. Washington School for the Performing Arts / 15. St. Paul United Methodist Church / 16. Fellowship Church / 17. One Arts Plaza / 18. Dallas Black Dance Theater

I recently came across GLOBE via September’s Monocle, p 74 (more on that in a later post).

(images courtesy of Globe Bikes)

They are a squeaky new company based in Santa Cruz and are at the forefront of the revamping that’s going on in many US cities to try and encourage cycling. “Initiatives such as taking cars off streets in downtown Manhattan, building upscale showers for bike commuters in Chicago and bike-sharing schemes in Washington DC have helped but the bigger question remains: does the US have the right bikes for the job?” Enter Globe Bikes. Lightweight and made complete with load-carrying features, they are inspired from “delivery bikes in China to street bikes in Copenhagen to the post-war porteur bikes in France.” These utilitarian bikes go on sale this month on their website (which is also really well designed).

“Globe is a brand of bicycles that have the unique ability to become an extension of people’s lifestyles and personal tastes rather than simply a piece of sporting equipment. The products are inspired by and designed for urban cyclists, commuters, city dwellers, the progressively minded and the eco-conscious. This stand alone brand has been created by Specialized Bicycle Components, which has a long history of providing the best cycling products in the world.”

I do love rainy days. The sky didn’t actually rain today, but it wanted to. These are a few shots I took on the way home from work today. They are in no particular order. Please excuse the image quality on some of these. They were all motion shots.

We recently came across these beauties at Lula B’s Antique/Trift Store on Greeville Ave. It’s a really fun place, fully of vintage furniture, household objects and well, a lot of over nick-nacks. A lot of the items seem to be from the 50-60s, an era we are very interested in, design-wise. So you can imagine our delight when we found these stacking plates designed by Massimo Vignelli. The original design is from 1964 and they are made of melamine. They won many awards and were once very popular as they were offered in many bright colors.

Hopefully our collection will expand in both size and color.

I am finally getting around to the daunting task of editing old photos. There are so many. I suppose the end goal is to have a complete and organized collection of images, slightly tweaked and ready to print when requested. This one above comes from my family’s trip to the American West. We are near Carlsbad Cavers, New Mexico.