The Dallas center will be one of a few in the nation, an initiative that will catapult the city into the company of New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia and Houston. To date, 31 designs have been submitted for the proposed 9,000-sf combo office and design center in the Precept Building at 1909 Woodall Rodgers Frwy. in Uptown. Registered architects and associates have until 5 p.m. Friday to submit plans.
The jury committee is being led by Donald Gatzke, dean of the University of Texas at Arlington's School of Architecture. Additional jurors are Kevin Alter, associate director of the University of Texas at Austin's Center for American Architecture and Design; Jeffrey Brown, principal in charge of design for Houston-based Powers Brown Architecture; and Martha Jane Murray with the Wilcox Group/Architects in Little Rock, AR.
AIA Dallas, a 60-year-old chapter, has 2,050 members and 200 affiliates. The chapter's office will practically double in size when it moves from 1444 Oak Lawn.
AIA Dallas executive director Paula Clements tells GlobeSt.com that the Dallas Center for Architecture has been on the planning board practically three years. With a lease coming due in the city's decorative center, she says an extensive site search was launched in Uptown, Downtown and the Arts District for a new office location with enough room for the long-awaited wish to come true. "This location was just right for what we wanted to do and accomplish," she emphasizes.
The Dallas center will include gallery, exhibit and conference areas. It also will be a clearinghouse for industry resources. "We hope to become the docent of all the new buildings going in," Clements says, pointing out that the office will be right at the epicenter of the construction activity.
[IMGCAP(2)]The 74,090-sf Precept Building was bought last year by Takeharu Miyama, who has Pillar Commercial LLC of Dallas leasing it. According to the NTCAR Data Exchange, the class A building has 8,996 sf of vacant space and a quoted rate of $19.50 per sf. Eliza Solender, Tom Solender and Raquel Barrientos of Solender/Hall Inc. in Dallas represented AIA Dallas. Pillar's team included founder Manny Ybarra, Matt Wieser and Nick Clark.
The location is particularly special for AIA Dallas and the new center because it's ground zero for structures designed by four Pritzker Prize-winning architects. "It is fitting for AIA to move its office to a Dallas neighborhood where innovative architecture is a defining characteristic," William Lively, president and CEO for the Dallas Center for Performing Arts, said in a press release.
Globally, architecture has become interactive. Clements hints Dallas might not be too far behind if one vision for the new center does go live.
"Buildings have to be a portal for connectivity," Michael L. Joroff, senior lecturer for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's School of Architecture and Planning, told a crowd at the recent forecast meeting in Fort Worth. The keynote speaker led a visual international tour of interactive buildings as architects blend clicks and bricks to create new gathering places. Skins are changing colors, street lights can interact with footsteps and building histories are readily available by pointing a cell phone at exteriors.
"These are gimmicks that attract and engage people. There is a blending of clicks and bricks," Joroff said. "Because we have a new future out there, does not mean what we have goes away. The question is how do we build this new technology into our real estate projects to enhance the environment of people who live and work there."
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