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Dallas, Texas
It's not the end of everything, it's just the end of everything you know
After a few years with incredibly long Weekend Trips Slideshows, we crash down to earth and go from a thirteen page slideshow last year to a far more manageable one this year. That happened for a few reasons- one is that work travel has voluntarily (and involuntarily) slowed down, something I needed to be honest. And the other reason is that this year I cashed in some miles for that big around the world trip, which ate up a lot of time and planning effort. Still, that doesn’t mean I didn’t go anywhere this year, and to prove that, we’re starting in Dallas.
These pictures (and the one just above) are from the brand new Perot Museum of Nature and Science, a great big Morphosis designed cube that is way more fun than it should be. Inside the exhibits are what you might expect from a brand new and well endowed nature and science museum, but outside, and in spaces like that glass walled escalator, the giant jagged cube is just downright awesome.
Not all that far from the Perot is a quite nice arts district, with museums and theatres and a brand new park. A lot of big name architects have buildings there, like Renzo Piano, Norman Foster and Rem Koolhaas (two of whose project are pictured below). The park (Klyde Warren Park) just opened and was built on a lid right over the Woodall Rodgers Freeway. It was pretty lively on a weekend afternoon, with a lot of food trucks and frisbees and dogs, all good signs of a healthy neighborhood in a downtown that otherwise feels kind of dead outside working hours.
We’re still in Dallas, or, more accurately we’re not still in Dallas but in Arlington, part of the larger Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex. And we came all the way out to Arlington to stand right here on the field at Cowboys Stadium. I am not a big NFL football fan, but even I can appreciate a really well designed stadium. This was my second time there, and this time instead of the guided tour that takes you into the clubs and by all of the artwork, this was a self guided tour that lets you visit the locker rooms and loiter as long as you’d like on the field, where fellow visitors brought their own football or bought one at the shop, and threw it around or tried kicking field goals. Fun.
Moo-o-o-o!
After Arlington we just kept heading west all the way to Fort Worth and a visit to the stockyards. The cow parade and most everything about the stockyards feels super touristy but, then again, I am an actual tourist so I guess it’s ok.
Our next stop in Fort Worth to visit Philip Johnson’s Water Gardens, a spectacular (and spectacularly dangerous) attraction downtown. You can actually walk on a stepping stone type path with no handrail into the fountains which is fun, although it gets a little less fun when you read up on it and learn that people have actually died here. As an architect, I’m not sure how it’s allowed to stay open and how you can have non compliant stairs without any handrails. I mean sure, the danger part is what makes it fun, but maybe the danger part shouldn’t feel so damn dangerous. Just saying.
There are a few things that careful readers might have picked up about these Weekend Trips Slideshows, and one of them is to expect a hockey trip. 2013 does not disappoint with a visit to the American Airlines Arena to watch the Stars beat the Sharks in a close 2-1 game. We stayed downtown at the W Hotel, which was right by the arena and a great choice. Before the game, the Stars had a street fair type set up and after there seemed to be lots of places to go if you just didn’t want to go home, even though for me, home was right across the street.
