PaperCity Magazine

PaperCity Dallas March 2024

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SNØHET TA'S T H E P ETA L S, Austin (2023): Twelve three-story petal-shaped structures form a shady canopy over the courtyard of the Blanton Museum of Art. The enormous petals (30 feet in diameter each) are rendered in an ROUND TOP DANCE HALL, Round Top (circa 1907-1916): This time- worn wooden structure is an example of a vernacular community-meets- performing arts center of a bygone time in rural Texas. The dance hall was previously located in Wesley, Texas (founded 1859, population 60, eight miles southwest of Brenham), then known as Airway Hall for its big windows and high ceilings that kept dancers cool while strains of Czech polkas played. Three decades ago, it was relocated to the Stone Cellar complex in Round Top; today, it adjoins The 550 Market and boasts a next-door private speakeasy, The Mark, which serves as a VIP lounge on concert nights. Recent headliners have SAN ANTONIO RIVER WALK (1941, later expansions): Robert H.H. Hugman designed Paseo del Rio in downtown San Antonio, a nature-meets-history attraction synonymous with the city. The River Walk Museum Reach now extends north to Breckenridge Park and the headwaters of the San Antonio River; south, it proceeds via the Mission Reach through the King William Historic District, then encompasses miles of restored ecosystems, connecting the five San Antonio missions making up Texas' only UNESCO World Heritage Site. The completed park essentially recalls the acequias dug in the 1700s to provide water to the missions. R O M A H I S T O R I C DISTRICT (1821): This South Texas historic district preserves an intact example of a 19th-century border town in the lower Rio Grande Valley. Roma was an important river port from 1829 to the 1880s. Today's district is comprised of 38 buildings and the bulk of work produced by German immigrant architect and builder Heinrich Portscheller, who used flat-brick roofing, developed decorative brick, and employed wrought-iron balconies in a manner reminiscent of New Orleans and Monterrey. ranged from Gary P. Nunn to Pat Green. The second edition of One Square Mile Music Festival returns April 18 – 21. innovative composite material that mimics the low radiant heat factor of actual trees. They cast dappled light by day and are illuminated at night. The internationally renowned design firm Snøhetta conceived this elegant new cultural nexus between The University of Texas campus and the newly completed Texas Capitol Mall, reinforcing the Blanton's dual mission to serve the university and the city. The bold redesign includes four large-scale artworks that complement the project, including a reductive, jazzy abstract mural behind the loggia by late Cuban- American artist Carmen Herrera. T E X A S T E C H N O L O G I C A L UNIVERSITY (TEXAS TECH) ADMINISTRATION BUILDING, Lubbock (1924): It may seem odd that architect William Ward Watkin (Rice University campus plan, the original Museum of Fine Arts, Houston building) chose the elaborate Spanish Renaissance architectural style plateresque ("in the manner of a silversmith") to govern campus development for a new college being built on flat, barren land in the Texas Panhandle known for dust storms and tumbleweeds. But the style, which sets florid ornamentation and sinuous scrolls against broad expanses of flat wall surface, was also prominent in dusty, arid regions of Spain, such as the birthplace of conquistador Coronado, whose 1540 expedition seeking the Seven Cities of Gold had camped less than 50 miles from the future site of the nascent college. The Texas Tech Administration Building alone retains its original configuration. S ANTA FE BUILDING, Amarillo (1928-1930, restored 2001): The words Santa Fe, in their instantly recognizable font, are emblazoned in red neon atop Amarillo's first skyscraper and can be seen for miles in all directions. They have long symbolized that this Panhandle metropolis owes its very existence to the coming of the railroad in 1887. Company architect E.A. Harrison designed the Gothic Revival edifice when Amarillo was one of the three great branches of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. MARY MARGARET HANSEN JORDAN GEIBEL JIM LIVINGSTON OPUS IN BRICK AND STONE BY BRIAN H. GRIGGS (TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY PRESS, © 2020) 25 TEXAS DESIGN ICONS Gary P. Nunn (Continued from page 85) 86

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