e.13 ‘22
// sunrise point - mark domiteaux aia
LIGHTS
P R FANTASTIC O
LIGHTS
P R FANTASTIC O
LIGHTS
P R FANTASTIC O
LIGHTS
P R FANTASTIC O
THIS IS THE
FUTURE WE’VE CREATED A NEW TYPE OF SHOWROOM THAT RE-IMAGINES YOUR PERCEPTION OF HOW YOU USE AND VIEW LIGHTING. As technology transforms what’s possible with lighting, Lights Fantastic Pro helps you imagine lighting that enhances your environment like never before. We Help architects, designers, builders and visionaries tap into The Power of Lighting.
lightsfantasticpro.com DALLAS
LEWISVILLE
HOUSTON
AUSTIN
4645 Greenville Ave
2525 E. State Hwy 121
4205 Pinemont Dr
7532 Burnet Ave
1019 Dragon Street | Dallas | Design District | 214.350.0542 | www.sminkinc.com
Visions of Lighting’s Future
by Betsy Lewis
// laman residence photo: dror baldinger, aia architectural photography, mark menjivar photographer
// groveland house - craig kuhner architectural photography
It’s 1964 on downtown McKinney Avenue, Dallas, Texas. The city is still reeling from the assassination of President John F. Kennedy the prior November, just a handful of city blocks from here. Nationwide, it’s the year Martin Luther King Jr. wins the Nobel Peace Prize, and the Beatles arrive in America, and a U.S. President from Texas signs the Civil Rights Act. Back on McKinney Avenue, 1964 is also the year Larry Sayah buys a two-man fluorescent assembler. He grows
grows that business, until soon, he needs a bigger space, a larger facility. “My dad was building a house with my mom, and they liked contemporary, but couldn’t find lighting,” begins Jon Sayah, a lighting executive with Fleco Industries, whose design center is now known as Lights Fantastic Pro. “So they went to New York, saw contemporary lighting by designer Robert Sonneman, and decided to take the space that was going to be empty to start a showroom.”
// aldwick residence - charles davis smith faia architectural photography
In 1968, Lights Fantastic opened with an introductory party for architects and designers. “My dad’s been in the lighting business for a long time, and Sonneman Design Group is still an Important part of our supplier base,” tells Sayah. Since that auspicious beginning, when Jon Sayah’s father Larry brought modern lighting options to Texas, the Sayahs have spent decades building up one of the nation’s foremost providers of lighting solutions, chiefly
through showrooms, and including the stalwart Greenville Avenue location that opened in 1969. For Dallasites, that particular store is a treasured part of our collective childhood, an institution as beloved as the State Fair of Texas or the dearly departed Mrs. Baird’s bread factory on Mockingbird at Central Expressway. Lights Fantastic opened 30 lighting showrooms around Texas in the late 70s and early 80s, helping to popularize the all-new, must-have, ceiling fan/light combination.
// aldwick residence - charles davis smith faia architectural photography
// 16 vanguard way photo: thad reeves aia
“My dad was one of the first to find ceiling fans for residential applications,” explains Sayah. “He got an opportunity to buy 50 fans from a church that had been remodeling. He cleaned them up and sold them in a weekend with an ad in the Morning News, then started buying and selling more fans. Now fans are a staple.” Sayah the Younger joined the family business 20 years ago after working for a large lighting manufacturer for
more than a decade. Does he have a favorite childhood memory from the Greenville Avenue location? “Well I did a lot of warehouse work over the years so mostly I would put boxes into numerical order,” he laughs. “I did dream at a young age of creating a new kind of lighting showroom.” In Jon Sayah’s time, the business has grown into two main branches: showroom and factory. There is also a third branch that supplies lighting to multifamily buildings.
// bley sleeping house - craig kuhner architectural photography
// architect bentley tibbs photo: charles davis smith faia
New Year, New Space
// ooswouder residence - dror baldinger, aia architectural photography
Today, all but three of these showrooms, plus a fourth that opened about five years ago, have given way to growth and change guided by 21st century technologies. “Our business evolved from being more retail to now, where we’re selling the experience of lighting,” explains Sayah. What can lighting do for you that’s different than just to see by?”
And the Greenville Avenue store has undergone a remodeling, completed in 2020, right at the beginning of the pandemic. “It’s a completely different kind of store to show off experiential lighting, architectural lighting,” hints Sayah. “We’re not as interested in selling lamps and fixtures and fans. We think those customers can be better serviced through the internet, or Crate & Barrel, Home Depot, or Lowe’s.”
// moore design group
// oaxaca interests - 707 townhomes photo: robert tsai
// 17 vanguard way - charles davis smith faia architectural photography
The lighting industry changed dramatically with the LED revolution — light-emitting diode, a semiconductor light source that releases energy when through the flow of an electric current. Many of the new capabilities — color changing, smart controls, different types of shapes and sizes — work to redefine an atmosphere through enhancement, mood changing, productivity, and more,
bringing with it new avenues for a designer’s creative choices. According to Sayah, LED technology is capable of transforming an atmosphere or creating a personality exclusive to a given space. “We like to say that the architecture is the bones of the building, and the design is the fashion of the building, but the lighting is the personality of the building.”
// oaxaca interests - 707 townhomes photo: robert tsai
// 17 vanguard way - charles davis smith faia architectural photography
The company name was changed to Lights Fantastic Pro to signal the shift toward serving professionals, their projects, and creative engagement beyond the practical, single source of light in a given space. Sayah sees his role as providing products that can create something special. “I built a house three years ago, and I wanted to put my money where my mouth is by showing lighting as
something different,” he shares. “One of the things my dad said, and that we have on the wall of the store, is that sometimes experience can be your worst nightmare, because people in lighting use the same reset six-inch cans all over their own houses. I took it as my goal to use lighting to create all the varied types of experiences that we promote.”
It’s not enough to make lighting practical anymore. If you’re open to experiment, if you’re willing to play, lighting can tell a story, ignite an experience, and reveal something meaningful. “Lighting can enhance the activities in your life,” concludes Sayah. “If you’re watching a movie, you can make it a better movie experience. If you’re having a romantic dinner, it can enhance that experience. It’s one of our mottos: What can lighting do for you?” visit lightsfantasticpro.com
MEET THE
CEDARS UNION by Betsy Lewis // patty carroll, pride home, 201 - pdnb gallery
Makers spaces, where artists create work in the company of other artists, is hard to find and harder to afford. The brother-sister team of Matthew and Megan Bowdon set out to relieve those obstacles for Dallas’ visual artists, square foot by square foot, in a two-building complex facing downtown from the Cedars, one of the city’s hottest neighborhoods for both creativity and gentrification. The siblings’ shared vision hatched and grew into the shared workspaces of the Cedars Union, an “art
incubator” where members have access 24 hours a day, seven days a week, year round, with scheduled programs and workshops that stretch their practices and build their business skills. The CU’s larger, historic Boedeker Building turns 100 this year. Across a small parking lot is the Annex, a proofof-concept space that houses most of the activity while plans for the bigger building are developing.
“The first time I saw the Annex, we were going through with a real estate agent,” shares Matt Bowdon. “It was a completely empty warehouse space, full of boxes, oil on the floor, no HVAC, no plumbing. I think there might have been a shop sink in there. It was a pretty big mess.” Jay Baker, owner of the building that would become the CU Annex, was using part of it for storage, but the remaining part looked like it hadn’t had a tenant in a while. “It was just a big open CMU block building with not a lot of infrastructure built in,” says Matt. (The Boedeker Building is owned by Bowdon Family Foundation, a private
organization that manages philanthropic activities for Matt and Megan’s family.) Once a rental agreement for the Annex was locked down, the next decision was how to maximize creative use of a smaller space, since the early concept revolved around the Boedeker. Matt remembers a group decision between himself, the board, and Architexas, the architecture firm hired to work on the Boedeker project in its initial, early push before downsizing the Cedars Union vision for the Annex space.
Meanwhile, Matt mapped out a plan for artist studios. “It was something I had thought about for a while, looking for another way to organize creative spaces,’ he says. “With my industrial design background, understanding and figuring out and optimizing the spaces that people work in is something I really love about industrial design. I treated The Cedars Union, especially in the beginning, as another industrial design project for our studio Dalahast.”
Dalahast Studios in Fort Worth is the siblings’ other joint venture as designers and makers of custom furniture and homegoods. Matt earned a B.F.A. in Industrial Design from Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), while Megan is a TCU alumnae who began her education in fiber arts at SCAD. When graduation led to inevitable losses of community, workspace, equipment, and resources, an art incubator was born.
“We prototyped a few scale models of the little studio blocks using a 4’ x 8’ sheet of plywood as a standard unit, so they could be scalable,” explains Matt, getting back to the nitty-gritty of transforming the Annex from empty to artful. “When we were working with Architexas on the layout, the city made us split that building into two suites, so we knew from the beginning that we’d have one area zoned for studio space, and the other space, with the amount of parking we had available, was probably going to be office space.”
// michael kenna, fifth avenue, new york, new york, USA, 2006
By that time, Matt knew the precise amount of square footage he had to work with. A full scale mock-up of a microstudio was built. A weldment was added around the back entry, forming an outside metal cage for both security and additional workspace. Studies were conducted with artists working inside the test studio, then giving input on how to turn a good idea into a functioning reality. “We got a lot of good feedback in initial surveys and public meetings surrounding the Annex launch,” recalls Matt. ”To
Engage Educate Experience Enjoy
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make sure we covered all our bases, we went with some traditional-style studios in that space as well as microstudios. We ended up with some studios that were a more standard drywall buildout, and some studios that were the microstudio concept. There was also a space restriction.” Individual studios are leased a maximum of 18 months before turning over to the next cohort. The first cohort
of 15 artists arrived in 2018. Cohort Two collectively discovered a profound, tremendous solace from the global pandemic that began, almost as if on cue, with their arrival. Cohort Three has just moved in, with Matt adjusting studio sizes to fit two more artists. But the community also welcomes maker-members who use all // paolo roversi paris 1996 shared workspaces without an- audrey, assigned microstudio. Looking to the future, the Bowdons plan on carrying what
they’ve learned from their proof-of-concept space into the next iteration of the Cedars Union — the ambitious, three-story Boedeker Building. “I like using design to impose, to help enforce a mission, or to help with work,” admits Matt. “We always had this idea, in the background of the mission of the CU, that we wanted community to
be a strong and important part. So I used the design of the studios: they don’t have full walls, they don’t have doors. There is some restriction, and I think restrictions or limitations can help a lot in a design process to push creativity. I wanted to see if we could do the same thing to push community, so we ended up not going with full
walls. People who are in our space can’t block themselves off from everyone else in the community; you have to be exposed to it. We’ll probably still have the incubator program, still have that enforced community through design, but also have options for people who need privacy. We’re trying to push forward that idea for this year. We’re actively working on it.” cedarsunion.org
MODERN SPACES
2300 Wolf Street #8A // $4,685,000 FAISAL HALUM c: 214.240.2575 fhalum@briggsfreeman.com
2525 N Pearl Street #1401 // $3,099,000 TRICIA WEINER c. 214.535.1405 tricia@daveperrymiller.com
8536 Glencrest // $1,325,000 CLIFF KESSLER c. 310.923.2506 cliff.kessler@alliebeth.com
1717 ARTS PLAZA #1903 // $1,420,000 LYN WILLIAMS c: 214.505.4152 lyn.williams@compass.com
// wendell burnette architects – phoenix
IB RDS of a E F ATE H R @ SUNRISE O P INT by .H a H berman
When Dr. Ann Wigodsky purchased a plot of land on Cedar Creek Lake she knew it was someplace special. She built a contemporary lake house on the property that took advantage of the beautiful views and especially the sunrises. To further enjoy that view she had a large deck built behind the house and that became the inspiration for her wife Sue to note that it wasn’t just a deck, it was a dance floor. Sue was an event planner and she knew a great venue when she saw one. It wasn’t long before friends were holding weddings at the site and so the idea of building guest cottages seemed like the next step.
Today, there are four modern cottages, all overlooking the lake with almost unrestricted views and Sunrise Point was born. The Wigodsky’s wanted the cottages to be as unique as the main house so they contracted architect Mark Domiteaux of Domiteaux-Garza to create the structures. Each cottage is named after a different bird that is native to the area: Cardinal, Bluebird, Hummingbird and Goldfinch. The interiors reflect the color and character of each bird. Keeping the main house which is referred to as the Bird’s Nest.
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CADDALLAS.ORG 2020 MEMBERS 500X Gallery Carneal Simmons Contemporary Art Conduit Gallery Craighead Green Gallery Cris Worley Fine Arts Erin Cluley Gallery Galleri Urbane Marfa+Dallas Holly Johnson Gallery Kirk Hopper Fine Art PDNB Gallery RO2 Art Talley Dunn Gallery Valley House Gallery & Sculpture Garden
Ann and Sue are nature lovers,
and there is wildlife in abundance at the lake, in the evenings it’s not uncommon for deer, raccoons, owls and occasionally, a bald eagle to visit the area. There is even a beaver which they named Theodore. Wildlife was taken into account when the property was built. Ann even had a ramp installed not for boats, but for the families of ducks that thrive in the lake. The ramp makes easy access for the mother ducks and their ducklings to visit, and they do on a regular basis.
To take in all this beauty, the cottages are designed with floor to ceiling windows on the sides facing the lake. Electronic shades can be adjusted for privacy. The 450 square foot cottages are decorated with custom furnishings and original artwork giving them distinct characters. Each has a queen-sized bed, modern kitchenette including a Sub-Zero mini fridge with ice maker, microwave, and a Keurig coffeemaker. The modern bathrooms feature marble-tiled walk-in showers and come supplied with shampoo, conditioner, body wash and plush Turkish Towels.
Though the beauty of the lake makes guests feel they can leave the worries of the city behind they far from rustic. Each is equipped with wi-fi, flat screen smart TV and have a level 2 charger for electric vehicles. The interiors each are designed to focus on the stunning views of the lake and outside the cottages each have private patios with gas grills. Additionally, there is a common area with a fire pit and seating for evening gatherings and socializing.
Swimming in the lake is an option, but as Sue remarked, “I don’t like swimming in a lake with critters in it.” That was the inspiration for the 45 foot saltwater swimming pool and a hot tub. For golfers there is a putting green as well as a horseshoe pit and disc golf. Of course being a lake there are seasonal activities like kayaking, paddle boarding and fishing. Most recently added to the recreational amenities is a Pickle Ball court. The game is a cross between tennis and paddleball and is a big hit with guests.
// rock, paper, scissors, shoot! - hdr architecture photo: charles davis smith photographer
// photo: shoot2sell
The venue specializes in weddings, birthday parties and anniversaries and can provide seating for up to 150 guests. Other groups rent the property for retreats and special meetings and the owners can arrange for private chefs and special amenities such as massage therapy depending on the groups needs.
Sunrise Point is a modern getaway that takes advantage of the beauty of the setting. Nestled in towering oak trees it is a relaxing and romantic destination for individual guests or groups. To maintain the serenity of the area, the property is exclusively for adults. No pets are allowed for the safety of the pets as well as the local wildlife. more information: sunrisepointcedarcreeklake.com
modern
cravings // colette “outdoor” by rodolfo dordoni is an armchair with an enveloping shape that comes in an unexpected combination of innovative materials and colors available. smink
// science fiction ellipse mobile updated by designer johannes lindner available. nasher
// cactus distinctive for its fretwork, design by marta sanso available. alessi
your modern
calendar
Modern events and activities make for fun around the Metroplex. WALKING TOURS Discover the Arts District + Explore the Main Street District Ad Ex
CARNE y ARENA George W. Bush Presidential Center
LUNAR NEW YEAR EXHIBITION - SANGMI YOO NorthPark Center
HARRY BERTOIA Nasher Sculpture Center
GUADALUPE ROSALES Dallas Museum Of Art
CAROLYN BROWN Crow Museum Of Asian Art
ERNIE BENTON + SONTONYA NECHEAL Irving Arts Center
FORM FOLLOWS FITNESS 5K Ad Ex
modern
art galleries
Modern art, exhibits, around the Metroplex. URSULA VON RYDINGSVARD Talley Dunn Gallery
DION JOHNSON Holly Johnson Gallery
BOB STUTH-WADE Valley House Gallery
PATTY CARROLL + BILL OWENS PDNB Gallery
SHANNON CANNINGS Cris Worley Fine Arts
LORI LARUSSO + HORSE SHOW Galleri Urbane
SERIALITY+ A GROUP EXHIBITION Barry Whistler Gallery
ABSTRACT NOW Site 131
GIL ROCHA + VICTOR CALISE BLANCHARD Kirk Hopper Fine Art