Seguin Drive | Midway Hollow
Located in coveted Midway Hollow, this 4,600+ sq. ft. new construction blends modern luxury with thoughtful design. It features five bedrooms, a
kitchen with Viking appliances, and a light-filled family room. The primary suite offers a spa-like bath, while the second level includes three en-suite bedrooms, multiple living areas, and a game room. elliman.com | Web# 20510668
COLLABORATE AND BE A VOICE:
Nate Eudaly celebrates 20 years as Executive Director of the Dallas Architecture Forum
“It’s important to me personally, and I think it’s always been important to the Forum, to collaborate with other organizations, be they non-profits or educational or governmental entities, because we can accomplish a lot more working together than we can when we’re fragmented.” That is what Nate Eudaly considers his greatest achievement in twenty years at the helm of the Dallas Architecture Forum as its executive director and the people he’s
helped to bring together and shining a light on things that may have gone unnoticed. In that time he’s received the rare honor of being made a member of the American Institute of Architects as a non-architect, navigated a major recession and pandemic, and helped to enrich Dallas’ understanding of what it has been and could be. Like most great stories it begins by leaving behind what you’d always known in search of something else.
“I grew up in El Paso, and I think that’s great because having the cross-cultural experiences and background that I had there has really helped in a lot of ways throughout my life. I came to Dallas when I got out of college and started working here in the area.” It’s easy to take for granted what a difference coming from El Paso to Dallas could be, even now and certainly then.
For instance, El Paso is closer in distance to Los Angeles than it is to Dallas. As Nate pointed out, it has more geographically in
common with New Mexico, and certainly shares a great deal of cross-cultural pollination with Mexico itself.
As a result, he came to the North Texas area with fresh eyes and an eager heart. It would take some years in Dallas before he would have the chance to fully explore this the way he has in his tenure with the Forum, and it would require a major choice about where his life might lead. “I worked for quite a few people
Get inspired.
(in Dallas). I had a career for about fifteen years as an executive in health care. I was on the administrative side, and the company that I was working with wanted me to relocate to the East coast. I and my wife have a really strong commitment to North Texas, so I declined to do that.”
The question of what to do next, to stay here and to embrace his passions, was not that far of leap for Nate. “I’d been on some non-profit boards including The Family Place, the domestic
violence prevention agency, and also the North Texas Finance Commission. I really had a vision for what non-profits can and should be doing. I also had a longstanding interest in urban planning, architecture, and design, so I was looking at what opportunities might be available, and this position (with the Dallas Architecture Forum) had been posted, so I interviewed with their search committee, and Ron Wommack (the celebrated Dallas architect who passed away just last year), he was the board president at the time, and he called me on behalf of the search
committee to offer me the job, which I accepted, and that began the twenty year odyssey.”
It’s an odyssey that has always had starting a conversation as its endpoint. Often, the hope is that people may think of things they either hadn’t before or differently, and that begins by giving a platform to a variety of speakers and debates. “Since I’ve been director of the Forum we’ve had over two hundred lectures and a hundred and fifty panels. We’ve covered a lot of topics, and we
come back and revisit some of them. We’ve had several panels about the issues with Fair Park. They’re making some progress, but there’s been some major hiccups recently….We’ve done the same thing with the Trinity River and how they’re progressing.” These are certainly the areas of the city that have had the most potential futures of just about anywhere in the metroplex. In fact, Nate considers a major panel on the subject of past and future of Fair Park to be one of the standouts of the hundreds of others the Forum has hosted, and with good reason.
“We did a panel about Fair Park at the Hall Of State about six years ago. This was before the city had done the deal with Fair Park First. We promoted it heavily, and we had a community representative, Vicki Meek, speaking on it, Virginia McAllister, a preservationist, and some others with Mark Lamster moderating.
I think one of the most telling things, and also really sad, was that we had an overflow crowd, and within that many representatives from the community around Fair Park, some of whom had family or they themselves, that had their houses taken and torn down to build parking lots for the State Fair Of Texas. There was a
representative, one of the executives, from the Fair, and some the people (from the community) got up to speak and they didn’t mince any words. It was tense, but important for these people to speak directly to this executive and the State Fair Of Texas about what had happened to them, and I think it really raised the awareness of a lot of people in the community who weren’t nec-
essarily up to date as to what had been happening where the city had been basically seizing these houses and then obliterating them and disrupting lives for a parking lot. That to me is one of the more consequential panels.”
Opening dialogue has been central to the odyssey of Nate
Eudaly’s career, and the future of Dallas itself. As a major city in the fourth largest, and one of the fastest growing, regions of the country, it’s important that we think about how we approach living through our buildings and infrastructure. He has worked to give us opportunity and variety year in and year out for the past two decades in the conversation of architecture and the city as a whole. Sometimes that results in giving voice to the voiceless, sometimes an audience gets to say they heard Wang Shu give
a lecture on repurposing abandoned buildings four months before he won the Pritzker Prize for that same work, but whatever the outcome, large or small, we’re a better city for it.
here’s to the next twenty years, and beyond. Nate Eudaly’s 20th Anniversary Saturday, March 1 // 2-4pm (cst) (rsvp)
// dallasarchitectureforum.org
by Todd Camplin
O’Keefe writes on his Instagram page, “For the first time in my life as an artist, I am using drawings as preliminary works for larger paintings.” Drawing is the foundation of all O’Keefe’s work. It informs his sculptures as well.
Michael O’Keefe’s exhibition at Valley House is like walking into still images from a modern dance company, which depict ancient Roman and Greek plays. The show is complemented with mask-like sculptures and simulated decayed sculptures.
The movement implied by the drawings and paintings hints at a cubist style. It depicts time but advances the form through the elegant shapes of the figure.
O’Keefe writes that drawing is the foundation for all his work. His drawings are not only foundation but stand-alone as finished work. These works may inform the sculptures and paintings, yet
the drawings have energy and dynamism that sets them apart. The drawings depict two or three people intersecting each other. Lines are drawn through figures to create a sense of transparency and movement. The people interact, overlap, and dare I say dance on the paper. The line quality he draws will make you move in closer. I appreciate the hatch and cross-hatch shading. This shading technique gives the drawing a rough,
harsh surface which is in stark contrast to the delicate bodies he is drawing. I am reminded of Tamara de Lempicka’s ability to mix the harsh line with soft modeling. O’Keefe flips this to have harsher modeling and softer lines. I mentioned O’Keefe’s use of cubism to create movement. Unlike the tradition, O’Keefe is interested in the beautiful form. His work makes the human form feel alive and vibrant. Even the drawing showing the skinless person overlapped with a nude figure is beautiful. Remember, beauty is not kitsch. Beauty must embrace the elegant and the
ugly. A beautiful rose blooms at its peak when the fertilizer is manure.
The drawings are the beginning of the process and the beginning of O’Keefe’s storytelling. The humans are dancing to an ancient song. The story then comes into full view through his paintings. Falling is the theme of three paintings. I see the story of Rita Dove, Icarus, and Sisyphus in these works. As tragic as these figures are, the paintings give a sense of freedom and
release from burdens. In the work I assume is about Icarus, you can see his father’s invention has disassembled. Instead of displaying a sense of panic, Icarus here is at peace with his fate. The flat colors give the image a kind of tranquil vibe which helps to tell the story. I am reminded of the ancient discovered paintings of Pompeii. The Romans used water tempera to paint their walls. O’Keefe’s paintings have a similar mat look. Modern
methods and techniques have allowed his work to become more layered and dynamic than his Roman forebearers.
The paintings of dancers relate more to the drawing series. His breaking up of the figure by creating transparent shapes gives a similar energy to the drawings. O’Keefe goes beyond his drawings by considering all corners of the canvas. The drawings’
movement was concentrated in the center of the image. The three paintings’ energy moves out across their surfaces. The colors and surface enhance the story and make you question the ideas behind the images.
Finally, Michael O’Keefe is a sculptor. He comes from a rich tradition of sculptors influenced by the Greeks and Romans. Greek plays used masks in their tragedies and comedies and O’Keefe also created masks. Unlike the Greeks, his masks are staring with stoic emotions. His human sculptures resemble ancient artifacts recovered from the ground during the Renaissance period. Parts of his sculptures are missing like the head or arms. Unlike the recovered art during the Renaissance, O’Keefe paints his sculptures. The painting makes the objects
modern while also referencing how ancient Greek and Roman sculptures were painted. Fun fact, Renaissance artists and scholars thought ancient art was left in its raw marble form. New scholarship proved the sculptures were painted.
Michael O’Keefe will exhibit his drawings, paintings, and sculptures through March 29th. Visiting this work will envelop you in movement, myth, and allusion to marble. The drawings are the dance, the paintings are the song, and the sculptures are the artifacts. This is a show that will carry you away into another realm.
// valleyhousegallery
Engage Educate Experience Enjoy
The Dallas Architecture Forum is for everyone who wants to experience inspired design. The Forum presents an award-winning Lecture Series that brings outstanding architects,interior designers, landscape architects and urban planners from around the world, as well as Symposia, Receptions at architecturally significant residences, and Panel Discussions on issues impacting North Texas.
The Pittman Hotel releflectng history with a modern lens.
As a lifetime Dallas resident, I was familiar with the building at the corner of Good-Latimer Expressway and Elm Street. I remember it as the Union Bankers Life offices. The architectural details of the building were hidden under a coat of dull white paint, and most of the character of the structure was obscured.
Still, it fascinated me and after some research, I found it was actually a Dallas historical gem. Built originally in 1916 as the Knights of Pythias Temple it was the first major structure in Dallas designed by an African American architect, William Sidney Pittman. The Pythian Temple became known as the social,
professional, and cultural center of the city’s African-American community. According to the City of Dallas Office of Historic Preservation, “The temple hosted lectures, meetings, conventions, and dances, as well as housed the offices of African-American professionals in the area.”
It languished for years after Union Bankers moved out and I had
worried it might give way to the wrecking ball like so many other historic Dallas buildings. Luckily the city declared it a Historic Landmark in 1989, and several proposals to restore the building came and went. All that changed when Westdale Real Estate Investment teamed with developers KDC, StreetLights Residential and Vine Street Ventures on the 8-acre Epic project which included the historic Pythian Temple building.
Architects Perkins&Will oversaw the repurposing of the building and the addition of a multi-story modern structure that compliments the vintage Beaux-Arts style. The paired buildings are a reflection of old and new in a 165 room boutique hotel by Kimpton Hotels and is aptly named The Pittman, after the original architect.
From the sheltered driveway entrance to the lobby guests are welcomed into a modern space that exposes much of the bare bones of the building yet softens them with custom designed furnishings. Artwork and photographs adorn the walls and much of it reflects the history of the building and the Deep Elum neighborhood.
The original entrance on Elm Street now serves as the door to Elm & Good, the hotel restaurant that features seasonal, American tavern-inspired cooking overseen by Executive Chef Graham Dodds. The restaurant includes private dining rooms for special occasions and meetings as well as catering for all the hotel venues including the rooftop Parker Ballroom with its arching windows and views of the Deep Elum Entertainment District.
Guest rooms are spacious and feel more like modern loft apartments than a hotel. Room furnishings mirror the style of the hotel lobby and public areas with colorful and comfortable modern designs. The bathrooms are adorned with gleaming white tile wall treatments and lots of glass and some feature freestanding bathtubs.
The proximity of the Kimpton Pittman Hotel to Deep Elum cannot be understated. It is at the gateway to an entertainment district with dozens of restaurants, clubs and music venues, all within walking distance. For out-of-town guests it makes a great base for tourism and for an in-town getaway it makes a great romantic weekend spot.
Overall, the project is a stunning success at bringing one of Dallas’ historic treasures back into use as a vibrant and attractive landmark.
// pittmanhoteldallas.com
