Best in Show

Dallas Decorative Center welcomes the design trade and those seeking the finer things.

BY PEGGY LEVINSON

Trammell Crow visited the new Chicago Merchandise Mart in the early 1950s and decided Dallas needed one. But he wanted to one-up Chicago’s fortress-like building and instead design an open-air shopping center concept to take advantage of the mostly temperate weather in our fair city. Along with Crow, architect Jacob Anderson and landscape architects Arthur and Marie Berger developed the concept for Dallas’ revolutionary Decorative Center in 1953. Instead of an enclosed structure, they unveiled a Modernist arcade for showroom spaces surrounded by nonlinear parking in a park-like setting.

Fast-forward to today, the structure of the center remains lovingly the same under the helm of Bill Hutchinson, president of Dunhill Partners. Impressive outdoor sculpture sets the tone, like Anna Debska’s bronze Fighting Stallions at the entrance and François Stahly’s marble obelisk Mainandros in the center of the cruciform parking lot. While most decorative centers in the country are drab, closed-off buildings, the Dallas Decorative Center proclaims itself a chic, welcoming hub of art and design.

Entering the narrative in 2014, Hutchinson envisioned a Design District energized as a social, live-work neighborhood, and set about diversifying the Decorative Center tenants to include full-service restaurants such as Headington Companies’ Sassetta and Wheelhouse, connected by a patio and artist Daniel Arsham’s Moving Figure. The showrooms remain the mainstay, however, attracting the design trade industry and their clientele from across the globe.

Eggersmann’s Unique Collection is available in over 20 raw materials through the Eggersmann showroom on Hi Line.

Artistic Tile’s Sail Fete gets its inspiration from Italian Cosmati Floors. Available at Artistic Tile in the Dallas Decorative Center.

Scott + Cooner has been “making Dallas modern since 1995,” when they opened their showroom with a few pieces of Knoll furniture and a lot of guts. The prevailing decorative style at the time was floral chintz and heavily carved brown furniture, so designers and architects looking for a clean, modern look shopped at contract furniture companies like Knoll and Herman Miller to furnish contemporary homes, or discovered classics from the 1950s and 1960s at vintage dealers.

Scott + Cooner offers Dallas designers the latest in modern European furnishings as well as American classics from Walter and Florence Knoll. The showroom is a wonderland of imaginative furniture, art presented by Conduit Gallery, and lighting from creative powerhouses like Ingo Maurer, Patricia Urquiola, and Paolo Lenti. One of the latest stars of the design universe offered at Scott + Cooner is Tom Dixon. Dixon is a self-taught industrial designer who started out with a furniture collection built of salvaged metal in the 1980s. He was soon working for the design giant Cappellini and became a household name with the iconic S chair. Some of his latest designs offered here are the Melt pendant light and the Fat chair. The Melt pendant is an imperfect, organic translucent light that looks like molten glass – or an image seen from deep space. The Fat chair is “like the Le Corbusier chair on steroids, heavily padded and comfortable,” says Scott.

As Scott + Cooner offers the best in modern furniture, Ornare brings to Dallas modern Brazilian design in the form of integrated wall systems, kitchens, and baths. Ornare is a family affair; developed in Brazil, the company was brought to Miami in 2005 by Claudio Faria and opened in Dallas in 2013 by Fernanda and Olavo Faria. Says Olavo, “Ornare is haute couture for cabinetry, and the details and finishes say luxury: monogrammed gold-plate handles, hand-stitched leather doors, and handmade leather and linen jewelry inserts for drawers. In finishes, we offer natural wood veneers, metallic paint, special painted glass, and over 50 paint finish options.”

Artistic Tile's Primal mood board.

Tom Dixon Melt Pendants in copper and gold available at Scott + Cooper in the Dallas Decorative Center.

Ornare's clean and innovative Wave line designed by Ricardo Bello Dias is available exclusively at Ornare in the Dallas Decorative Center.

The new collection Wide Line features elements that restyle and decorate the house as one unique environment—the finish in the kitchen becomes the basis for cabinetry in the living room and then forms bookshelves in the library. For international kitchens, special care is taken to address the preparation necessary in different cuisines.

When Wilhelm Eggersmann founded his namesake company in 1908, the design philosophy was built on key Bauhaus architectural elements—smooth surfaces, cubic shapes, neutral palette, and open floor plans. Today, Eggersmann’s modern German kitchens and home living solutions are distinguished not only by stone fronts and exotic veneers, but also technological feats in cabinetry composition and ergonomics. The pride and joy of the collection is the Unique series featuring their proprietary natural stone. Also, the new 15 Squared Room divider creates the perfect transition between living spaces with a floor-to-ceiling freeform concept. The true beauty of this product is its flexibility and custom capability.

In the discerning and sophisticated Dallas design world, the Eggersmann Showroom stands out by pairing a residential home automation system, fixtures and lighting normally found in a home, with carefully selected fabrics, tile, and carpet. Says Eggersmann spokesperson Dana McManus, “Our showrooms are a creative muse for our clients’ inspirations, and we want them to have a fresh view on what their personalized solution could be. Our Home Living collection will showcase all of the extensive options our clients have come to expect, and now especially for our Dallas market we have launched a new integrated hat or cap tower that effortlessly spins and stores your caps or hats.”

McGannon Showrooms is another family affair with Britt McGannon joining her parents Bill and Sharon. And the family concept goes even further with their sales associates and clients. Says Britt, “what sets us apart is our people—our work family. We have the best group of people from our warehouse team to salespeople to business office. Our salespeople are highly skilled and knowledgeable and range from experienced designers and artists to antique experts and furniture lovers. On average, our salespeople have been on our team for eight years and know how to keep you out of trouble. We also have a highly gifted buyer, Lauren, who is always on the search to find the best product and new designs that are popping up in the industry.”

Thayer Coggin Cool Clip sectional and Nikolas Kage cocktail table available at McGannon in the Dallas Decorative Center.

McGannon represents over 60 lines of furniture and accessories, from traditional to modern. Thayer Coggin is a classic, midcentury furniture line with creations from awardwinning Milo Baughman and Allan Gould, whose designs can be found at the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Museum of Modern Art. RC Furniture is a contemporary upholstery brand that focuses on clean lines and simplicity, and is particularly known for its fabric selection—the company scours the globe for the best textiles, with an eye to durability, texture, color, and function.

Artistic Tile’s showroom name says it all. The family run American company, housed in a lively and colorful space, was founded by Nancy Epstein and offers a business philosophy that creative people understand creativity and should collaborate with the designer to build exactly what they want. Artistic Tile offers complete customization in house. Their buyers travel the world and buy directly from the source, finding new trends and techniques wherever they originate.

The new Ombre tile collection features the visually intriguing gradations of color found in nature, like the sky and ocean, that almost seem to breathe, creating an organic effect. The Chromatic Harmony collection is based on the Feng shui concept that color infuses the atmosphere with unique meaning. We use the color blue to soothe and relax, while green is associated with health, vitality, and growth. Red can be associated with fire—energy and desire. And, of course, red and pink are always the colors of love and romance. Gold evokes prosperity and abundance, while black is dramatic and confident —the mystery of night. Artistic Tile uses all of these principles to help the designer create exactly the atmosphere they desire.

Eggersmann’s 15 Square freestanding installation available at Eggersmann on Hi Line.