Frank Lloyd Wright on Turtle Creek

When you venture out along Turtle Creek, be on the lookout for a distinctive building designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Though it may be an unfulfilled plan intended for the West Coast, the Kalita Humphreys theater seems quite at home nestled between Turtle Creek and the Katy Trail. The Dallas Theater Center committee approached the architect to design a theater along Turtle Creek. Wright was busy and suggested that if the committee could use a plan already in his files he would agree to the project. Construction began in 1955 and was completed four years later and nine months after Wright's death. It is one of only three surviving theaters by architect Frank Lloyd Wright and the last completed building he designed.

Frank Lloyd Wright The HousesFrank Lloyd Wright: Complete Works, Vol. 1, 1885-1916
Wright-Sized Houses: Frank Lloyd Wright's Solutions for Making Small Houses Feel Big
Frank Lloyd Wright: An Autobiography
Loving Frank: A Novel

Mayoral Event in East Dallas Focuses on Preservation

Dallas Mayoral candidates David Kunkle and Mike Rawlings will meet again Monday, this time in East Dallas, in a forum focusing on preservation and conservation. The forum is sponsored by Preservation Dallas and the Old Oak Cliff Conservation League. The event will take place at 7:15 at the Cesar Chavez Learning Center, 1710 N. Carroll Street. 

Don't forget to cast your vote for the next Mayor using our poll in the upper left.

Fort Worth: Not Just Oil and Cattle (Shale Too)

Fort Worth leads the nation in job growth. Mayor Mike Moncrief was on the phone with Bloomberg News today and credited that cities success with public-private partnerships that have brought new jobs and new sales tax and a reduced unemployment rate. The incentives are credited for bringing the recently announced General Electric locomotive facility and 500 high-paying jobs to the region.

Mayor Moncrief also gave credit to Barnett Shale which has brought with it jobs and 1,000 wells in city alone.

Urban Homesteading in the Dallas Suburbs

Many times I look around Dallas and Fort Worth and wonder how this place will fare with high oil prices. Much of the urban areas are not densely built or very walkable. Some of the suburban areas aren't even served by transit. It was recently frequently noted in media coverage of the Super Bowl that Arlington, that huge area between Dallas and Fort Worth, has the unfortunate moniker of being the largest city in the United States without public transit. None, nada, nope. Buy a car or stay home.

In my view, in the future these areas will have the most difficulty adapting to both high oil prices and changing demographics. Rebuilding them will be cost-intensive. Demand for locally-produced food and goods will increase, and with that, one activity likely to rise is what's being called urban homesteading, which includes micro-scale farming operations.

It turns out suburban homes are better suited for this because well, they have yards. A program run by Nash Farm in Grapevine, Texas--a community just above Arlington--recently offered a Saturday program on Urban Homesteading and other sustainable activities.

READ MORE AT THE NEW COLONIST

Cities Boom as Boomers Fade

It wasn't driven by a Baby Boomer, but recently when the window of a Cadillac SUV came down and a voice asked me to move my Honda Fit so she could fit into a parking spot, I had to think this was the remnant of a fading world.

It's been clear for some time that Baby Boomers reaching retirement age are transforming--and will continue to transform--America's cities. Over the past decades many downtowns have been remade into more lively districts with condos for baby boomers. I remember back in graduate school when it was suggested the farthest ring of suburbs will eventually move in instead of out, to downtown, in the "donut."

And so it happened. Unable to move even farther from the city center and no longer needing more space, the movers began to populate the downtown. This is especially attractive since the aging and childless baby boomers now doing the moving don't need the big McMansions built not long ago.

A look at recent census data adds to the other side revealing that since 2000, the number of poor people in the suburbs jumped by 37.4 percent to 13.7 million. That's more than double the increase in cities, of 16.7 percent.

Bring to this discussion a recent read of mine called The Age Curve by Kenneth Gronbach, and we can get our arms around the bigger picture of how changing demographic will impact development patterns, among other things. 

READ MORE AT THE NEW COLONIST

June 4-5 is National Open House Weekend

Warren Buffet says be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful. Folks at the National Association of Realtors hope you lose a little fear. In order to help, they're hosting a national open house weekend June 4-5.

During the weekend, Realtors® will hold open houses in local neighborhoods throughout the country. During the weekend Realtors® will be on hand to provide guidance and insights into the social and financial benefits of home ownership.

According to a recent nationwide Pew Research Center survey, eight in 10 adults agree that buying a home is the best long-term investment a person can make. In addition, a strong majority of renters -- 81 percent -- said they would prefer to one day buy a home, demonstrating the value Americans continue to place on home ownership.

Find Open Houses in Dallas

A $225,000 Manhattan Condo? For Real?

It appears so. Every so often you see a listing like this one. If you're used to the space in Dallas, New York units are generally going to feel small. This one doesn't even list the square feet. But hey, it's in Gramercy Park. It even comes with bike storage. Location, location, location. Keep in mind there are many available in Dallas for less that $100,000 and well under $100 a square foot. 

Should You Buy or Rent?

Is Owning a Home Still the American Dream?

A friend of mine recently called asking me whether it makes more sense to rent. He had been considering purchasing a home in the mid-West and was beginning to rethink the decision.

With lower home prices, high affordability and low interest rates, you might think its a no-brainer. But it isn't. Sure, you have to live somewhere, but if you're thinking of a home as an investment, what other investment would you consider if you thought it may be worth less a year from now?

Speaking at the National Multi Housing Council Mid-Year Apartment Strategies Finance Conference and Board of Directors meeting held recemtly in Palm Beach, FL, industry experts examined how apartments will change based on the preferences of today’s renters.

Observers and insiders say today’s renters want urban locations within walking distance of entertainment and employment.  They are willing to accept smaller apartments to lower their rent in these more expensive downtown neighborhoods, but they expect developers to incorporate more usability into a smaller footprint.  They are also very social and want places around the property to congregate.

Renting, it seems, is becoming a new normal.

A recent article in the Dallas Morning News supports this notion. In the June 2, 2011 article, Shontina Kuykendoll tells the reporter she's renting in part because she fell in love with a downtown neighborhood. The article also points out that more than 50 percent of residents in Dallas- a relatively affordable market, rent. Moreover, the U.S. homeownership rate is at the lowest level in more than two decades and still falling. Some 3 million have been converted to renters since the crash began around 2008.

So does it make some sense to rent? The calculators I tried with my friend suggested it does. After five years and spending just $125,000 on a home vs. $700 in rent, these programs suggest he'd actually be $7,000 or more ahead by renting than buying. We had to adjust the home price down to the high $70K's to tilt the scales towards buying.

That's not always the case. I tried it on the home I live using my purchase price and the current rental rate suggested by Zillow.com. It says I would save almost $20K by buying. Buying is better than renting, however only after four years. Recently relocating to DFW and then deciding to move again after only 1.5 years means taking a considerable hit. In the home I am planning to move to, this calculator says buying is better than renting only after seven years! My parents home in a small town in Pennsylvania came up with buying beating renting after only two years, however.

Today some people are choosing to rent because it is their preference. In many cases you can live in a more walkable area with amenities built for pedestrians if you choose to rent instead of buy. Other people are renting because they own a home somewhere else which they haven't been able to sell. In the process they may be sold on the conveniences of renting.

Should you rent or buy? These questions are not always easy to answer. The longer you plan to stay in a home, the more likely buying is the answer. The more frequently you move and the less time you spend at home, may tilt the scales towards renting.

The scales now may over-all tilt towards renting, and this is due to more than just problems in the housing market. It has to do with demographics, fuel prices and a simple change in preferences. Walkable urban life is in vogue, and in many cases there's a lot more availability and affordability in those areas with rental units.

As for my friend, I suspect he wants to own whether or not it makes perfect financial sense. There's also a case to be made for spending your money on something you desire.

Grapevine to Get eatZi's

The availability of prepared food seems to be something that can help a neighborhood be livable, at least for some. The City of Grapevine seems to recognize this, and so has worked out a deal with Dallas-based eatZi's to provide specialty groceries, take-home meals, coffee and bakery items.

My favorite part benefit of eatZi's is the Friday night thin crust pizza, which only costs around $10 and ranks with the best. 

The new store at Wiliam D. Tate and Texas 114 in Grapevine will be followed by another smaller store at a location yet to be determined.

Reproducing Dallas History

A piece of Dallas History was up for auction today. A Chickering reproducing piano from 1929 provided entertainment during preview events including last night's Bourbon tasting at Heritage Auctions. One of the paper scrolls rotating on the instrument was apparently recorded by George Gershwin himself making it so you are essentially hearing Gershwin play the piano. The piano was purchased by Clare Stern for the opulent lobby of the Claremont Hotel, Dallas. Estimate: $5,000 - $8,000. It hammered at more than $10,000. Read More 

Vintage Oak Lawn

The Dallas neighborhood of Oak Lawn is one of the best places in the city to find Vintage.

Our first stop was Couture Consignment at the intersection of Oak Lawn Ave and Dickason Ave. Unlike most of the vintage clothing shops I have been in, every piece of clothes is marked with its size so that you don’t have to play the put-it-on-to-guess-its-size game. There is  even quite a large selection for those harder-to-find sizes such as 36S or 46L. And you will be smiling if you fit in between.

It is not strictly a vintage store, but a high-end consignment-clothing store. Brand names such as Neiman Marcus, Clien Kelvin or Etro fill those racks. If the price tags seem somewhat intimidating, then take some relief that there may be some ongoing sale. On the day we visited, any clothes with a price tag ends with 9 or 8 were 50 percent off. Frequent shoppers know where to look for new stuff, which are usually displayed in the front.

Our next stop was just a few blocks away. Gratitude is situated in a house built on a slope on Fairmont Street. Our visit marked the new owner’s seventh week anniversary of the store. It is still cash-only, but the owner promised to get credit card transaction up and running. If this is your first visit like ours, you would not be able to guess what you will see when working your way up those steps. But it is a true vintage gem.

True it is stuffed, so that you have to watch when you walk around not to bump some boxes; but when you look there are always some amazing find! Sizes are usually not marked nor are those jackets sorted by lengths. And they are packed super tight that you need pull out to have a complete look. But what a fun experience to explore those racks! Those 60’s skinny-lapeled sport coats (so popular in the Mad Men series) are packed with those fat-lapel 80’s jackets. You begin to chuckle when thinking what if two fashion-savvy crowds from these two decades bumping against each other. And here comes a purple bowling jacket- although you probably need a deep cleaning. Besides clothing, other vintage goods are everywhere including 60’s and 70’s records, jewels, diamond and pins. We saw a faux-diamond lady’s pin for Nixon Campaign. Nixon was a highly regarded American president in China- maybe the pin will find a new home there (so we'll have one less reminder here).

There is Over Here

Building More There's in Grapevine

According to a recent editorial in the Dallas Morning News, a stunning 58.5 percent of Americans surveyed after the Super Bowl this year had no impression of Dallas whatsoever. One reason is the Super Bowl was in Arlington. If there's a place Gertrude Stein's comment that "there's no there there" applies to, it's Arlington. We also do a poor job of spelling out just where our "There's" are. West End in Dallas, Bishop Arts District, Southlake Town Center, McKinney Avenue and parts of downtown Dallas. Main Street in Grapevine is another one. Grapevine gets a lot of tourists from elsewhere, but I'm amazed at the number of folks I find in DFW who don't know Grapevine has a downtown with a lively Main Street and historic, albeit some recreated, structures and even a stream train. When many locals think of Grapevine, they think of a: outlet mall or b: Gaylord Hotel. But guess what- there is a there here. That's the problem- there are there's here and there around dallas, but no cluster of there's, and no apparent resource to spell out exactly where the there's are.

P.S. Wouldn't it be great to have a "THERE" flag waving atop this new tower?